First elected: 8th June 2017
Left House: 6th November 2019 (Defeated)
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
Increase college funding to sustainable levels - all students deserve equality!
Gov Responded - 25 Feb 2019 Debated on - 21 Jan 2019 View Stephen Lloyd's petition debate contributionsWe call on the Government to urgently increase college funding to sustainable levels, including immediate parity with recently announced increases to schools funding. This will give all students a fair chance, give college staff fair pay and provide the high-quality skills the country needs.
Ban the sale of puppies by pet shops & all commercial 3rd party dealers.
Gov Responded - 20 Mar 2018 Debated on - 21 May 2018 View Stephen Lloyd's petition debate contributionsRemoving puppies for sale from litter & mum often creates sick, traumatised, dysfunctional dogs. Puppies should be seen with their mum & transporting them to a different place for sale harms welfare. Regulating commercial 3rd party sales is ineffective to prevent harm & a ban is therefore necessary.
Make fair transitional state pension arrangements for 1950’s women
Gov Responded - 27 Sep 2017 Debated on - 14 Dec 2017 View Stephen Lloyd's petition debate contributionsThat this Government without delay recognises the need for a non-means tested bridging pension for women born on or after 6/4/1950 who are affected by the 1995 and 2011 Pension Acts and compensate those at risk of losing up to around £45,000, to also give proper notification for any future changes.
These initiatives were driven by Stephen Lloyd, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Stephen Lloyd has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Stephen Lloyd has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Nurse Staffing Levels Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Maria Caulfield (Con)
Planning (Appeals) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - John Howell (Con)
British Indian Ocean Territory (Citizenship) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Henry Smith (Con)
Public Sector Supply Chains (Project Bank Accounts) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Debbie Abrahams (Lab)
The Government believes that political parties have the prime responsibility for supporting their disabled candidates. There will be ways that the Government can help, which is why the Minister for Women and Equalities announced that the Government Equalities Office will, with others, undertake a programme of work in this area. Within 12 months, we hope to have political parties offering and advertising support, as well as solutions to help independent candidates. The funding of up to £250,000 that the Minister for Women and Equalities announced is intended to provide support for disabled candidates in the interim, while that programme of work is on-going.
We are working on what the interim funding will cover and how it will be delivered. Further details will be announced in due course.
The Government believes that political parties have the prime responsibility for supporting their disabled candidates. There will be ways that the Government can help, which is why the Minister for Women and Equalities announced that the Government Equalities Office will, with others, undertake a programme of work in this area. Within 12 months, we hope to have political parties offering and advertising support, as well as solutions to help independent candidates. The funding of up to £250,000 that the Minister for Women and Equalities announced is intended to provide support for disabled candidates in the interim, while that programme of work is on-going.
We are working on what the interim funding will cover and how it will be delivered. Further details will be announced in due course.
The Skills Funding Agency does not allocate funding to specific geographical areas. The Agency allocates funding to colleges and training providers, some of whom operate on very local geographic footprints, whilst others provide training and skills services to learners and employers across the country.
Colleges have all now received their allocations for 2015/16 and they will be in the public domain during June 2015.
Allocations for all providers in 2014/15, including those in the South East and Eastbourne areas, can be found at:
Ahead of the Government’s ‘Power to Switch’ campaign to encourage people to switch supplier and save money the most recent industry switching data produced by Energy UK and Electralink shows the number of electricity customers switching to in an independent supplier in each month of 2014 to be:
Jan-14 | 86,253 |
Feb-14 | 90,056 |
Mar-14 | 101,002 |
Apr-14 | 119,022 |
May-14 | 108,904 |
Jun-14 | 99,199 |
Jul-14 | 82,690 |
Aug-14 | 84,107 |
Sep-14 | 113,883 |
Oct-14 | 114,275 |
Nov-14 | 85,741 |
Dec-14 | 70,364 |
The 2014 Apprentice Pay Survey was published on .Gov.uk on 18 December 2014. The report shows levels of pay by age, gender, ethnicity, industry sector and apprenticeship level.
Government departments undertake a policy impact assessment when developing new legislation. Where relevant, impact assessments include consideration of how a policy may decrease or increase greenhouse gas emissions. This is reflected in our strong progress on climate change – we have reduced emissions by 42% since 1990, while growing our economy by two thirds, and transformed our power sector with over half of our electricity now coming from low carbon generation.
