Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households have been assessed as qualifying for each exemption from the household benefit cap in each of the last 12 months.
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
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 because they meet the earnings rule.
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.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households received more than £1,835 per month in benefits in the last period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Family Resources Survey (FRS) is an annual report that provides facts and figures about the incomes and living circumstances of households and families in the UK. The FRS uses a nationally representative sample of UK households and includes data on benefit receipt, at both individual and family levels.
The latest FRS is available for 2023/24 and, in the ‘Income and state support data tables’, Table 2.14a shows the number of benefit units in the UK by the total amount of annual state support received for that financial year, plus the two preceding years. This data is also available in the ‘FRS Family 2’ table in the ‘Family (Benefit Unit) Dataset’ on Stat-Xplore. Please read the notes which accompany these tables.
You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required. In addition there is also the FRS Stat-Xplore User Guide.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the total cost was for (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff from his Department in the last year.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Any payments made in each Financial Year relating to settlement agreements, which includes special severance payments associated with settlement agreements where relevant, will be published in the relevant Annual Report and Accounts.
For the last financial year, these are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mhclg-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025
A further update will be provided as part of the next set of published accounts for 2025-26.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many disciplinary cases were concluded against civil servants in (a) his Department and (b) his Department's agencies broken down by (i) outcome and (ii) whether the primary allegation related to (A) performance and (B) conduct in the last twelve months.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The department is not responsible for collecting or maintaining data on disciplinary action for staff in its executive agencies. We do hold information on concluded disciplinary cases within the core department; however, producing the requested information for both the core department and its executive agencies, and in the format specified, would incur disproportionate time and cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the total cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
For the last financial year, the total cost to Defra of payments associated with settlement agreements is set out in pg. 167 of Annual Report and Accounts. Where relevant, this includes special severance payments that have associated settlement agreements.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average number of working days lost to sickness absence per full-time equivalent member of staff was in (a) his 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 Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
It is taking time to collate the required information to answer the hon. Member's Question. I will write to him when the information is available, and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of staff were promoted (a) in-grade and (b) to a higher grade in the last year by (i) performance marking in the previous year and (ii) grade.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
It is taking time to collate the required information to answer the hon. Member's Question. I will write to him when the information is available, and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost was of (a) settlement agreements and (b) special severance payments made to departing staff in the last year.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
It is taking time to collate the required information to answer the hon. Member's Question. I will write to him when the information is available, and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many and what proportion of staff in each grade were rated in the top performance category in the last year.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
It is taking time to collate the required information to answer the Hon. Member's Question. I will write to him when the information is available, and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.