Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of ownership of illiquid assets on Universal Credit eligibility.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made.
Universal Credit broadly follows the capital rules from legacy means-tested benefits, e.g. income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance.
The treatment of capital in any benefit that assists with living expenses is not a straightforward matter. Whilst it is important to encourage saving, it has never been thought right for substantial amounts of capital to be ignored.
Departmental guidance is available to assist our decision makers to determine the value of capital assets at the point of review. Disregards are in place for some illiquid assets that customers hold, such as personal possessions and their main home.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to publish the New Hospital Programme review’s scoring of each hospital’s full business case.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The review into the New Hospital Programme (NHP) did not assess schemes on the basis of full business cases, and not all schemes in the programme have reached this stage of development. Schemes were assessed based on a variety of factors, as set out in the Plan for Implementation, which is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-hospital-programme-review-outcome
Schemes were banded and prioritised into upper, middle, and lower thirds, and were then stress tested to generate a delivery schedule for the programme, in compliance with the NHP’s funding envelope.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure (a) people in farming and (b) other people who are unable to demonstrate consistent monthly income figures are able to apply for Universal Credit.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Universal Credit is available to eligible people who are out of work or on a low income. This includes people who are self-employed.
We recognise that some self-employed customers, including those in the farming industry, are likely to report large monthly fluctuations in their earnings. Steps have been taken to account for this, such as allowing self-employed losses to be carried forward into future assessment periods.
Wherever possible, employed earnings are received through the Real Time Information (RTI) system used by employers to report Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). RTI enables a customer’s Universal Credit award to be automatically adjusted to reflect their fluctuating earnings, which eases the reporting burden on customers.
If earnings are not reported through RTI for any reason, the customer will need to self-report their earnings and provide evidence of these.
We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. The review will include consideration of the support in Universal Credit for customers with fluctuating incomes.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the upcoming Defence Industrial Strategy will consider the potential impact of US trade tariffs against UK companies.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The United States remains the United Kingdom's foremost defence and security partner. The UK has a strong and balanced trading relationship with the US worth £315 billion which supports 2.5 million jobs across both countries. This Government is seeking to negotiate an agreement with the US to deepen our economic relationship, while ensuring all options are considered in response to tariffs.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what changes her Department plans to make to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessments for claimants suffering from longer-term degenerative conditions.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Award reviews are an important feature of Personal Independence Payment to ensure people receive the correct level of benefit, both for those whose needs will increase and those whose needs may decrease. People who receive the highest level of PIP and whose needs will not improve, receive a PIP award for a continuous period with a light touch review at the 10-year point.
In the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March we outline plans to consider changes to improve the experience for people who receive these ongoing awards in PIP. These include improving the information we provide when we write to people about ongoing PIP award decisions, what support is offered between ‘light touch’ reviews and reviewing the length of time between ‘light touch’ reviews.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the oral statement by the Prime Minister of 25 February 2025 on Defence and Security, Official Report, column 634, if he will list the reviews relevant to national security that are taking place across the Government that will be included in the development of a new National Security Strategy.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As announced by the Prime Minister, a new national security strategy will be published in June, ahead of the NATO Summit.
There are several reviews and strategies being developed across government that will be taken into consideration. This includes the Strategic Defence Review, Defence Industrial Strategy, AUKUS Review, Industrial Strategy, and Trade Strategy. The Strategy will also take into account other ongoing national security policy development.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department will take to assess the job performance of the National Armaments Director.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The parameters and performance targets for the National Armaments Director will be agreed in line with the salary approval from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury as part of the recruitment process.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in deprived communities.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care, and work is underway to ensure that patients can access the 700,000 additional urgent dental appointments, with integrated care boards (ICBs) asked to make these available from 1 April 2025.
The most common reason children aged five to nine years old are admitted to hospital is for tooth decay. We have confirmed an investment of £11 million to rollout a national supervised toothbrushing programme for three to five year olds. This will reach up to 600,000 children in the most deprived areas of England.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the ICBs across England. For the North Devon constituency, this is the NHS One Devon ICB.
ICBs have started to advertise posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.