Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2020 to Question HL6367, if she will publish the (a) guidance to Work Coaches and Case Managers, and (b) performance framework by which those coaches will be monitored.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is committed to providing the best possible support for all our claimants to meet their individual circumstance. Jobcentre and Service Centre staff undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. They receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to guidance which is refreshed at regular intervals.
Team Leaders are responsible for monitoring and assuring the quality of services provided to individual claimants. This is completed through a combination of observation (of interviews), feedback, coaching and appraisal.
Universal Credit guidance for Work Coaches and Case Managers is routinely placed in the House of Commons library and it is updated at regular intervals. There are no plans to depart from that practice. This guidance covers the quality of service expected of Work Coaches.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the performance framework for job centre advisers measures performance by the proportion of claimants who have left benefit regardless of whether the claimant entered employment or training.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is committed to providing the best possible support for all our claimants to meet their individual circumstance. Jobcentre and Service Centre staff undergo a comprehensive learning journey designed to equip them with the tools, skills and behaviours required to provide a high quality service to all claimants. They receive on-going learning in their roles and have access to guidance which is refreshed at regular intervals.
Team Leaders are responsible for monitoring and assuring the quality of services provided to individual claimants. This is completed through a combination of observation (of interviews), feedback, coaching and appraisal.
Universal Credit guidance for Work Coaches and Case Managers is routinely placed in the House of Commons library and it is updated at regular intervals. There are no plans to depart from that practice. This guidance covers the quality of service expected of Work Coaches.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many investigations of workplace concerns relating to (a) covid-19 and (b) non-covid-19 concerns, where checks have been made to ensure that measures have been put in place to comply with the law, have been made in (i) Birmingham and (ii) the West Midlands in each month since January 2020; and how many enforcement notices served in respect of those investigations.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the number of Covid-19 and non Covid-19 workplace concerns investigated by operational staff i.e. either Inspectors or Visiting Officers, by region and the number of Notices served.
|
| 2020 |
| ||||||
|
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | TOTAL |
Birmingham | COVID concerns investigated* | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 40 |
| Notices issued | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Non-COVID concerns investigated* | 13 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 61 |
| Notices issued | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
West Midlands | COVID concerns investigated* | 0 | 1 | 0 | 167 | 93 | 55 | 30 | 346 |
| Notices issued | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Non-COVID concerns investigated* | 60 | 59 | 50 | 36 | 36 | 40 | 28 | 309 |
| Notices issued | 1 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 |
*includes those currently under investigation
NB the data was extracted from HSE’s live operational database on 22nd July 2020 and the numbers of investigations are based upon the date that the record was created. The Notice numbers are based upon the issue date and may change due to a lag between the date issued and the details being recorded in the operational database.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many work coaches will be recruited in (a) Birmingham and (b) the West Midlands.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is too soon in the recruitment process to be able to identify specific numbers for each city or location. Recruitment will be targeted based on local demand, plus current available and emerging estate space and Job Centre operating model changes.
Central England & Wales region (which covers Birmingham and the West Midlands) plan to recruit c1,200 new work coaches. This will be between now and the end of October in the first wave of recruitment, further planned recruitment later in the year will grow these numbers.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of job vacancies in (a) Birmingham and (b) the West Midlands in each month since January 2020 to date.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Official statistics on vacancies are not available for each region and nation of the UK. However, experimental statistics on online job adverts are available at a regional level. These statistics are provided by ONS in partnership with Adzuna (an online job search engine).
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the criteria her Department plans to use for prioritising Official Development Assistance spending in the event of a decrease in GNI.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK has a legal commitment to spend 0.7% of its gross national income (GNI) each year on Official Development Assistance (ODA). HM Treasury allocates ODA budgets to departments and is responsible for decisions on changes to these.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department's share of the Official Development Assistance will be reduced in the event of a decrease in GNI.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK has a legal commitment to spend 0.7% of its gross national income (GNI) each year on Official Development Assistance (ODA). HM Treasury allocates ODA budgets to departments and is responsible for decisions on changes to these.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department is signing new funding agreements for projects from the Official Development Assistance budget.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK has a legal commitment to spend 0.7% of its gross national income (GNI) each year on Official Development Assistance (ODA). HM Treasury allocates ODA budgets to departments and is responsible for decisions on changes to these.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2020 to Question 48675 on Industrial Health and Safety, how many of the enforcement notices served in each month since January 2020 in relation to covid-19.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has received in excess of 7,000 Covid-19 related workplace concerns, predominately from workers and members of the public. The majority of concerns are dealt with by HSE’s call handling team with HSE’s field staff dealing with the more difficult cases. It has only been necessary to serve four enforcement notices to secure compliance which were each served in May 2020. The remaining cases were resolved through verbal advice or correspondence.
NB: the above quoted numbers were taken from HSE’s operational database on 3rd June 2020 and are subject to change e.g. as there can be a delay before actions are updated on the database.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2020 to Question 48675 on Industrial Health and Safety, how many investigations of workplace concerns relating to (a) covid-19 and (b) other concerns, where checks have been made to ensure that measures have been put in place to comply with the law, have been made in each month since January 2020, and how many enforcement notices served.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the breakdown, by month, of workplace concerns investigated by the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) field staff. In April 2020, HSE introduced a change to its recording system to identify concerns relating to Covid-19 and therefore it is not possible to identify such concerns which were made before then.
The number of enforcement notices served is also provided and arises from all HSE’s regulatory activities.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Total |
Covid-19 Concerns* | - | - | - | 1714 | 992 | 160 | 2866 |
Non-Covid- 19** | 521 | 488 | 446 | 329 | 215 | 26 | 2025 |
Enforcement Notices | 378 | 560 | 483 | 68 | 108 | 31 | 1628 |
*the number of Covid-19 related concerns created on HSE’s database by month and where an outcome is recorded.
**the number of non-Covid-19 concerns created on HSE’s database by month and which have a status of “closed”.
NB: the above data was extracted from an operational database on 5th June 2020 and is subject to change e.g. due to the delay between action being taken and recording the information onto the database.