Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
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 effectiveness of the Universal Credit taper in incentivising part-time work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The taper rate aims to make customers financially better off in work by ensuring that their Universal Credit award is reduced by less than their earned income.
Universal Credit has a single taper rate of 55% and some customers will also benefit from a work allowance which is the amount someone can earn before their Universal Credit award starts to reduce.
Once a customer is earning more than their work allowance (if applicable), their Universal Credit starts to be reduced at a consistent rate.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his department is taking to increase access to specialist wheelchairs for children in Nottingham East constituency.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the provision and commissioning of local wheelchair services, and responsibility for providing disabled children’s equipment would typically fall to the National Health Service and local authorities.
NHS England supports ICBs to commission effective, efficient, and personalised wheelchair services. Since July 2015, NHS England has collected quarterly data from clinical commissioning groups, now ICBs, on wheelchair provision, including waiting times, with the aim of supporting improvements where required. Further information can be found at the following link:
www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/national-wheelchair
NHS England is taking steps to reduce regional variation in the quality and provision of NHS wheelchairs, and to support ICBs to reduce delays in people receiving intervention and equipment. This includes publishing a Wheelchair Quality Framework on 9 April 2025 which sets out quality standards and statutory requirements for ICBs, such as offering personal wheelchair budgets. The framework is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/wheelchair-quality-framework/
The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB is actively working to ensure equitable access to specialist wheelchair services across the region, including Nottingham City and South Nottinghamshire. This is being pursued through:
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the obstacles working class people face to working in the film and television sectors.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
A creative career should never be the preserve of a privileged few. The sector’s skilled and dynamic workforce is one of its key strengths, but more work still needs to be done so that, regardless of their background, people feel that a creative career is an option for them.
Making creative careers accessible for everyone is a key priority for the Government. That is why we are supporting creative apprenticeships and providing funding for partners including Screenskills and the BFI Film Academy to open pathways for young people, in particular those from underrepresented backgrounds.
The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) is working with industry to deliver a UK-wide £9 million Creative Careers Service, which aims to build awareness of creative careers and provide specialist advice with a particular focus on priority areas where children face the greatest barriers to accessing creative opportunities.
In film and TV specifically, we announced in the Creative Industries Sector Plan that we will be investing £75 million in the UK’s film and TV industry over the next three years. This includes support for the next generation of filmmakers.
The Government is pleased to see industry initiatives to monitor and improve diversity in the creative industries such as Project Diamond and the TV Access Project. However, there clearly remains work to do and we want to see stronger efforts from industry to improve socio-economic diversity and representation in the creative industries.