Pippa Heylings

The English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age, currently sixty-six. The ENCTS costs around £700 million annually and any changes to the statutory obligations would need to be carefully considered for its impact on the scheme’s financial sustainability. The Department has conducted a review of the ENCTS and we are considering next steps.

The government is committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and meeting our carbon budget obligations, as set out in the Climate Change Act. Making Britain a clean energy superpower and delivering greener transport, including aviation, is a Department for Transport priority.

We have been clear that any airport expansion proposals will need to demonstrate they contribute to economic growth and can be delivered in line with the UK’s legally binding climate change commitments, as well as meeting strict air quality and noise standards.

The government will set out detail on plans for meeting legislated carbon budgets later this year.

The Department regularly meets with stakeholders to discuss a range of issues but have had no such discussions with Whizz Kidz.

The terms of the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme already mandate free off-peak bus travel for disabled bus pass holders.

The Government is committed to improving the accessibility of the railway and recognises the social and economic benefits this brings to communities. Since its launch in 2006, the Access for All (AfA) programme has delivered step free access at more than 250 stations across Great Britain.

Since April 2024, AfA projects have entered into passenger service at nine stations, with a further 25 stations scheduled to enter into passenger service by April 2025. We remain committed to further increasing the number of step free stations and are carefully considering our approach to identifying new AfA projects. I will of course ensure MPs and other stakeholders are kept informed about next steps.

A consultation on proposed reforms to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) was published by the previous Government on 8 May 2024. This included:

• removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster,
• exploring views on collection fees and the impact of proposals to reduce, but maintain, fees and
• exploring how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported.

This follows the Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Act receiving royal assent in July 2023. The consultation was extended by this Government at the end of July and ran until 30 September 2024. We are currently analysing the responses we have received, and the Government will publish a response in due course.

CMS Domestic Abuse training has been updated with input from external stakeholders and wider DWP to ensure caseworkers recognise and respond safely and appropriately to customers who are experiencing domestic abuse or are survivors of domestic abuse. This package includes an understanding of abuse, including economic abuse, and, of course, given the context, covers post separation abuse.

The CMS will use its strong enforcement powers to pursue those who willfully avoid their financial obligations to their children. Cases involving complex income can be investigated by the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU). This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions (such as banks, investment companies and mortgage companies) to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given.

This Government is committed to reforming the system of health and disability benefits so that it promotes and enables employment among as many people as possible.

We are working to develop proposals for health and disability reform in the months ahead and will set them out in a Green Paper ahead of the Spring Statement. This will launch a public consultation on the proposals. This Government is committed to putting the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of all that we do, so we will consult on these proposals, where appropriate, with disabled people and representative organisations.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) continues to engage regularly with stakeholders as we consider CMS reform. We are currently considering the recommendations from the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’ alongside other potential changes we have been discussing with stakeholders.

Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for Children is the only DLA product that has new claims. There are no longer new claims for DLA Adult, as customers over 16 are invited to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and customers over the state pensions age are invited to claim Attendance Allowance (AA), rather than the DLA 65+.

At present, for Disability Living Allowance for Children, once a claim has been registered a system generated letter is sent to the customer to advise that the claim is being looked at with an approximate time frame, a progress acknowledgement letter may be sent at 7 weeks for new claims if the claim has not had a decision at that point.

Special Rules End of Life claims are dealt with as a priority and the above does not apply as these are expected to be decided within 10 days.

Telephony agents are also kept up to date for any telephony enquiries.

In 2025 plans are in place to add information to an automated text once claims are registered. Work is also being undertaken to add a page to gov.uk

In addition to this, new staff have been recruited and staff redeployed to help meet the increased number of claims and work is also underway to deliver improvements to the customer journey.

As part of the get Britain working plan, more disabled people and those with health conditions will be supported to enter and stay in work, by devolving more power to local areas so they can shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer that suits the needs of the people they serve.

Good quality work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. We want people to avoid poverty, and for this to happen we must ensure that disabled people and people with health conditions have the opportunity to work and save for as long as they wish and are able to.

The DWP delivers a range of interventions to help disabled people and people with long-term health conditions to find and stay in work. We have already published several evaluations of the effectiveness of some of these programmes. These include the JOBS II evaluation, Employment Advisors in Improved Access to Psychological Therapies and the Health Led Trials.

For future interventions, the DWP is committed to adhering to HMT and Government Social Research guidelines, which includes proportionate evaluation and assessment of the effectiveness of any support in finding and staying in work, alongside wellbeing outcomes. All planned and live evaluations and evaluation reports will be registered on an Evaluation Registry from early 2025. “Evaluation” refers to impact, process, and value for money evaluation studies conducted in line with the Magenta Book.

We remain committed to rolling out Fracture Liaison Services across every part of the country by 2030.

In the meantime, we are investing in 13 high-tech bone density DEXA scanners, which are expected to provide an extra 29,000 scans to ensure people with bone conditions get diagnosed earlier.

There is currently no central funding from NHS England to support the national commissioning of digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia to integrated care boards.

Sleepio remains available for local commissioning by integrated care systems, should they choose to commission this product, as part of local insomnia care and treatment pathways.

No further assessments relating to the funding or availability of this product at a national level are currently planned.

It is for local integrated care boards to decide whether cognitive behavioural therapy should be offered to their local populations as a treatment for insomnia.

NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression offers low-intensity therapy which may include interventions around sleep hygiene. Individuals who are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression can self-refer to NHS Talking Therapies, with further information available at the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/

https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/mental-health-issues/sleep/

From September 2023, the routine shingles vaccination programme changed from the Zostavax vaccine to the two dose Shingrix vaccine, to better protect individuals from the effects of shingles, provide better clinical outcomes, and reduce pressures on the health system. The programme was also expanded, and as a result, almost 1 million more people became eligible for the shingles vaccination.

The expansion of the shingles programme currently includes those turning 65 years old on or after 1 September 2023, as well as those aged 50 years old and over who are at increased risk of serious complications. Once everyone aged 65 to 70 years old has received the vaccine, the eligible age will be reduced to 60 years old. Phasing the roll-out of the shingles vaccination over time to everyone aged 60 years old maximises cost effectiveness and population benefit, ensures consistent messaging over time to maximise coverage, and takes account of National Health Service capacity, all while being consistent with the approach taken by all four nations in the United Kingdom. This is a newly expanded programme, and anyone unsure if they are eligible for the shingles vaccination should check online, on the NHS.UK website, or should speak to their general practice.

In November, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation provided advice to the Department on eligibility for the shingles vaccination programme. This included advice that the Government should consider expanding the shingles vaccination offer to include older adult cohorts aged 80 years old and over. The Department will consider this advice and will update in due course.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s Quality Standard on Dementia, published in June 2019, recommends that therapeutic use of music be considered as a means of non-pharmacological intervention for people with dementia. Localities should take account of this guidance.

The Department funds research on the use of musical techniques for people living with dementia via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. This includes a major study investigating how music therapy can reduce patient distress and physical assaults on National Health Service inpatient wards for people with dementia. The study is called MELODIC, and will create a programme of music therapy which will be piloted on two NHS mental health wards at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.