Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department spent on in-work benefits in the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no DWP benefits remaining that are solely payable to claimants in-work. Many allow for some element of earnings to be combined with benefit receipt, and the level of this spend on working as opposed to non-working claimants varies across different benefits.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of pension credit cases have not been cleared within 50 days since September 2024.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The most recent information on processing times for Pension Credit was published in the DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK (ARA) on 22nd July 2024. This shows that in 2023/24 DWP cleared 192,000 Pension Credit claims within the planned 50 working day timescale, equating to 77.7%. The next publication of the ARA will include claims processed in the Financial Year 2024 to 2025, which is due for publication in the summer.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit applications made before 21 December 2024 are waiting to be resolved.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
61,866 claims made before 22nd December remained outstanding as of 19 January 2025. This includes 6,712 advanced claims. Advanced claims are where the application can be started up to 4 months before reaching State Pension age.
Please note, the data shown is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps he is taking to support Spirit AeroSystems (a) production and (b) jobs.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government is working with the Northern Ireland Executive to help ensure the best outcome for Spirit Aerosystems and all its skilled and hardworking staff.
The Northern Ireland Office and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) are fully aware of the commercial discussions taking place about the potential acquisition of the Spirit business. DBT continues to be in contact with Spirit, Airbus, Boeing and other potential buyers, and we want to see an outcome that includes a commitment to develop Spirit and its supply chain as part of any acquisition and provides the best possible opportunity for growth in Northern Ireland.
DBT continues to provide support for Spirit’s Research and Development activity through the Aerospace Technology Institute programme.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the break up of Spirit on the Northern Ireland economy.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government is working with the Northern Ireland Executive to help ensure the best outcome for Spirit Aerospace and all its skilled and hardworking staff.
The Northern Ireland Office and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) are fully aware of the commercial discussions taking place about the potential acquisition of the Spirit business. DBT continues to be in contact with Spirit, Airbus, Boeing and other potential buyers and we want to see an outcome that includes a commitment to develop and grow the aerospace industry in Northern Ireland both directly and through the supply chain.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Airbus not completing the takeover of the Spirit AeroSystems site in Belfast on jobs (a) at Airbus and (b) throughout the supply chain in (i) Northern Ireland and (ii) Britain.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
My Department and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is fully aware of the commercial discussions taking place about the potential acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems business. The Government is working with the Northern Ireland Executive to help ensure the best outcome for Spirit and all its skilled and hard working staff.
DBT continues to be in contact with Spirit, Airbus, Boeing and other potential buyers. We want to see an outcome for Spirit that includes a commitment to develop Spirit and its supply chain as part of any acquisition and provides the best possible opportunity for growth and jobs in Northern Ireland.
The UK Government is aware Spirit employs nearly five thousand staff at its sites in Northern Ireland and Scotland supplying world-class aerospace products across the globe. It is for this reason, and its contribution to the UK’s economy, that UKG has a keen interest in seeing that any acquisition provides the best opportunity for growth and investment.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to make an assessment of Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law in the context of it's recent military activity in Syria.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are monitoring the situation closely and continue to call on Israel to uphold their obligations to peace, stability, and security under international law. The Israeli government has stated that their presence in the Golan Heights buffer zone is defensive, limited and temporary - and we expect them to adhere to this commitment It is longstanding UK policy that the Golan Heights are occupied territory, and we do not recognise Israel's annexation of them. We oppose the construction of illegal settlements.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to make an assessment of Russia’s compliance with international humanitarian law in the context of it's military activity in Ukraine.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are fully committed to holding Russian forces to account for any violations of international humanitarian law that have been committed in Ukraine. Established accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court's investigations and Ukrainian domestic judicial processes are investigating allegations of atrocity crimes. The UK, US and EU established the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, specifically to support Ukraine in its efforts to document, investigate and prosecute such crimes.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a programme of routine ECG heart screening in schools and universities.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) last reviewed screening for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in people under the age of 39 years old in 2019, and concluded that screening should not be offered. Further information on this review is available at the following link:
https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/sudden-cardiac-death/
Research showed that the current tests are not accurate enough to use in young people without symptoms, and that treatments and interventions were not based on good scientific evidence to prevent SCD.
To stop SCDs in young people, the current consensus is to focus on rapid identification and care of people who are likely to be at risk of SCD due to a family link or because they have had symptoms, and to train people to carry out cardiopulmonary resuscitation and to use defibrillators.
NHS England has published guidance for inherited cardiac conditions which requires services to investigate patients with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease, suggestive symptoms, or from families with sudden unexplained deaths. Where a genetic variation is identified, cascade testing is offered to relatives based on risk.
We are aware that the UK NSC has received a submission via its annual call process to consider SCD screening in young people aged 14 to 35 years old who engage in sport. The UK NSC is currently reviewing all annual call proposals. More information on the annual call process can be found here:
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce trends in the level of sudden cardiac death amongst (a) school and (b) university aged young people.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In 2017, NHS England published a national service specification for inherited cardiac conditions (ICC), which defines the standards of care expected from organisations funded by NHS England. This specification covers young adults with previously undiagnosed cardiac disease. The aim of ICC services is to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of patients with ICCs. NHS England is currently reviewing this service specification, working with a broad range of stakeholders as part of the review, including NHS clinical experts, the Association of Inherited Cardiac Conditions, Cardiomyopathy UK, Heart Valve Voice, and the British Heart Foundation.