Vicky Foxcroft

The information requested is not held.

The information requested is not held.

The Government is working to identify and resolve challenges involved in delivering the local and mayoral elections in England and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales in May 2021. Voters will be able participate in the May 2021 elections safely, and in a way of their choice, whether in-person, by proxy or by post.

The Government's strategy "Our Plan to Rebuild" has been informed by a wide range of analysis and scientific advice. This has included consideration of how measures have impacted groups across the population, including people with disabilities and long-term health conditions. We will continue to ensure that these groups have the support they need.

The Government has committed to review the status of baby products in the scope of the new regulations. To help inform this, the Government has recently commissioned research to understand the fire risk that certain products, including baby products, pose. Formal consultation on the new approach is currently planned for early 2022.

To support the development of its new approach to the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988, the Government has undertaken two consultations on proposals to update the prescribed tests as set out in the schedules of the 1988 Regulations. Revision of the Regulations is complex, and a broad spectrum of views were expressed through these consultations.

In July 2019, the Government announced it would develop a new approach to the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 and develop Regulations based on safety outcomes. In support of these Regulations, standards are being developed independently by the British Standards Institution.

The 1988 Regulations already allow for the use of materials and products that deliver consumer safety from fires, without using chemical flame retardants and the Government continues to welcome innovative approaches that deliver safe outcomes for consumers.

The Government recognises that the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 need to be updated to respond to developments in furniture design, innovation, manufacturing processes and environmental and health concerns whilst maintaining product safety protections.

In July 2019, the Government announced it would develop a new approach to the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 based on outcomes with standards developed independently by the British Standards Institution.

The new approach was recommended following consultation with fire chiefs, the public, manufacturers, suppliers and advice from Chief Scientific Advisors from across Government.

Formal consultation on the new approach is currently planned for Spring 2022.

The Government recognises that the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 need to be updated to respond to developments in furniture design, innovation, manufacturing processes and environmental and health concerns whilst maintaining product safety protections.

In July 2019, the Government announced it would develop a new approach to the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 based on outcomes with standards developed independently by the British Standards Institution.

The new approach was recommended following consultation with fire chiefs, the public, manufacturers, suppliers and advice from Chief Scientific Advisors from across Government.

Formal consultation on the new approach is currently planned for Spring 2022.

With effect from 2 March 2019, the use of Deca-BDE was restricted through REACH – this prevents the manufacture and supply on the market of Deca-BDE, including in articles such as furniture. The restriction does not apply to articles placed on the market before 2 March 2019.

A list of restricted substances is available on the Health and Safety Executive website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/reach/restrictions.htm.

With effect from 2 March 2019, the use of Deca-BDE was restricted through REACH – this prevents the manufacture and supply on the market of Deca-BDE, including in articles such as furniture. The restriction does not apply to articles placed on the market before 2 March 2019.

A list of restricted substances is available on the Health and Safety Executive website: https://www.hse.gov.uk/reach/restrictions.htm.

The Government has published extensive guidance on employment and safer working throughout the Covid-19 outbreak. This can be found on GOV.UK and through the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Further guidance on employment rights and aspects of good practice has been published by other bodies such as ACAS and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Government has also produced guidance around some new situations which have arisen from the Covid-19 outbreak, for example for those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable and on self-isolation. This suite of guidance covers the employment rights of disabled people alongside other groups in the workforce.

The Government continues to support disabled employees to access assistive technology and other forms of support they need to remain in work, including during the Covid-19 outbreak. Through the Disability Confident scheme, we are engaging employers and providing them with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace.? Our new Employer Help site provides advice on recruitment and employment of disabled people, explaining how Disability Confident and Access to Work can help businesses to ensure their practices are fair and inclusive.

The Government has published extensive guidance on employment and safer working throughout the Covid-19 outbreak. This can be found on GOV.UK and through the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Further guidance on employment rights and aspects of good practice has been published by other bodies such as ACAS and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Government has also produced guidance around some new situations which have arisen from the Covid-19 outbreak, for example for those identified as clinically extremely vulnerable and on self-isolation. This suite of guidance covers the employment rights of disabled people alongside other groups in the workforce.

