Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department holds on the effect of silicosis on (a) productivity in the UK and (b) productivity of the construction industry in the UK.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Health and Safety Executive does not have data on the effects of silicosis on productivity, either generally or for any specific sector.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to regulate exposure to silica; and what recent assessment her Department has made of the extent of compliance with those regulations.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regulates exposure to silica primarily through the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH). COSHH requires employers to ensure substances which may be harmful to people’s health through their work activities are identified and assessed; and processes are put in place to eliminate or control risks. Silica is also subject to workplace exposure limits (WELs), which set out maximum exposure levels to hazardous substances. The most harmful form of silica is respirable crystalline silica (RCS).
HSE has produced a range of freely available guidance to demonstrate what compliance with COSHH and good control practice looks like across a range of industries, available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/index.htm.
HSE has also produced internal operational guidance that outlines the initial enforcement expectations where HSE’s inspectors encounter problems related to RCS during regulatory interventions. These form a benchmark against which compliance can be measured on an intervention-by-intervention basis.
Overall compliance is assessed on an industry-by-industry basis. In 2009, HSE published Research Report RR689 ‘Silica Baseline Survey’ that provided intelligence on exposure and control of RCS in key industry sectors. In the intervening period, RCS has remained an important issue within HSE’s inspection programme for the relevant high-risk sectors. For example, HSE recently conducted an inspection initiative between 17th June 2019 – 12th July 2019 that focussed on RCS and other dusts in the construction industry. The extent of compliance is considered as part of HSE’s evaluation work of such workstreams alongside other significant risks.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data her Department holds on the groups most vulnerable to silicosis.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Evidence from a body of epidemiological research shows that the risk of silicosis increases according to the extent of exposure to respirable crystalline silica. Groups most vulnerable to developing silicosis are those with the highest exposures. A range of sources of evidence – including reports of silicosis cases from chest physicians, cases assessed for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, and epidemiological studies – have identified specific worker groups that are at likely to be at highest risk. These include: quarrying; slate works; foundries; potteries; brick and tile making; stonemasonry; construction work involving cutting or breaking stone, concrete or brick; abrasive blasting and tunnelling; and industries that use silica flour to manufacture goods.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps have been taken to encourage the construction industry to protect workers from exposure to silica.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Protecting construction workers from exposure to silica has been a priority for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for a number of years. During this time, HSE has used a range of approaches to influence the construction industry. These include:
Silica exposure amongst construction workers will continue to be a priority for HSE while it remains a significant issue. HSE will look to evolve the intervention approaches it uses during this period to maximise its influence.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information her Department holds on the effect of silicosis on her Department's budget.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Under the Industrial Injuries Scheme (IIS), silicosis is compensated for under the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers' Compensation) Act 1979 lump sum scheme and Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB).
Under the 1979 Act lump sum scheme, the department has paid out £41,382 over the financial years 17/18 and 18/19 to claimants and their dependants affected by silicosis.
Under IIDB, awards for silicosis are made under prescribed diseases which include other medical conditions. Unfortunately, as this information is not immediately accessible, and would require the merging, filtering and quality assuring of complex datasets, data on these claimants could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
For Personal Independence Payment (PIP) the latest data on claims in payment can be broken down by month from April 2013 to April 2019 and by disability (including silicosis) can be found on Stat-Xplore: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.
The latest data on PIP expenditure broken down by disability subgroup including pneumoconiosis, of which silicosis is one disease, is published and can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/741592/pip-expenditure-by-medical-condition-2017-18.ods
For Employment Support Allowance (ESA), there is high level data stored on medical conditions on the Department’s data base; Stat-Xplore. However, at present this data has not been broken down to include conditions such as silicosis.
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of claims for universal credit were made using the bank account details of the main carer in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests for spilt payments of universal credit have been (a) made and (b) accepted in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The requested information for part (a) is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
In response to part (b), the number of Households on UC that make use of the Split Payment option is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many requests for alternative payment arrangements of universal credit have been (a) made and (b) accepted for (i) twice monthly payments and (b) four twice monthly payments in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The requested information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
However, information on the number of Households on Universal Credit that have an Alternative Payment Arrangement is published and can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for funding from the Flexible Support Fund have been received for up-front childcare costs in each of the last 12 months; and how many of those applications have been (a) paid in full, (b) paid in part and (c) refused.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not held in a format that can be easily disaggregated and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ruth George (Labour - High Peak)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have people on universal credit who have turned down a job offer in the last 12 months have cited lack of affordable childcare as the reason; and how many of those people received (a) a civil penalty and (b) a sanction.
Answered by Lord Sharma
On Universal Credit, claimants are able to claim up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs, compared to 70 per cent on the legacy system. Where the initial month’s childcare costs may prevent a claimant from starting work, Jobcentres can use the Flexible Support Fund to help claimants. This is a non-repayable award, which can be used to meet the upfront costs of childcare to help support a claimant into work.
Civil Penalties may be imposed by both DWP and Local Authorities, where an individual incurs a recoverable overpayment as a result of failing to provide accurate information as part of their benefit claim or in connection with an award of benefit, and have not taken reasonable steps to correct the error. Civil Penalties are not imposed in the event of a claimant refusing to accept a job offer.
The information request about those receiving a sanction is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.