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 number of additional households that would become subject to the Household Benefit Cap following the removal of the two-child limit on the Universal Credit Child Element.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households with total benefit entitlement above the level of the Household Benefit Cap have entitlement above (a) £30,000, (b) £40,000 and (c) £50,000 per year, or the equivalent weekly and monthly amounts.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

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 impact of each exemption from the Household Benefit Cap on (a) the number of households subject to the cap and (b) overall welfare expenditure.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many additional households will become subject to the Household Benefit Cap following the removal of the two-child limit on the Universal Credit child element.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The requested information is not available.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of total benefit income received by the average benefit-capped household is accounted for by (a) Universal Credit excluding child elements, (b) the Universal Credit child element, (c) Housing Benefit, (d) Incapacity Benefit, (e) Employment and Support Allowance, (f) Income Support, and (g) Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information is not available. This is because, whilst there are different elements in the determination of the gross entitlement, Universal Credit is paid as one single payment. As such it is not possible to quantify the amount of Universal Credit excluding child elements or the amount of Universal Credit child element that the average benefit-capped household would receive after reductions due to earnings for example.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the net expenditure of her Department was on projects related to cultural diplomacy in the last financial year.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

DCMS works with a range of partners and ALBs to deliver on the Government’s cultural diplomacy and soft power objectives, including the FCDO, British Council, and GREAT Britain & Northern Ireland campaign. As such, the department’s direct spending on cultural diplomacy is limited to a small number of cultural diplomacy-related projects each year, including those delivered through the Government Art Collection. Net expenditure for the last financial year on projects related to cultural diplomacy stood at £66,329.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will provide the number of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claimants in a contract with the Motability Scheme to receive a vehicle, broken down by primary medical condition in a) the East Midlands, b) East of England, c) London, d) North East, e) North West, f) South East, g) South West, h) West Midlands, i) Yorkshire and the Humber j) Wales k) Scotland l) Northern Ireland.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We will be publishing data to answer this question in due course.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are exempt from the Household Benefit Cap solely as a result of receiving (a) Personal Independence Payment and (b) Carer’s Allowance by region.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households are exempt from the Household Benefit Cap solely as a result of receiving (a) Disability Living Allowance and (b) Attendance Allowance by region.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many employment tribunal claims have been lodged against her Department in each of the last five years for (a) unfair dismissal and (b) claims under the Equality Act 2010.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra’s casework data is held for three years from the date of case closure.

Over the last three years, Defra received 33 Employment Tribunal claims on the grounds of Unfair Dismissal or under the Equality Act. The 33 cases are broken down into the following:

Financial Year 2022-23 = total of 9 cases

Financial Year 2023-24 = total of 11 cases

Financial Year 2024-25 = total of 7 cases

Financial Year 2025-26 = total of 6 cases to date

The information requested for the older two years is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households currently subject to the Household Benefit Cap are living in (a) council housing and (b) housing association accommodation.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

There were 540 households on Housing Benefit affected by the benefit cap in May 2025. Of these, 40 were living in council housing and 100 were living in housing association accommodation.

There were 123,000 households on Universal Credit affected by the benefit cap in May 2025. Accommodation data in Universal Credit does not identify housing association accommodation separately from council housing. Of the 123,000 households on Universal Credit affected by the benefit cap in May 2025, 45,000 were living in council housing or housing association accommodation.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the past twelve months, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) her Department and (b) its agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The requested information is available in the table below:

*Footnote – cases relating to performance are managed separately through the department’s performance management policy and are excluded from the above table

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) the Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns, is published annually. The data is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.

The next update will be for the year ending 31 March 2025.

In the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025, 13 formal performance warnings were issued to staff.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of staff in her Department in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The department does not currently operate a performance management system that includes ratings. However, it is in the process of introducing ratings for its Senior Civil Servants, with ratings for the 2025/26 performance year due to be determined in spring 2026.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) the Department and (b) its agencies by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the last twelve months.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The number of cases concluded against civil servants within the Department for Business and Trade in the previous year 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 are as below.

Core DBT:

Performance

Conduct

Insolvency Service

Performance

Conduct

Companies House:

Performance

Conduct

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) the Department and (b) its executive agencies in the last year; and how many formal performance warnings were issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

A) The table shows the average number of working days lost (AWDL) to sickness absence per staff in DBT and its executive agencies in the last year (between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025)

B) In the previous year (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025) there were the following in relation to formal warnings issued to staff whose absence exceeded departmental triggers:

DBT: 11 formal warnings.

Insolvency Service: 12 formal warnings.

Companies House: 6 formal warnings.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of staff were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year broken down by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

As of 31 March 2025, a total of 576 civil servants, representing approximately 9.7% of those on the payroll, were promoted to higher grades during the previous year. The table below provides a breakdown of these promotions by performance marking (as of 31 March 2024) and grade.

Delegated grades within the Department have two performance ratings - Met and Not Met.

Senior Civil Servants (SCS) have four box ratings ‘Exceeding’, High Performing’ ‘Achieving’ and ‘Partially Met’. Exceeding is the top box rating.

We do not have information about in-grade promotions because lateral moves are not considered promotions and are not tracked currently.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.

Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The information provided below relates to the recorded ratings on the Department’s HR information system for the period of 1^st April 2024 to 31^st March 2025, in line with the Department’s performance cycle.

Delegated grades within the Department have two performance ratings - Met and Not Met.

Delegated Grades Performance Ratings Distribution for 2024/25

Senior Civil Servants (SCS) have four box ratings ‘Exceeding’, High Performing’ ‘Achieving’ and ‘Partially Met’. Exceeding is the top box rating.

Found: 2022 to 05/07/2024) - - - - - - - - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Full year equivalent Neil O'Brien

Found: 2022 to 05/07/2024) - - - - - - - - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Full year equivalent Neil O'Brien