The Government continues to support disabled employees to access assistive technology and other forms of support they need to remain in work, including during the Covid-19 outbreak. Through the Disability Confident scheme, we are engaging employers and providing them with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to attract, recruit, retain and develop disabled people in the workplace.? Our new Employer Help site provides advice on recruitment and employment of disabled people, explaining how Disability Confident and Access to Work can help businesses to ensure their practices are fair and inclusive.

We have set out COVID-secure guidance to help businesses take the measures that are right for them. The weblink for the new guidance is www.gov.uk/workingsafely. The Government has also developed a tool to help businesses in England to reopen safely during coronavirus. The tool encourages businesses to carry out a risk assessment and helps to identify the workplace adjustments that they should make. Employees can also the tool use it to check what their workplace needs to do to keep people safe: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-reopening.

The latest Department for Health and Social Care guidance should be followed, which is being incorporated effectively into the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s working safely COVID-secure guidance for 1 August 2020: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19.

It is critical that employers offer safe workplaces. The Government has published guidance to help ensure workplaces are as safe as possible during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These guides cover a range of working environments and are available at www.gov.uk/workingsafely.

This guidance does not replace health and safety or equalities legislation, it provides information to employers on how best to meet these responsibilities in the context of COVID-19.

Employees have a legal duty to make sure the workplace is safe for their employees; this includes reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities and those who are clinically vulnerable.

The safer workplaces guidance provides some suggestions to help employers make their workplaces COVID-19 secure for their employees, visitors and customers.

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is part of a comprehensive package of measures designed to support businesses facing difficulties in this period.

Accredited lenders are responsible for providing loans under the CBILS. Decision-making on whether a business is eligible to access the CBILS is fully delegated to the accredited lenders, and individual lending decisions remain at the discretion of these lenders.

Since the CBILS launched, Government has listened to feedback from stakeholders and made changes to ensure that loans are processed as quickly as possible. These changes include:

• Extending the scheme so that all viable small businesses affected by Covid-19 are eligible;
• Removing previous restrictions on the following groups to enable them to access the CBILS, subject to other eligibility criteria being met: Employer, professional, religious or political membership organisations and trade unions;
• Removing the ability for lenders to ask for personal guarantees for loans under £250,000, and reducing the personal guarantee for loans over £250,000 to 20% of the outstanding balance after recoveries;
• Introducing technical changes to ensure that applications will be processed faster;
• Removing the forward-looking viability test; and
• Removing the per lender portfolio cap.

The Government continues to work with banks and other finance providers to help SMEs access the finance they need.

Government continues to work with the Campaign to End Loneliness to gather examples of employer good practice in tackling loneliness. As reported in the Loneliness Annual Report published in January, we intend to publish a good practice guide in Spring 2020.

Since October 2019, we have continued to engage with a range of organisations through the Employers Leadership Group and others including the Federation of Small Businesses, Contact the Elderly and TalkTalk, to draw together examples of good practice in tackling loneliness. Thirty employers have so far signed the Campaign to End Loneliness Pledge. BEIS and Campaign to End Loneliness are in contact with a number of others who are considering signing up.

It is our priority to make the UK the best place in the world to work. The Government is determined to ensure employers are fully equipped to support those who are experiencing long term health conditions. We consulted for employees with long term health conditions last year on a range of measures to encourage early and supportive action by employers and on how to boost the support that Government provides. We will publish our response to that consultation in due course.

Flexible working can be key in helping people to manage long term health conditions and work. Subject to consultation, the Government will be bringing forward measures in an Employment Bill to make flexible working the default.

Government recognises the important role that youth services play in communities, which is why we recently announced the £16.5 million Youth Covid-19 Support Fund (YCSF) that will protect the immediate future of grassroots and national youth organisations across the country.

£1.7m of the YCSF has already been allocated to vital youth work qualifications and training.

The competition for the remainder of the funding opened on Friday 15 January 2021 and will remain open until 19 February. It will help to mitigate the impact of lost income during the winter period due to the coronavirus pandemic, and ensure services providing vital support can remain viable.

