Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including specific provision for blind and partially sighted young people in the National Careers Service.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The National Careers Service is a free, universal, government-funded careers information, advice and guidance service for everyone aged 13 and above in England.
All young people aged 13 to 18 can access information and advice through the webchat and telephone helpline, which are supported by local community-based careers advisers. This support from the National Careers Service supplements the provision of careers education, information, advice and guidance by schools and colleges.
The department regularly reviews the accessibility of the National Careers Service website to ensure it continues to meet the needs of all users, including those with visual impairments. The service is committed to making its website accessible for all users, in accordance with accessibility regulations. This includes ensuring users are able to listen to most of the website using a screen reader. An up-to-date version of the accessibility statement is available online.
Young adults aged 19 years and over, or aged 18 for those who are not in education, employment or training, can also access the service via face-to-face support from community-based careers advisers.
Adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are one of the priority groups for the service. They can access in-depth, tailored support from professionally qualified careers advisers, drawing on localised labour market information, including face-to-face support, information and advice through webchat, telephone helpline and website.
The National Careers Service has worked with the Thomas Pocklington Trust to offer advice to careers practitioners relating to the Trust’s work to improve the opportunities of blind and partially sighted people.
As outlined in the Get Britain Working White Paper, Jobcentre Plus will be brought together with the National Careers Service in England, to create a new Jobs and Careers Service, transforming the experience for all users. Accessibility for all, including blind or partially sighted customers, will continue to be a priority.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing sight loss training for (a) Access to Work advisors and (b) Jobcentre Plus staff.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As part of staff on-boarding and induction into DWP, staff complete learning for customers with sight loss. The learning provides the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010, and an overview of the support available to customers including the challenges that individuals with sight loss may face.
Work coaches in Jobcentres also have a point of needs learning products, allowing them to support blind and visually impaired customers.
Access to Work support workers undergo learning which provides details of the funding that is available to support customers with sight loss. This includes the funding of lenses, colour tests and tinted glasses for health conditions, such as Irlens Syndrome (not for general sight loss) when a prescription is given from an optometrist for corrective vision.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to enforce minimum Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
For central government services, departments are required by the Government Service Standard to meet the minimum of level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.2 (which is the current version) for services that are in public beta or live.
Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations require most public sector organisations to ensure their services, websites, published documents, intranets, extranets and apps are accessible to disabled people by meeting the requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.2 to level AA and by publishing a prescribed format accessibility statement.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of helping blind and partially sighted people by extending the Access to Work scheme to formal volunteering placements.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which supports the recruitment and retention of disabled people in paid employment. We recognise the important role that volunteering, and other programmes can play in securing employment, and DWP provides support for individuals participating in supported internships and applicable apprenticeships and traineeships. There are no plans to extend Access to Work to those on formal volunteering placements.
In March 2025, we published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. We are considering the role of employers in creating accessible and inclusive workplaces, as well as the future of assistive technology.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of including information on the Access to Work scheme in correspondence from HMRC to employers.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
We want to support more disabled people into work and to stay in work. In doing so, we need to get the balance right between supporting employers to understand and provide reasonable adjustments as part of their legal duties, and interventions that go beyond this to enable employment.
As announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we are consulting on the future of the Access to Work scheme so that it better helps people to start and stay in work through reasonable adjustments and making use of assistive technology. The government will consider next steps on Access to Work following the consultation.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of assessing employers' compliance with the (a) recruitment and (b) employment of disabled people duties of the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Nia Griffith - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales Office)
The Government is fully committed to the Equality Act 2010 (the Act), which protects disabled people from discrimination in the workplace. The Act prohibits direct and indirect disability discrimination and requires employers to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees and applicants/candidates, to ensure that they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to their non-disabled colleagues. This could include improving access to premises for wheelchair users, through installing ramps or other auxiliary aids or services.
The failure of an employer to make reasonable adjustments could amount to direct disability discrimination. However, the Act also recognises the need to strike a balance between the needs of disabled employees and the circumstances of their employers. What is ‘reasonable’ will therefore depend on the circumstances of each case.
Strong legal remedies are available to employees and applicants who feel that they have experienced disability discrimination by an employer. Guidance and codes of practice have been published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Acas, to help employers follow the law and employees and applicants understand their rights.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he makes of the effectiveness of safeguards to protect tenants from (a) rent increases and (b) evictions following upgrades to Energy Performance ratings by landlords.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government launched a consultation on improving minimum energy efficiency standards in the domestic private rented sector on 7th February 2025.
The Government is committed to protecting and improving the rights of tenants. The Renters’ Rights Bill will put in place new regulations to protect tenants. This includes providing stronger protections to ensure that tenants are able to appeal excessive above-market rents, abolishing Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’, and moving to a simpler tenancy structure where all assured tenancies are periodic. These measures provide more security for tenants and enable them to challenge poor practice and unfair rent increases without fear of eviction.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of Disability Confident scheme employers employing at least one disabled person.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Employers at level 2 and level 3 of the Disability Confident scheme are asked if they employ disabled people at the point of applying for or renewing their membership at these levels. Organisations applying for or renewing at level 2 have only been asked whether they employ disabled people since the 20th of February 2024. Organisations applying for or renewing at level 1 are not asked to provide this information.
As of the 1st April 2025, the data collected shows that, of all employers asked this question (2,454 employers in total), the majority (91%) reported they do employ disabled people. Less than one percent of employers said they do not employ disabled people, and 9 percent did not respond or did not know. Due to the specific and self-reported nature of the management information collected, it may not provide an accurate reflection of the employment of disabled people across all Disability Confident members and should therefore be treated with caution.
In 2022, the Department commissioned a survey of Disability Confident members. Respondents included employers who were members at level 1, 2 and 3 of the scheme. The survey found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of employers reported having recruited at least one disabled employee or an employee who had a long-term health condition, since joining the Disability Confident scheme. More detail on this question can be accessed in the survey report on gov.uk using the following link: Disability Confident: survey of participating employers, May 2022 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number of people who will enter the workforce in the (a) 2026-27, (b) 2027-28 and (c) 2028-29 financial years as a result of the reforms set out in that paper.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
We will continue to work with the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to estimate the potential labour market impacts of these proposals.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the RNIB on its report entitled Access to Work - Cost benefit analysis, published on 5 September 2015, in the context of her Department's consultation on its Green Paper on Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 26 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Since 2015, the style, scope and cost of support that disabled people require has changed significantly, as has the labour market, yet Access to Work has stayed broadly the same. We believe there is a strong case for looking at the future role and purpose of Access to Work, given the significant operational challenges it faces, its limited reach (it only supports around 1% of the working disabled population) and rising costs. We want to improve accessibility and support more disabled people into work and think Access to Work has a significant role in this.
In March 2025, the Pathways to Work Green paper launched a consultation on the future of Access to Work, and we are keen to hear the views and voices of disabled people and representative organisations, such as RNIB. We will consider all evidence during the review of Access to Work.