Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in South Ribble constituency are in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP); how those payments are broken down between the (a) daily living and (b) mobility component; and how many of those people did not score a four or above on the assessment criteria.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of January 2025, there are 5,340 people currently in receipt of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in the South Ribble Parliamentary Constituency. Of these claimants, 2,530 scored fewer than 4 points in the 10 Daily Living activities. The breakdown of award rates for Daily Living and Mobility can be found in Table 1 below.
The assessment of the Office for Budget Responsibility, published at the Spring Statement, is that most of the current claimants of PIP Daily Living who did not score four points in any of the activities at their last assessment will, nevertheless, because of behaviour changes, be awarded PIP Daily Living again after the proposed eligibility changes take effect.
There will be no immediate changes. We want to reassure anyone concerned that the changes to PIP eligibility and rebalancing of UC aren’t coming into effect immediately. Our intention is these changes will start to come into effect from April 2026 for UC and November 2026 for PIP, subject to parliamentary approval.
We will also guarantee that for those on UC, individuals with the most severe, life-long conditions, which mean a person cannot and will never work, will not need to be reassessed in future.
Our intention is that the PIP changes will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. If you are getting PIP now and could be affected by the changes we plan to make to eligibility, the changes will only apply at your next award review. The average award review is about three years. At your next review, you will be seen by a trained assessor or healthcare professional, and assessed on your individual needs and circumstance.
For those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, we are consulting on how best to support this group, including how to make sure health and eligible care needs are met. PIP is not based on your condition, it is based on the functional disability as the result of one or more conditions and it is the additional costs of sum of that disability that PIP is awarded for.
We also intend to launch a wider review of the PIP assessment led by the Minister for Social Security and Disability, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.
Table 1: the volume of claimants in the South Ribble constituency split by award rate for Daily Living and Mobility components of PIP
Daily Living | Mobility | |||
| Enhanced | Standard | Nil | Total |
Enhanced | 1,940 | 580 | 250 | 2,780 |
Standard | 670 | 800 | 870 | 2,340 |
Nil | 100 | 130 | - | 230 |
Total | 2,710 | 1,520 | 1,120 | 5,340 |
Note:
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on when accessibility improvement works will commence at Chorley railway station.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Northern Trains Ltd and Network Rail took the decision to remove the previous contractor due to serious on-site safety concerns and remedial works have taken place. Urgent work is underway to consider how best to deliver accessibility improvements at Chorley station – MPs and other stakeholders will be updated once a viable strategy has been identified.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will make an estimate of the number of road traffic accidents leading to a fatality on the M6 motorway within Lancashire since 2022.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of fatal road collisions reported to police which occurred on the M6 within Lancashire was 2 in 2022 with none in 2023. 2023 is the latest year for which figures are available.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
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 women impacted by the maladministration of pension communications as highlighted by the WASPI campaign in South Ribble constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
ONS population estimates suggest that in 2021 there were 6,495 females born in the 1950s resident in the South Ribble constituency, who are impacted by the equalisation of the State Pension age.
We do not know how many of these women were impacted by maladministration in the communication of state pension age changes.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding asylum applications there are for people living in South Ribble constituency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum seekers awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. This table is not broken down by constituency.
Data on asylum seekers on support by local authority is published in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that not all asylum seekers awaiting a decision will be on support.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbooks.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which hospices (a) have all medication supplied (i) for free and (ii) at a discounted rate and (b) do not have medication supplied by the NHS.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative and end of life care is commissioned at a local level by integrated care boards (ICBs). Consequently, neither the Department nor NHS England hold data centrally on which hospices have all medication supplied for free or at a discounted rate by the National Health Service or which hospices do not have medication supplied by the NHS.
There are no plans currently to make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the NHS to pay for all medications supplied to hospices, because medication supply to charitable hospices is dependent on local arrangements with ICBs. Hospices are advised to reach individual agreements with their ICBs, which have a broader picture of local arrangements on medication prescribing and provision within their areas.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the NHS to pay for all medications supplied to hospices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Palliative and end of life care is commissioned at a local level by integrated care boards (ICBs). Consequently, neither the Department nor NHS England hold data centrally on which hospices have all medication supplied for free or at a discounted rate by the National Health Service or which hospices do not have medication supplied by the NHS.
There are no plans currently to make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the NHS to pay for all medications supplied to hospices, because medication supply to charitable hospices is dependent on local arrangements with ICBs. Hospices are advised to reach individual agreements with their ICBs, which have a broader picture of local arrangements on medication prescribing and provision within their areas.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much compensation was paid under the delay repay scheme for journeys on Avanti West Coast in 2024; and how much and what proportion of this compensation was paid from the public purse.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Annual Delay Repay compensation figures are published by Financial Year for train operating companies on the Government website at the following link:
Further compensation figures will be available later in the year.
Avanti West Coast also publishes periodic Delay Repay compensation paid out to passengers on its website at the following link:
Under the terms of the National Rail Contract, the Department ordinarily funds all Delay Repay spend.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of pensioners receive Pension Credit in South Ribble constituency; and how many of these are new recipients since 31 July 2024.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The latest available data shows that in Winter 2023 to 2024, there were 14,717 pensioner households living in the South Ribble constituency. This is based on winter-fuel-payments-household-2023-to-2024.ods.
At that point in time, 1,528 pensioner households received Pension Credit in the South Ribble constituency. This is based on February 2024 Pension Credit statistics which are available via DWP Stat-Xplore.
Based on these figures, 10.4% of pensioner households in the South Ribble constituency received Pension Credit in February 2024.
The latest Pension Credit statistics were published in November 2024 and cover the period up to May 2024. The next iteration of Pension Credit caseload statistics will be released on 18th February, as part of the DWP Benefits Statistics quarterly release. This will contain data for the period from June 2024 to the end of August 2024. Following release, the data can also be accessed at Stat-Xplore - Home.
Asked by: Paul Foster (Labour - South Ribble)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much has been spent on flood prevention works to protect the village of Croston in South Ribble constituency in the last five years; and what funds are allocated for future improvements.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Protecting communities around the country from flooding is one of the Secretary of State’s five core priorities.
To ensure we protect the country from the devastating impacts of flooding, the Government will invest £2.4 billion in 2024/25 and 2025/26 to improve flood resilience by maintaining, repairing and building flood defences.
In South Ribble, the £7.3 million Croston Flood Scheme was completed in 2017 - protecting 438 properties. In the last 5 years (2019 -2024) there has been a further investment of around £500,000 for reconditioning projects, electricity running costs and repair works for the scheme and flood defence in Croston Village. An additional £42,000 is planned for 2024/25.