Kirsty Blackman

We are committed to delivering better life chances for all - breaking the link between background and success.

At the Budget, the Chancellor announced increases to both the National Minimum Wage (16.3% for those aged 18-20) and the National Living Wage (6.7% for those 21 and over), as well as a £240 million Get Britain Working package to improve support for people who want to develop their careers (as well as for those who are economically inactive or unemployed).Through our Mission-driven Government, we will build the skills people need for opportunity and growth.

The Government will continue to draw on the work of the Office for National Statistics and others, such as the independent Social Mobility Commission, to understand the links between pay and socio-economic background.

The Cabinet Office commissions each Government department and agency individually to request data to be included in the reports titled ‘Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers’ that are published on GOV.UK.

The Department for Work and Pensions complies with correspondence reporting and data requests from the Cabinet Office. The data on responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers 2023 includes performance when responding to correspondence from members of devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. This information has not been separated out in this or previous reports. Correspondence performance data for 2024 will be published in due course.

The Department for Work and Pensions complies with correspondence reporting and data requests from the Cabinet Office. The data on responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers 2023 includes performance when responding to correspondence from members of devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. This information has not been separated out in this or previous reports. Correspondence performance data for 2024 will be published in due course.

The Department for Work and Pensions complies with correspondence reporting and data requests from the Cabinet Office. The data on responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers 2023 includes performance when responding to correspondence from members of devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. This information has not been separated out in this or previous reports. Correspondence performance data for 2024 will be published in due course.

The Guide to Handling Correspondence, owned by the Cabinet Office and published on GOV.UK, sets out the guidance for Government departments to follow when handling correspondence from MPs and Members of the devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. The guidance was last updated in 2021.

The Department has not undertaken any such assessment. Companies are already required to disclose employee matters and can choose to include socioeconomic aspects where relevant to their business. For example, all large companies in the UK must include information on employees as part of their Annual Report’s Section 172(1) Statement. This should detail how employees are consulted, and their views considered, in decision making, ensuring employees of all backgrounds feel involved in how the company is run. It is a matter of good practice to collect data on employee background that the company can choose to communicate its workforce inclusivity.

The Office for Clean Energy Jobs is supporting the delivery of an industry-led Energy Skills Passport as part of a fair, orderly and prosperous transition. This is an important step to help workers transition from carbon-intensive industries to new clean energy sectors as part of the Government's clean energy mission 2030.

The government is working with the Scottish government, Renewable UK and Offshore Energies UK, to identify how to expand the passport in the future, offering strategic direction based on policy ambition such as the Clean Power 2030 target, which could include incorporating clean energy sectors like CCUS and hydrogen.

Great British Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, recognising the expertise, skilled workforce, and diversity of projects already in place.

The Government’s priority is a fair, orderly and prosperous transition in the North Sea in line with our climate and legal obligations, which drives towards our clean energy future of energy security, lower bills, and good, long-term jobs, with no community left behind.

The Office for Clean Energy Jobs is supporting the delivery of an industry-led Energy Skills Passport as part of this transition. It is an important step to help workers transition from carbon-intensive industries to new clean energy sectors as part of the Government's Clean Power 2030 mission.

Great British Energy will be headquartered in Aberdeen, Scotland, recognising the expertise, skilled workforce, and diversity of projects already in place.

We are committed to supporting UK industry to decarbonise, enabling the country to take advantage of new opportunities that can promote growth and wealth creation, and protecting thousands of jobs in regions and industries across the UK. The Scottish Cluster Acorn has received £40 million in development funding in recent years, and officials continue to engage with the cluster to understand their plans. Following the announcement in October 2024 of funding for the initial Track 1 cluster configurations, further decisions for continued CCUS deployment, including for Track 2 clusters, will be taken in due course.

We are committed to supporting UK industry to decarbonise, enabling the country to take advantage of new opportunities that can promote growth and wealth creation, and protecting thousands of jobs in regions and industries across the UK. The Scottish Cluster Acorn has received £40 million in development funding in recent years, and officials continue to engage with the cluster to understand their plans. Following the announcement in October 2024 of funding for the initial Track 1 cluster configurations, further decisions for continued CCUS deployment, including for Track 2 clusters, will be taken in due course.

