Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants are employed through Skilled Worker visas in (1) the Cabinet Office, and (2) its Executive Agencies.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

39 Civil Servants are employed through Skilled Worker visas in (1) the Cabinet Office and 0 in its (2) Executive Agencies.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consider the receipt of child maintenance to be important to the wellbeing of children.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Government is committed to ensuring that parents meet their financial responsibilities towards their children where they don’t live with them. The role of the Child Maintenance Service is crucial to help meet this objective where parents cannot make a child maintenance arrangement between themselves. In the 12 months up to September 2025, the CMS arranged around £1.6 billion in child maintenance payments.

Where parents fail to meet their financial obligation towards their children, the Child Maintenance Service will use its wide range of strong enforcement powers to help ensure they fulfil their responsibility.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much money for child maintenance was collected under the collect and pay service in the past three years; and for how many children this money was collected.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics every three months. Table 4 of the latest National tables provides the total amount of maintenance paid via Collect and Pay each quarter between January 2015 and September 2025.

The below table shows Money paid each Quarter via Collect and Pay for Great Britain, for the past 12 quarters October 2022 to September 2025

Source: Child Maintenance Service Management Information

Notes:

1. Figures provided are for child maintenance only and do not include fees for the use of the service and are rounded to the nearest £100,000.
2. In a very small number of cases a child maintenance payment may be refunded to the Paying Parent. These Paying Parents are currently still counted as compliant and the money is counted as paid. In a very small number of cases a child maintenance payment may be incorrectly assigned to the wrong parent. If the money is then assigned to the correct parent then the money paid will be counted twice.

The below table shows the number of children covered by Collect and Pay arrangements by payment status, for Great Britain, by quarter end, December 2022 to September 2025

Source: Stat-Xplore

Note:

1. Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data. Totals may not sum due to the disclosure control applied.
2. The data is collected at the end of each quarter.
3. Children covered by Collect & Pay arrangements in which the Paying Parent paid some child maintenance during the quarter.
4. Children covered by Collect & Pay arrangements in which the Paying Parent paid no child maintenance during the quarter. This will include some children associated with active arrangements for which no ongoing child maintenance was due in the quarter, i.e. arrears only cases.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many liability orders regarding child maintenance they have applied for in the last three years.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department publishes Child Maintenance Service official statistics every three months. Table 6.1 of the latest National tables provides information about enforcement actions used by the Child Maintenance Service each quarter between April 2015 and September 2025 including the number of liability orders applied for in England and Wales.

The below table shows volumes of Liability Orders applied for in England and Wales, for the past 12 quarters from October 2022 to September 2025

Source: Child Maintenance Service Administrative and Clerical Data

Note:

1. Figures provided are restricted to England and Wales and are rounded to the nearest 100.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to introduce regulations to enable the commencement of the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 in England and Wales.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Work to implement Administrative Liability Orders (ALOs) is under way.

While Child Maintenance is reserved, enforcement of CM arrears in Scotland requires that orders will be enforced under the Scottish justice system, which is devolved.

We are working closely with HMCTS and the Scottish Government to ensure enforcement action resulting from ALOs operates effectively across the UK, and plan to introduce regulations to parliament to implement the measures across England, Scotland and Wales, as soon as possible.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants are employed through Skilled Worker visas in (1) His Majesty’s Treasury, and (2) His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

We do not disclose the exact number of visas sponsored for data privacy reasons, but can confirm that fewer than five civil servants at HM Treasury are on Skilled Worker visas. Information requested on other departments is not held centrally.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the expected launch date of the Money and Pensions Service pensions dashboard; and what impediments still exist for the launch of the Money and Pensions Service pensions dashboard and private sector pensions dashboards.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard will be launched when we have assurances that the service is secure and thoroughly user tested. As confirmed last year, Government will give 6 months’ notice before the launch of the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard. Pension providers and schemes in scope are required to connect to the pensions dashboards ecosystem by 31 October 2026 and connection remains on course against this timeline.

The Government remains committed to the launch of private sector pensions dashboards. Insights gained from the launch and operation of the MoneyHelper Pensions Dashboard will help inform the launch of private sector pensions dashboards.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of data is already onboarded for the pensions dashboard being created by the Money and Pensions Service.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Three quarters of pensions records in scope of the Pensions Dashboards Regulations 2022 are now integrated into pensions dashboards. Over 700 of the largest pension providers and schemes are now connected with over 60 million records integrated into dashboards. State Pension data is also accessible, representing tens of millions of additional pensions records.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government which Minister acted as the qualified person in regard to FOI request 251030055, which asked for the briefing pack used by Paul Candler, Policy Director at the Ministry of Justice when he appeared before the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Committee on 29 October 2025 to be shared.

Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

I can confirm that I acted as the qualified person for this Freedom of Information Act request.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many households on Universal Credit have an income equal to or greater than (1) £30,000, (2) £35,000, (3) £36,700 or (4) £40,000 per year.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Using the results from the most recent Family Resources Survey published on Stat-Xplore, the estimated number of households in receipt of Universal Credit by the total gross income received by a household from all income sources, in latest prices (weekly, CPI-adjusted real terms), as reported by FRS respondents, ‘less than’ and ‘equal to or greater than’ (1) £576.92, (2) £673.08, (3) £705.77 or (4) £769.23, in financial year 2023 to 2024, is shown in the table below.

Table 1: Estimated number of households receiving Universal Credit by weekly gross income from all sources in latest prices (weekly, CPI-adjusted real terms), ‘less than’ and ‘equal to or greater than’ (1) £576.92, (2) £673.08, (3) £705.77 or (4) £769.23 in financial year 2023 to 2024, United Kingdom

Source: Stat-Xplore - Family Resources Survey Household Dataset

Notes:

1. Figures are rounded to the nearest 0.1 million. This rounding convention has been set to reflect that FRS estimates are based on survey data and not actual records of individuals in the UK. Totals may not sum due to the rounding method used.
2. Figures have been extracted from the FRS Household dataset on Stat-Xplore by using the custom range functionality (which is available to registered users) on the Household total, gross income from all sources in latest prices (weekly, CPI adjusted real terms) data.
3. If the weekly values chosen are received for 52 weeks this would be the equivalent to an income of (1) £30,000, (2) £35,000, (3) £36,700 or (4) £40,000 per year.
4. A household consists of one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address, who share cooking facilities and share a living room or sitting room or dining area. A household will consist of one or more benefit units.
5. The total gross income received by a household from all sources includes:
   1. Earnings from employment and self-employment
   2. Investment income
   3. Income from Retirement Pension plus any Income Support or Pension Credit paid with it
   4. Pension income
   5. Income from disability benefits
   6. Income from other benefits
   7. Income from Tax Credits
   8. Universal Credit income
   9. Remaining income
6. Further information can be found in the FRS Background Note and Methodology and the Family Resources Survey: quality assessment report.

Found: It’ s only me”. 8.28 pm Baroness Coffey (Con):My Lords, I am delighted to contribute to this debate and