Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff in his Department are recorded as having a (a) mental health condition and (b) physical disability by grade.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The following data reflects employees’ self-declared disability information as of the end of September 2025. The following table shows the number of Department staff who declared as having a mental health condition by grade, as of September 2025:

Note: [c] means the figure is confidential and has been suppressed due to small numbers of less than five

In addition, the following table shows the number of Department staff who declared as having a physical disability by grade, as of September 2025:

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many and what proportion of driving-test bookings had their test location changed before the test was taken in the last 12 months.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

Between the 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2025, just over 565,000 tests were recorded as being moved between driving test centres (DTC). This equates to approximately 31% of tests. Please note, in line with other published data that the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) produces, this data currently only covers the 12-month period from July 2024 to June 2025.

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 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.

Found: Letter dated 19/11/2025 from Sir Martyn Oliver, His Majesty's Chief Inspector to Neil O'Brien MP regarding