To distribute funding as soon as possible, we will make initial awards on a rolling basis, prioritising those deemed to have the greatest need against the stated criteria. The first tranche of applications will be assessed in the coming fortnight.

The Electronic Communications Code (the Code) is the legal framework underpinning rights to install and maintain digital communications infrastructure on public and private land. We are working closely with stakeholders to understand whether the current legislative framework supports the delivery of the gigabit-capable infrastructure, and intend to consult on whether further reforms to the Code are necessary to support the delivery of gigabit-capable connectivity.

We have also introduced the Telecommunications Infrastructure (Leasehold Property) Bill, which will make it easier for operators to install gigabit-capable broadband in blocks of flats and apartments in cases when the landowner does not respond to repeated requests for access.

Ofcom has powers to impose network access requirements on providers it deems to hold significant market power, requiring these providers to allow other operators to access their network. Ofcom regularly reviews market definitions and remedies, and is currently consulting on regulations to apply from April 2021.

Additionally, the Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016 enable telecoms operators to request information about the physical infrastructure of other utilities, transport and communications providers, and provide the right to access that infrastructure on fair and reasonable terms and conditions. We are currently reviewing whether these Regulations can be improved to encourage more use of infrastructure sharing to deploy telecoms networks.

Taken together, these measures help increase the numbers of different services consumers can choose from.

This Government recognises how severely theatres, and the wider Arts sector, have been hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

In order to support the Arts sector through the pandemic, DCMS has worked closely with Arts Council England (ACE) to provide a tailored package of financial support. In March, ACE announced a £160m emergency response package to complement the financial measures already announced by the Government and to ensure immediate resilience of this vital sector.

This package includes £140 million of support for artistic organisations including theatres, and £20 million for individuals, including self-employed theatre practitioners, so they can better sustain themselves, and their work, in the coming months. More than 9000 individuals and organisations have been successful in applying for this emergency funding.

The Secretary of State, myself and officials continue to consult the arts sectors extensively to ensure we fully understand the impacts of Covid-19 and remain well placed to respond as the landscape develops. On the basis of that engagement, DCMS and ACE are continuing to work closely to consider the additional measures that are needed to ensure the long-term recovery and growth of the cultural sector, including theatres.

Ministers and officials are in constant dialogue with partners in these sectors to build and maintain a complete and up to date understanding of the challenges. We are working urgently with colleagues across government to shape support available to mitigate risks in the coming weeks and months.

The department produces annual employment statistics for the creative industries, published as part of DCMS’s economic estimates. The numbers of EU and non-EU nationals employed in the creative industries in 2018 are given in the table below. Overall, employees in the creative industries are 85.8% UK, 7.4% EU and 6.8% non-EU nationals.

Creative Industries employment by subsector in 2018, 000s [1]

Source: DCMS Economic Estimates, Employment 2018 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dcms-sectors-economic-estimates-2018-employment

Notes

1. Estimates rounded to the nearest 1,000.

2. Does not include UK nationals

Notation

"-" Figure has been suppressed due to disclosiveness

The data concerning the number of youth service centres that have closed in (a) Lewisham Deptford, (b) Lewisham borough, (c) London and (d) the UK in each year since 2010 is not held by my Department.

It is the responsibility of local authorities to allocate funding for local services, in line with local need. Individual local authorities would be best placed to advise on any changes there have been to the number of youth centres in their local area.

The Civil Society Strategy sets out our vision for government’s work with and for civil society over the next 10 years and beyond. The Strategy recognised the demand from the social enterprise sector for a simpler relationship with the government and committed to establishing a regular forum for social enterprises to coordinate relations with the government. The forum will be launched later this year.

The new £500m Youth Investment Fund will start in 2020/21 and run over five years. This investment will be a balance of capital and revenue funding. The capital funding will build 60 more youth centres, refurbish 360 existing centres, and 100 mobile centres for harder to reach areas across the country, which will deliver high quality services to young people.

The revenue funding will support the provision and coordination of high-quality youth services and positive activities for young people, building on the investment provided by the £7m Youth Accelerator Fund which launched on 30th January 2020.

The Youth Investment Fund is being designed in close consultation with young people, the organisations that work with them, and other departments. We will publish further details on the design of the Youth Investment Fund in due course.