Officials from the Department attended the EU consultation forum in December 2017, the most recent discussion of this issue in Brussels, to discuss the latest Ecodesign lighting proposals. The Department has subsequently made representations to the European Commission in writing and in person to discuss the issue of stage lighting and potential solutions. I understand that representatives from the industry have also met with the Commission and will be drafting an alternative proposal for stage lighting for their consideration.
It should be noted that this is only a proposal at this stage and remains open for discussion, with a final decision on the draft regulation likely to be made towards the end of the year. We will continue to engage with both industry and the European Commission in the meantime.
Employees who are employed for one month or more have a statutory right to receive a written statement setting out the main particulars of their employment.
Employees who do not receive a written statement, or who believe it to be inaccurate or incomplete, may refer the matter to an employment tribunal.
An employee is engaged under a contract of employment, which is brought into existence by an employee’s acceptance of the terms and conditions of employment offered by an employer. The terms of the contract may be expressed or implied, and if expressed, may be written or oral.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport monitors proposed changes to library service provision throughout England, however the Department does not hold complete figures on the number of public library closures in each local authority in the South East of England in the last 12 months.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport monitors proposed changes to library service provision throughout England, however the Department does not hold complete figures on the number of public library closures in each local authority in England in the last 12 months.
In 2012, Sport England invested £134,620 of National Lottery funding into UK Deaf Sport to support the UK team attend the Deaflympics at Sofia in 2013. No lottery funding has been allocated to Deaflympics by UK Sport. £75,000 of Exchequer funding was provided by UK Sport to support Deaflympics 2005.
Team GB won 65 Olympic medals and Paralympics GB won 120 Paralympic medals at London 2012. The investment for that cycle can be found on UK Sport’s website here: http://www.uksport.gov.uk/sport/summer/
Team GB won four Olympic medals and Paralympics GB won six Paralympic medals at Sochi 2014. The investment for that cycle can be found on UK Sport’s website here: http://www.uksport.gov.uk/sport/winter/
In 2012, Sport England invested £134,620 of National Lottery funding into UK Deaf Sport to support the UK team attend the Deaflympics at Sofia in 2013. At the games, the GB team won two silver and three bronze medals.
UK Deaf Sport is one of seven national disability sport organisations Sport England is working closely with to get more disabled people playing sport. Sport England has invested £281,974 into UK Deaf Sport to provide disability and impairment expertise to create more opportunities for deaf people to play sport regularly. This is part of Sport England’s £171 million investment into disability sport.
The Department recently published its response to the public consultation on increases to teachers’ pensions employer contributions. All representations made by stakeholders have been considered, alongside all evidence relevant to the issues involved. The Department has decided to maintain its original proposal, to fund schools which receive public funding and Further Education providers for 2019-20, and not to fund Higher Education Institutions or Independent Schools. Funding beyond 2019-20 is a matter for the upcoming Spending Review.
The full response can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/funding-increases-to-teachers-pensions-employer-contributions.
In addition, it is worth noting that all registered Higher Education providers are required to meet the Expectations of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which sets a high baseline for quality and standards.
The Department recently published its response to the public consultation on increases to teachers’ pensions employer contributions. All representations made by stakeholders have been considered, alongside all evidence relevant to the issues involved. The Department has decided to maintain its original proposal, to fund schools which receive public funding and Further Education providers for 2019-20, and not to fund Higher Education Institutions or Independent Schools. Funding beyond 2019-20 is a matter for the upcoming Spending Review.
The full response can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/funding-increases-to-teachers-pensions-employer-contributions.
In addition, it is worth noting that all registered Higher Education providers are required to meet the Expectations of the UK Quality Code for Higher Education, which sets a high baseline for quality and standards.
As announced in July 2018, EU nationals who start a course in England in the 2019/20 academic year or before will continue to be eligible for ‘home fee’ status and student finance support from Student Finance England for the duration of their course, provided they meet the residency requirement. On 28 May 2019, at the EU Competitiveness Council, it was also announced that EU nationals who will start a course in England in the 2020/21 academic year will also continue to be eligible for ‘home fee’ status with student finance support for the duration of their course.
Department for Education data shows that since 2013, the number of children in need, children on child protection plans and looked-after children at 31 March have risen by 7.1%, 24.5% and 10.7% respectively. The most common factors that present themselves in children’s social care assessments are domestic abuse and mental health. These have been consistently the top two factors for the years during which we have collected this data. Data on this is available in table C3 of statistical release ‘Characteristics of children in need 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2017-to-2018.