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 makes no changes to existing roles and responsibilities regarding safety or tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. Tackling crime is the responsibility of the British Transport Police, who will continue to police the rail network following the transition of passenger services into public ownership. Safety regulation will remain the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Rail and Road.

The National Travel Attitudes Survey on perceptions of safety when walking, cycling and using public transport, found that a ‘poorly lit vehicle or carriage’ was the joint seventh most popular reason for feeling unsafe when travelling on a public transport vehicle. The Rail Safety and Standards Board sets requirements around lighting for new rolling stock. We continue to work with the rail industry including the Rail Delivery Group and the British Transport Police to ensure the rail network remains a safe environment for the travelling public.

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 makes no changes to existing roles and responsibilities regarding safety or tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. As such, there is no reason to expect any adverse impacts. The Government expects publicly owned train operators to focus relentlessly on the interests of passengers rather than shareholders, resulting in better outcomes for passengers across a range of areas, which will include personal security on trains.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a priority for the Government. We have set the ambitious target to halve this figure in the next decade using every lever available to us. The Department is working closely with the central mission delivery unit in the Cabinet Office to achieve the aims set out in the Government’s Safer Streets mission.

The British Transport Police will continue to police the rail network following the transition of passenger services into public ownership to prevent and investigate crime, and in particular to tackle violence against women and girls.

Work Coach staffing numbers for 2018-19 are unavailable. We have therefore compared Work Coach staffing numbers between March 2020 and the latest position (February 2025).

The following Jobcentres in Scotland have seen reductions in Work Coach levels between the two periods of March 2020 and February 2025:

Airdrie Stirling Street

Forfar Service Road

Forres Tytler Street

Fraserburgh South Harbour Road

Glasgow Radnor House

Greenock Dalrymple Street

Leven Waggon Road

Paisley High Street

The following Jobcentres in Scotland have seen reductions in Work Coach levels between the two periods of March 2024 and February 2025:

Annan Murray Street

Ayr Wallacetoun House

Dumfries Irish Street

Forfar Service Road

Fraserburgh South Harbour Road

Glasgow Radnor House

Leven Waggon Road

Paisley High Street

• Data is correct as at the end of February 2025.
• Work Coach staffing levels include staff working on Universal Credit and Legacy Benefits.
• Work Coach staffing levels do not include Work Coach Team Leaders and Disability Employment Advisers.
• The number of Work Coaches employed in these Jobcentres 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. As the Department holds the information, we have released it.
• It is important to note that, during the Covid-19 Pandemic (20/21), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) rapidly expanded Jobcentre capacity by opening temporary Jobcentres. This was part of the Rapid Estate Expansion Programme (REEP). The vast majority of REEP sites are no longer in use.

As announced in the Get Britain Working White Paper, Trailblazers to test more localised delivery of the Youth Guarantee and support for people who are economically inactive are due to launch starting from April 2025. We are working closely with the Trailblazer delivery areas to develop their plans, which includes evaluation and performance information ahead of rollout.

The Department for Work and Pensions and Department of Health and Social Care Joint Work and Health Directorate (JWHD) (formerly Unit) was set up in 2015 in recognition of the significant link between work and health and to improve employment opportunities for disabled people and people with health conditions.

The goal of the JWHD is to open up opportunities to good work and to support a healthier, more productive and inclusive nation, by helping more disabled people and people with health conditions to: get appropriate work, get on in that work, and to return to work as quickly as possible if they leave it. This supports the Government priority of tackling economic inactivity, set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.

The JWHD works to join up the health and employment systems, including the addition of employment support in existing care pathways, such as placing Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapy services and WorkWell, which is part of the plan to Get Britain Working and enables local areas to lead, design and deliver work and health support that meets the needs of their communities.

It is also recognised that employers play an important role in addressing health and disability. To build on this, JWHD is facilitating “Keep Britain Working”, an independent review of the role of UK employers in reducing health-related inactivity and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces. The lead reviewer, Sir Charlie Mayfield, is expected to bring forward recommendations in Autumn 2025. Additionally, the JWHD has developed a digital information service for employers, and continues to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme.

The department receives and responds to enquiries from Members of Parliament and Members of devolved Parliaments or Assemblies but does not collate, report or produce statistics on this.

The Department does not keep this information centrally and therefore it is not readily available. Providing the information that the Department does hold would incur disproportionate costs.