Shockat Adam

Employment programmes such as the Restart Scheme and the Work and Health Programme currently use multi-year funding to ensure the Department secures value for money and delivers employment support that is cost effective.

The Department is also working with local areas in England and Wales to deliver the manifesto commitment to enable local areas to shape a joined-up work, health, and skills offer for local people. This will start with multi-year funding to expand the availability of a new national supported employment programme with an offer shaped around local priorities. This new programme will help disabled people, those with health conditions and those with complex employment barriers to find and fulfil their potential to work.

The main costs for these programmes and their providers are staffing, estates and digital infrastructure, all of which would be higher for single year than for multi-year funded programmes due to a combination of set-up and recruitment costs being absorbed over lower volumes and costs of temporary staff, short leases and other provider costs being higher generally.

The benefits of multi-year funded programmes include reduced costs, increased value for money and positive returns to the Exchequer.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) operates on the principle that both parents have financial responsibility for their child, including their food and clothing, as well as contributing towards the associated costs of running the home that the child lives in.

The calculation represents an amount of money that is broadly commensurate with the amount that a paying parent would spend on the child if they were still living with them, irrespective of the income or assets of the receiving parent.

The CMS will assess how much the paying parent should pay the receiving parent, which in most cases is based on a percentage of the paying parent's gross annual income. The income of the receiving parent is not taken into consideration as they are already contributing as the child's primary caregiver and their income should not remove the responsibility of a paying parent to support their child.

A review is ongoing to look again at the child maintenance calculation to ensure it is fit for purpose and fair for both parents in light of societal changes since it was last looked at.

The Independent Case Examiner’s office investigated 2,142 Child Maintenance Service (CMS) cases over the last 5 complete reporting years, broken down as follows:

The Independent Case Examiner’s office does not hold the information to provide a response to parts (b) and (c) of the question.

Regular updates ensure the Child Maintenance Service's systems comply with policy. Each change follows industry standards, including thorough testing before and after implementation. The core principles for calculating Child Maintenance have remained largely unchanged since 2012, with no current system defects affecting these calculations.

The Department for Work and Pensions rigorously monitors accuracy, with the National Audit Office setting a target of monetary value errors under 1%. This standard is consistently met.

The financial requirements for the Family Immigration Rules include the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) which is currently set at £29,000 and is intended to maintain the economic wellbeing of the UK whilst respecting family life.

The Home Secretary has announced her intention to commission the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules.

Conducting a review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system. There will be no changes to the current threshold of £29,000, or the ways in which the MIR can be met, until the MAC review is complete.

An EWS1, which is not a government process or statutory requirement, should not be required for leaseholders in buildings 11 metres and above to re-mortgage or sell their property. As of 18 March 2024, 10 mortgage lenders have signed a joint statement on cladding, confirming they will consider lending on properties in buildings 11 metres and above, regardless of whether works have started.

A Responsible Person is required to ensure that their building has a Fire Risk Assessment, and the Fire Safety Act 2021 clarified that this should include the external walls. In many cases, it will be obvious through inspection that the risk to life from external fire spread is not such to warrant a more detailed Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls. Where a more detailed fire risk appraisal is required, this should follow the British Standards Institution PAS 9980 methodology.