Demand for children’s services is associated with a number of factors including deprivation. The most deprived local authorities have more looked-after children (per 10,000 nought to 17-year-olds), and these rates have grown faster, than the least deprived local authorities.
In preparation for the Spending Review, to help ensure decisions are based on the best available evidence, the government is working with the sector to develop a sharper and more granular picture of demand for children’s services.
We are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as part of the government’s fair funding review of relative needs and resources, where new, up-to-date formulas are being developed to ensure funding distribution to councils is based on the best available evidence.
We welcome the contributions from the sector in this area including Newton Europe’s ‘Making Sense’ (2018) report and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services continuing research reports, ‘Safeguarding Pressures’ (2018).
Whilst we constantly keep policy under review, we have not had discussions about bringing forward legislative proposals to amend section 1(3).
We don’t differentiate between pupils eligible for free school meals under the pre-universal credit free school meals system and those only eligible due to the universal credit free school meals system. The number of pupils eligible for and claiming free school meals is published in the file “Underlying data: SFR28/2017” in the annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ statistical release. For 2017 the information can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2017.
Information for earlier years can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers.
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. A copy of his reply will be placed in the library of the House.
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. A copy of his reply will be placed in the library of the House.
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. A copy of his reply will be placed in the library of the House.
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. A copy of his reply will be placed in the library of the House.
This is a matter for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. A copy of his reply will be placed in the library of the House.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency have no information or data relating to numbers of game farms keeping laying hens in raised cages.
The number of offenders found guilty of offences under Sections 4 to 8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, in the Sussex Police Force area, from 2014 to 2016, can be viewed in the table. (1)(2)(3)
Force / Local Justice Area | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | |||
Proceeded against | Found guilty | Proceeded against | Found guilty | Proceeded against | Found guilty | |
Sussex | 20 | 17 | 11 | 8 | 12 | 7 |
of which |
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Sussex (Eastern) Local Justice Area (4) | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
(1) Defined as SS4-8 Animal Welfare Act 2006
(2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
(3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
(4) Includes offences in Eastbourne
Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice.
The UK Government and, therefore, DFID recognise that freedom of religion or belief is a fundamental freedom applying to all human beings, which is recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18. Violations of the right to freedom of religion or belief are among the most common human rights violations, and people are discriminated and persecuted all over the world for having and expressing their belief (or non-belief).
DFID welcomes the analysis and recommendations contained within the report which will further enrich the government’s understanding and help to inform our approach as we continue to seek ways in which to further promote and protect freedom of religion or belief in all countries.
All DFID contractual and grant arrangements include specific clauses to prevent any discrimination against protected characteristics; this includes discrimination on the basis of religion or belief. DFID’s due diligence assessments, a necessary pre-requisite for receiving UK Aid funding, obtain assurance of a potential delivery partner’s capacity to deliver and meet those conditions set out in the contract or grant award.
The Department is considering this proposal alongside the many others put forward for possible inclusion in the second Road Investment Strategy. We intend to announce our decisions towards the end of this year.
This Government is committed to providing targeted support for people so that everyone is given the very best chance of getting into and then thriving in work.
From April 2019, Jobcentre Plus introduced an enhanced Disability Employment Adviser and a new Disability Employment Adviser Leader role, in total more than 800 individuals supporting Jobcentre colleagues to provide high quality services to disabled people and those with health conditions. One of the key transformational elements of Universal Credit is that it provides us with the opportunity to support people who are in work to progress and increase their earnings.
Using an Innovation Fund funded by DWP, DHSC, and NHS England we are testing initiatives to support disabled people and those with health conditions to get into, and then remain in, work.
The government published the voluntary reporting framework on disability, mental ill health and wellbeing in November 2018.This is aimed at large employers (over 250 employees) and it is recommended that they publically report on the pay and progression of disabled people at regular intervals. It can also be used to support smaller employers who are keen to drive greater transparency in their organisation or industry.
When considering your questions, it should be noted that those that use the Access to Work scheme are not a direct subset of the disabled adults of working age. Robust proportions cannot be estimated by simply dividing figures for Access to Work by figures for number of disabled adults of working age. This is because the data would come from different data sources and are different data types.
To be eligible for Access to Work a person must be 16 or older, there is no upper age limit to eligibility therefore some people who receive Access to Work will not be considered working age (16-64 years old). Also Access to Work is available to those that have a disability or health condition (physical or mental) that makes it hard for them to do parts of their job or get to and from work therefore covers a broad range of people not just those who identify themselves as ‘disabled’.
