Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of whether Work Coach and Disability Employment Adviser support is effective for people with a visual impairment, and whether any evaluation has looked at differences in outcomes of such support between people with different types of disability.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
The Department for Work and Pensions is committed to ensuring disabled people, including those who are blind or visually impaired, can access appropriate support from Jobcentre Plus.
All staff complete mandatory learning on the Public Sector Equality Duty, including the protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act and the Department’s responsibilities for providing reasonable adjustments. Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers receive further learning on disability, its potential impact on customers and the practical steps they can take to provide appropriate support. This includes specific content on blindness and visual impairment, helping colleagues understand the barriers customers may face and the support and reasonable adjustments available.
Disability Employment Advisers provide specialist support, helping Work Coaches and Pathways to Work Advisers tailor support to individual customer needs. They can also work directly with customers and engage with employers, local communities and third-sector organisations to help facilitate appropriate local support and promote initiatives including Disability Confident, WorkWell, Connect to Work and Access to Work.
The Department has also worked with Microsoft to develop Accessibility Fundamentals learning, delivered to over 25,000 frontline colleagues, to improve understanding of how Microsoft accessibility tools can support disabled jobseekers. Every Jobcentre also has access to a District Provision Toolkit, providing links to local specialist support for customers with a range of complex needs and circumstances.
We continue to engage disability organisations through the Reasonable Adjustment Forum, using their insight to identify, test and recommend improvements to the accessibility of our services. This has included working with organisations representing a range of disabled people to improve the accessibility and language of the alternative-format screen in Universal Credit.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the legal costs that may be incurred in relation to ongoing litigation brought by the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
We estimate that the legal costs on litigation brought by Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) in the Administrative Court will be in the region of £120,000 plus VAT. Final costs will depend on the progression and outcome of the litigation.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the barriers for people whose medical trauma prevents them from attending GP appointments and other healthcare settings; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that such individuals are able to access healthcare, local authority services and other support.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made and assessment of the potential merits of a national badge for parent and child parking spaces with eligibility checked through child benefit.
Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government has made no such assessment.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has has made of the potential merits of providing schools with guidance on teaching pupils about the risks, symptoms and prevention of carbon monoxide poisoning; and what discussions she has had on incorporating carbon monoxide awareness education into the PSHE curriculum.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department recognises the importance of ensuring that pupils understand how to keep themselves and others safe. The revised statutory guidance on relationships, sex and health education, which came into effect on 1 September 2026, includes new content on personal safety. While it does not prescribe teaching specifically about carbon monoxide poisoning, schools have flexibility to include this within their wider personal, social, health and economic education provision, in response to pupils’ needs and local public health priorities.
The department has not made a specific assessment of the merits of issuing additional guidance on carbon monoxide awareness or adding it to the statutory curriculum. The department will continue to keep the statutory guidance under review.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency's proposed increase in statutory fees on micro-businesses in the dental laboratory sector; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a tiered fee structure based on business size.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has conducted a public consultation on its proposed fee changes, and is currently assessing responses to that consultation. Further details can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/mhra-consultation-on-statutory-fees-2026
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the risk that, as a result of GDPR constraints, parents using the Child Maintenance Service are left unable to understand why their maintenance payments have changed.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department provides guidance and training to staff on the handling and disclosure of personal information, with mandatory training refreshed annually.
Child Maintenance Service (CMS) staff are required to comply with both data protection and child support legislation when explaining decisions to customers. Parents are provided with sufficient information to understand how their child maintenance liability has been calculated and to exercise their rights to request a Mandatory Reconsideration or appeal where appropriate. Under Regulation 25 of the Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012, CMS is required to issue both parents with a Notification of Maintenance Calculation. This sets out the information used to determine the maintenance calculation, including the paying parent's gross weekly income.
Staff are trained to explain decisions clearly while ensuring that any disclosure of personal information is necessary, proportionate and compliant with data protection legislation. Information relating to another parent may only be disclosed where there is a lawful basis to do so and where it is necessary to explain how a maintenance calculation has been made or why a decision has been taken.
Through these arrangements, the Department seeks to ensure that parents are able to understand changes to their child maintenance liability and the reasons for decisions affecting their case, while maintaining appropriate protections for personal information.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance the Child Maintenance Service has issued to staff on disclosing another parent's personal data when explaining the reasons for a decision that affects the paying or receiving parent.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department provides guidance and training to staff on the handling and disclosure of personal information, with mandatory training refreshed annually.
Child Maintenance Service (CMS) staff are required to comply with both data protection and child support legislation when explaining decisions to customers. Parents are provided with sufficient information to understand how their child maintenance liability has been calculated and to exercise their rights to request a Mandatory Reconsideration or appeal where appropriate. Under Regulation 25 of the Child Support Maintenance Calculation Regulations 2012, CMS is required to issue both parents with a Notification of Maintenance Calculation. This sets out the information used to determine the maintenance calculation, including the paying parent's gross weekly income.
Staff are trained to explain decisions clearly while ensuring that any disclosure of personal information is necessary, proportionate and compliant with data protection legislation. Information relating to another parent may only be disclosed where there is a lawful basis to do so and where it is necessary to explain how a maintenance calculation has been made or why a decision has been taken.
Through these arrangements, the Department seeks to ensure that parents are able to understand changes to their child maintenance liability and the reasons for decisions affecting their case, while maintaining appropriate protections for personal information.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, further to the Answer of 16 April 2026 to Question [UIN 126472] on [Driving Licences: Health], what the DVLA's target processing time is for medical driving licence applications, what proportion of applications in 2025/26 exceeded that target, and how many applications have been outstanding for longer than (a) three months and (b) six months.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA)’s target for 2025/26 was to make a medical licensing decision within an average of 50 working days. During the same period, 43.3 per cent of licensing decisions were made outside of the 50 working day target.
As of 12 October, 49,981 medical licensing applications had been open for three to six months and 24,768 applications open for six months or more.
Applications that require medical investigation can often take longer to process as they depend on the nature of the condition(s) involved and whether further information is required from third parties, for example doctors or other healthcare professionals, before a licensing decision can be made.
To keep up with growing customer demand and to offer a better service, the DVLA has launched a new casework system which will deliver significant improvements to drivers with medical conditions. The DVLA has also launched a new digital medical services portal which supports applications relating to around 1,600 medical conditions. Further enhancements for customers applying for a provisional licence and those renewing at the age of 70 or over were made recently.
These enhancements, alongside the recruitment of additional staff to deal with applications will deliver real improvements in services and turnaround times for customers.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of whether the Independent Football Regulator has sufficient powers to protect a club's trophies, stadium and other core assets where its owners have been found to have breached financial rules.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Protecting, awarding, or removing club's titles is a matter for competition organisers in which the Independent Football Regulator and government have no involvement.
Under the Football Governance Act 2025, the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) has robust powers through its licensing regime and enhanced financial regulation to require clubs to protect core assets such as stadiums, oversee financial plans, and step in when financial concerns arise. In addition, the IFR has strong enforcement powers, including the ability to take action against or remove unsuitable owners and senior executives who put a club's financial stability or heritage at risk.