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, whether her Department plans to (a) adopt a list of hazardous medicinal products and (b) require safety data sheets for finished medicines.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2025 to Question UIN 84436.
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, if he will require NHS employers to provide ongoing (a) education, (b) training and (c) health surveillance for staff who (i) handle and (ii) may be exposed to hazardous medicinal products.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2025 to Question UIN 84444.
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 his Department is taking to promote the use of (a) biological safety cabinets, (b) closed‑system drug‑transfer devices and (c) other engineering controls during (i) preparation and (ii) administration of hazardous medicinal products; and whether he plans to provide funding for NHS trusts to implement these controls.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Honourable Member to the previous answer 84144.
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, if his Department will review the adequacy of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations to ensure that hazardous medicinal products with reprotoxic effects are controlled to the same standard as (a) carcinogens and (b) mutagens.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Honourable Member to the previous answer 84440.
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 potential impact of claiming both Universal Credit and Housing Benefit on working young people in supported accommodation; and what steps she is taking to ensure that young people in supported accommodation are financially incentivised to work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment.
The Department acknowledges there is a challenge presented by the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for those living in Supported Housing and Temporary Accommodation and receiving their housing support through Housing Benefit. The department will consider the issue carefully in partnership with stakeholders.
Like Universal Credit, Housing Benefit has an income taper. As Housing Benefit may be claimed by those both in work and out of work, there are no rules around the number of hours that someone may work; instead, there are income tapers which apply.
The income taper in Housing Benefit ensures people in work are better off than someone wholly reliant on benefits. In addition to any financial advantage, there are important non-financial benefits of working. These benefits include learning new skills, improved confidence and independence as well as a positive effect on an individual's mental and physical health. However, the treatment of earnings in Housing Benefit is less generous than that of Universal Credit. Therefore, although customers living in Supported Housing are better off working than doing no work at all, they can be financially better off limiting the hours they work to ensure they retain a small amount of Universal Credit entitlement.
Changing the current rules would require a fiscal event and funding at a Budget. As funding is required to allow a change, any future decisions will take account of the current fiscal context.
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, whether her Department plans to issue guidance to pension funds on reducing the proportion of their funds invested in the fossil fuel industry.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Pension funds have a duty to manage investments in the best long-term interests of their members, which includes decisions concerning investments in fossil fuels. Occupational pension schemes are required to make climate-related disclosures aligned with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations. Schemes should also set out their stewardship approaches to voting and engagement in the Statement of Investment Principles and Implementation Statement. Schemes voluntarily signed up to the Financial Conduct Authority’s Stewardship Code can also publish an additional Stewardship Report. TCFD reports and information about stewardship increasingly provide evidence of how schemes are managing climate risks and actively engaging with companies to reduce exposure to fossil fuels. Trustees may decide to divest from fossil fuel companies, or funds with high carbon exposure, particularly where sustained engagement efforts do not achieve satisfactory outcomes.
My Department has issued statutory guidance for trust-based schemes, which trustees must have regard to. The guidance aims to support trustees in their efforts to meet their climate reporting and governance duties. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) also provides detailed guidance to support trustees address climate-related risks and provides feedback to the industry on areas for improvement. Information from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is available to support FCA-regulated pension providers.
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 potential impact of the rate of clawback on Universal Credit on people employed with (a) irregular and (b) low incomes.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to drive up opportunity and drive down poverty across the UK. As announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget, a new Fair Repayment Rate has now been introduced from 30 April 2025, reducing the Universal Credit (UC) overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s UC standard allowance. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.
The Department has also committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.
A key part of UC’s core design is that it supports customers with their finances. As part of our work to review UC, we are working with expert stakeholders to understand the impacts and causes as well as considering the ways in which we can better support customers who experience irregular or fluctuating household income.
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, when her Department plans to (a) report on the consultation entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18th March 2025, and (b) publish recommendations on changes to the Access to Work Scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Once the Pathways to Work Green Paper Consultation closes on 30 June 2025, a White Paper will follow later this year with final proposals ahead of future, further legislation required.
The consultation and subsequent White Paper will also inform the chosen future direction of Access to Work. Once this is established, we will consider implementation timelines and work closely with stakeholders to ensure an appropriate transition.
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 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.