When answering your question, we have interpreted ‘received support’ as received a payment.
The number of people who received a payment from Access to Work for each financial year can be found in Table 8 of the annual Access to Work Statistics publication. Table 8 shows the number of people who received a payment for any Access to Work provision by various customer characteristics including by region.
The latest Access to Work statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/access-to-work-statistics-april-2007-to-march-2019
Please note, number of people for each region is based on residency of the beneficiary as opposed to place of work. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
The disability employment gap is the measure of the difference between the employment rate of disabled people and the employment rate of non-disabled people. It is not therefore something which can be measured at the level of a single organisation. The current disability employment gap in the UK is 28.9 percentage points.
The table below shows numbers of ill health retirements over the period requested.
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The Department have implemented the framework and the report is due to be published by the end of October 2019.
The Government Digital Service (GDS) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have been working together on improvements to GOV.UK Verify for access to DWP digital services and the number of claimants who are successful when attempting to use GOV.UK Verify is steadily increasing.
DWP will continue to consider options to provide the easiest and most secure digital services for claimants and as such we're considering a range of other identity verification options which are easy to use and cost-effective for the Department. The Verify solution is part of the suite of products offered in this area. The assessment of all DWP identity solutions is a continuous process to ensure that we are meeting customer needs in the most cost effective way.
Discussions between Cabinet Office Government Digital Services, the owners of GOV.UK Verify are ongoing as to the role of the private sector post March 2020 and DWP, alongside all other Departments that use GOV.UK Verify, will be engaging in those conversations at the appropriate time.
Following the High Court Judgment on 3 May, in relation to Universal Credit and these regulations, we are considering our response.
Universal Credit is a 24 hour, seven day a week, digital service that allows claimants to manage their own data and account online at a time which is convenient for them. Via their account claimants can check their Universal Credit benefit payments, notify us of changes and record notes via an online journal facility. In addition, established claimants who call the Freephone Universal Credit helpline are connected directly to the person or team who are dealing with the case.
The average call duration for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in each of the last three months was:
Month | Average Call Time (minutes) |
December 2018 | 6.15 |
January 2019 | 6.01 |
February 2019 | 6.01 |
The average call duration for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in 2018 was 6 minutes 16 seconds
The Average Call Time (ACT) measure is the average time between a customer being connected to an agent and the call ending.
Notes:
Data Source: BT - OPMIS and Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI)
Outsourced partner data is included.
The data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.
Universal Credit is a 24 hour, seven days a week, digital service that allows claimants to manage their own data and account online at a time which is convenient for them. Via their account claimants can check their Universal Credit benefit payments, notify us of changes and record notes via an online journal facility. In addition, established claimants who call the Freephone Universal Credit helpline are connected directly to the person or team who are dealing with the case.
The average waiting time for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in each of the last three months was:
Month | Average Speed of Answer (minutes) |
December 2018 | 4.52 |
January 2019 | 4.53 |
February 2019 | 4.16 |
The average waiting times for a person calling the Universal Credit Full Service helpline in 2018 was 5 minutes 52 seconds
Our Average Speed of Answer (ASA) measure is the average customer wait time from the point of entering a queue to connection to an agent. This excludes any time spent in pre-queue messaging and any wait time for calls ultimately abandoned by callers prior to answer.
Notes:
For calls connected to the owning Case Manager or team, the Average Speed of Answer was 1 minute 10 seconds in February 2019.
Data Source: BT - OPMIS and Historical Management Information (GI2 – HMI)
Outsourced partner data is included.
The data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. The data should therefore be treated with caution.
Access to Work is in the process of transforming its digital processes, from application through to payment. We do not yet have a timetable for completion of this work. We are currently evaluating a range of digital options for Access to Work claim form and receipt/invoice submissions and we will be able to develop delivery timetables for that aspect of the transformation once this analysis has been completed.
As part of our commitment to improve the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment process we have been progressing options to video record PIP face-to-face assessments. Over the summer we gathered views on video recording from claimants, representative bodies and from Health Professionals in order to inform a live testing pilot later in the year, which will inform wider rollout decisions.
Providing they give advance notice, claimants of Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit can already ask for their assessment to be audio recorded and equipment will be provided. Claimants may also use their own equipment provided they meet certain conditions required by DWP.
The draft Regulations have been out for consultation with the Social Security Advisory Committee and we will consider their detailed recommendations alongside all the other stakeholder contributions we receive. We have had, and will continue to have, discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including disability charities, on the regulations and on the wider managed migration process.