Government remains committed to ensuring social outcomes can be delivered through the government's commercial activities. The roll-out of a comprehensive training and implementation plan for central government commercial staff is now underway. The Office for Civil Society in DCMS is also supporting Claire Dove, the Crown Representative for the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sectors on engaging civil society sector bodies on supplier readiness plans.

The response to the public consultation on the future definition of public service mutuals will be published in due course.

The Department, together with BEIS, has continued with the work outlined in the response provided to Question 670. We are consulting with stakeholders from business and civil society, and are conducting research and engaging with academic institutions to gather information on specifically what questions the Group should seek to answer. The Department is also giving further consideration to the relationship of the Group to other business councils, particularly in light of the Government’s new priorities, to ensure that the Group is complementary to these. The Secretary of State will make an announcement about the formation of the Group in due course.

Government recognises the need to work with the civil society sector to establish principles of effective civil society involvement in the policy-making process. My officials have started to scope a programme of work and the details of this will be set out in due course.

Government recognises the importance of working together with the civil society organisations to support them, maintain their independence and involve them in policy making. My officials have started to scope a programme of work and the details of this will be set out in due course.

Big Society Capital and The Access Foundation announced the six places will receive funding: Bradford; Bristol; Gainsborough; Greater Manchester (Bolton, Oldham, Stockport and Wigan); Hartlepool, Redcar & Cleveland; and Southwark in London. The six partnerships will now begin a co-design process with Access and Big Society Capital to refine the detail of their enterprise development and investment plans with an expectation that the first place based programmes will launch in the second part of 2020. A small amount of grant funding will be released to assist with the co-design phase.

As of 31 January 2020, the upper band of NCS Trust salaries was between £140-145k and lower band is £15-20k.

NCS has been the fastest growing youth organisation since its inception 10 years ago. In recent years, participation in the NCS programme has increased to around 100,000 per year. This equates to approximately 1 in 6 eligible young people participating in the programme. In 2014, 58,283 young people participated in comparison to 99,179 in 2017 (according to the latest published figures). The newly commissioned network, brand refresh and targeted recruitment marketing campaign are all expected to ensure that more young people benefit from the programme, following a year of change and transition.

The NCS’ budget is set based on the participation numbers. Stretching participation targets are set by DCMS year on year to help drive the NCS Trust to reach as many young people as possible.The underspend is as a result of the programme participation numbers falling below the target. DCMS works closely with NCS throughout the year providing a strong challenge against NCS’s full year financial forecasts.

The attached file contains further education learning aim enrolments and learning aim achievements, split by learners aged 16 to 18, and 19 and over, along with the total, on BTEC courses in the performing arts from the 2010/11 to 2019/20 academic year.

The department publishes destinations of adult (19+) further education learners in the further education outcome-based success measures publication which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcome-based-success-measures.

The latest data covers adult learners achieving their course in the 2017/18 academic year with destinations in 2018/19 academic year reported, whilst the earliest data represents learners achieving in 2013/14 academic year. Specifically, destination rates of adult learners on BTEC performing arts courses can be found here:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/25a2cc84-5b83-433c-9f01-f516093af57a.

Data on the destinations of learners reaching the end of 16-18 study based upon the learning aim taken is not held.

The attached file contains further education learning aim enrolments and learning aim achievements, split by learners aged 16 to 18, and 19 and over, along with the total, on BTEC courses in the performing arts from the 2010/11 to 2019/20 academic year.

The department publishes destinations of adult (19+) further education learners in the further education outcome-based success measures publication which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/further-education-outcome-based-success-measures.

The latest data covers adult learners achieving their course in the 2017/18 academic year with destinations in 2018/19 academic year reported, whilst the earliest data represents learners achieving in 2013/14 academic year. Specifically, destination rates of adult learners on BTEC performing arts courses can be found here:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/25a2cc84-5b83-433c-9f01-f516093af57a.

Data on the destinations of learners reaching the end of 16-18 study based upon the learning aim taken is not held.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The department collects and publishes information on the numbers of children with special educational needs (SEN), which covers all types of SEN. Data can be broken down by type of school (including special), type of primary need, age, sex and ethnicity. The information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.