This extensive consultation with stakeholders is designed to ensure that the regulations accommodate the needs of all claimants. Equality impacts have been considered in developing our plans for managed migration, in line with Ministers’ legal duties. We will continue to consider these impacts as our plans for managed migration develop.
The draft Regulations have been out for consultation with the Social Security Advisory Committee and we will consider their detailed recommendations alongside all the other stakeholder contributions we receive. We have had, and will continue to have, discussions with a wide range of stakeholders, including disability charities, on the regulations and on the wider managed migration process.
This extensive consultation with stakeholders is designed to ensure that the regulations accommodate the needs of all claimants. Equality impacts have been considered in developing our plans for managed migration, in line with Ministers’ legal duties. We will continue to consider these impacts as our plans for managed migration develop.
The Government recognises the need for claimants who are setting up a business to be given time to establish themselves and develop their business and customer base. However, different businesses and individuals will take different periods of time to reach profitability. The intention of the start-up period is to give claimants the breathing space they need to work out how to support themselves while running their business - including identifying other sources of income or investment - while not subsidising claimants indefinitely to pursue unsustainable activities. This strikes a sensible balance between support for new business, not trapping claimants in welfare dependency, and protecting public funds.
Extending the start-up period beyond one year could diminish the incentive effect of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF), which is to encourage claimants to grow their earnings, whether through self-employment, combining that with other work, or moving to one of the over 800,000 current job vacancies. It would also add complexity, with no guarantee of better outcomes for either the claimant or the taxpayer. The government therefore has no current plans to reform the MIF or to extend the start-up period for self-employed claimants in Universal Credit.
In their January 2018 report, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated the impact of the MIF on the public purse – their analysis is summarised in their welfare trends report http://obr.uk/wtr/welfare-trends-report-january-2018/
With regards to the estimate of the cost to the public purse of extending the start-up period for recipients of universal credit who are newly self-employed from 12 months to (a) 18 months and (b) 24 months, a formal assessment has not been made.
The Government recognises the need for claimants who are setting up a business to be given time to establish themselves and develop their business and customer base. However, different businesses and individuals will take different periods of time to reach profitability. The intention of the start-up period is to give claimants the breathing space they need to work out how to support themselves while running their business - including identifying other sources of income or investment - while not subsidising claimants indefinitely to pursue unsustainable activities. This strikes a sensible balance between support for new business, not trapping claimants in welfare dependency, and protecting public funds.
Extending the start-up period beyond one year could diminish the incentive effect of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF), which is to encourage claimants to grow their earnings, whether through self-employment, combining that with other work, or moving to one of the over 800,000 current job vacancies. It would also add complexity, with no guarantee of better outcomes for either the claimant or the taxpayer. The government therefore has no current plans to reform the MIF or to extend the start-up period for self-employed claimants in Universal Credit.
In their January 2018 report, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated the impact of the MIF on the public purse – their analysis is summarised in their welfare trends report http://obr.uk/wtr/welfare-trends-report-january-2018/
With regards to the estimate of the cost to the public purse of extending the start-up period for recipients of universal credit who are newly self-employed from 12 months to (a) 18 months and (b) 24 months, a formal assessment has not been made.
The Government recognises the need for claimants who are setting up a business to be given time to establish themselves and develop their business and customer base. However, different businesses and individuals will take different periods of time to reach profitability. The intention of the start-up period is to give claimants the breathing space they need to work out how to support themselves while running their business - including identifying other sources of income or investment - while not subsidising claimants indefinitely to pursue unsustainable activities. This strikes a sensible balance between support for new business, not trapping claimants in welfare dependency, and protecting public funds.
Extending the start-up period beyond one year could diminish the incentive effect of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF), which is to encourage claimants to grow their earnings, whether through self-employment, combining that with other work, or moving to one of the over 800,000 current job vacancies. It would also add complexity, with no guarantee of better outcomes for either the claimant or the taxpayer. The government therefore has no current plans to reform the MIF or to extend the start-up period for self-employed claimants in Universal Credit.
In their January 2018 report, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated the impact of the MIF on the public purse – their analysis is summarised in their welfare trends report http://obr.uk/wtr/welfare-trends-report-january-2018/
With regards to the estimate of the cost to the public purse of extending the start-up period for recipients of universal credit who are newly self-employed from 12 months to (a) 18 months and (b) 24 months, a formal assessment has not been made.