We do not collect data on which pupils have a disability. SEN is the main focus of our data collection and dissemination in relation to children and young people, as our policy is to focus efforts on the impact of conditions (some of which are disabilities) on the educational experience of the individual and how barriers to their learning and participation in education can be removed.

The information requested is not held centrally.

The department collects and publishes information on the numbers of children with special educational needs (SEN), which covers all types of SEN. Data can be broken down by type of school (including special), type of primary need, age, sex and ethnicity. The information is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england.

We do not collect data on which pupils have a disability. SEN is the main focus of our data collection and dissemination in relation to children and young people, as our policy is to focus efforts on the impact of conditions (some of which are disabilities) on the educational experience of the individual and how barriers to their learning and participation in education can be removed.

We do not collect data on which pupils have a disability. Special Educational Needs (SEN) is the main focus of our data collection and dissemination in relation to children and young people, as our policy is to focus efforts on the impact of conditions (some of which are disabilities) on the educational experience of the individual and how barriers to their learning and participation in education can be removed.

The department publishes data on attainment outcomes of pupils at the end of key stage 4 in state-funded schools. The national characteristics tables contain breakdowns by type of SEN which includes breakdowns for pupils with certain types of disability. This information is in the summary tables in the national characteristics tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/key-stage-4-performance-2019-revised.

The department publishes data on post key stage 4 destination outcomes of pupils leaving state-funded special schools and state-funded mainstream schools. The data contains additional breakdowns by type of SEN.

The latest statistical release can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-4-destination-measures.

We do not collect data on which pupils have a disability. Special Educational Needs (SEN) is the main focus of our data collection and dissemination in relation to children and young people, as our policy is to focus efforts on the impact of conditions (some of which are disabilities) on the educational experience of the individual and how barriers to their learning and participation in education can be removed.

The department publishes data on attainment outcomes of pupils at the end of key stage 4 in state-funded schools. The national characteristics tables contain breakdowns by type of SEN which includes breakdowns for pupils with certain types of disability. This information is in the summary tables in the national characteristics tables: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/key-stage-4-performance-2019-revised.

The department publishes data on post key stage 4 destination outcomes of pupils leaving state-funded special schools and state-funded mainstream schools. The data contains additional breakdowns by type of SEN.

The latest statistical release can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/key-stage-4-destination-measures.

The government has been clear that our world-leading universities, which thrive on being global institutions, will always be open to international students. Engaging closely with other government departments and the higher education sector, the department is working to reassure current and prospective international students that UK higher education is ‘open for business’, remains world-class and is a safe and tolerant place to study. This includes continued work with Study UK (the government’s international student recruitment campaign led by the British Council), support for the sector-led #WeAreTogether campaign and a package of bespoke communications that will directly target international students, making clear our world-leading UK offer.

I wrote an open letter to current international students in April, setting out a number of flexibilities, such as with visas, both the UK government as well as higher education providers were introducing to ensure international students could continue and/or resume their studies, as needed. Furthermore, on 22 June, with my counterparts in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, I wrote to prospective international students to outline the support and guidance that is available to those who are considering studying in the UK from this autumn. This letter reiterates a number of flexibilities that the government has already announced for international students including allowing the switching of visa categories within the UK; confirmation that distance/blended learning will be permitted for the 2020/21 academic year (provided that international students’ sponsors intend to transition to face-to-face learning as soon as circumstances allow); and, steps to further promote the new graduate route, which will be introduced from Summer 2021.

The graduate route will be simple and light-touch and it will permit graduates at undergraduate and masters level to remain in the UK for two years and PhD graduates to remain in the UK for three years after they have finished their studies in order to work, or look for work, at any skill level. On 16 June government confirmed that international students present in the UK before 6 April 2021 will be eligible for the graduate route if they meet the other requirements of the route when it is introduced. This represents a significant improvement in our offer to international students and will help ensure the UK higher education sector remains competitive internationally.

In addition, on Friday 5 June, the government announced Sir Steve Smith as the UK’s new International Education Champion. Sir Steve will assist with opening up export growth opportunities for the whole UK education sector, which will include attracting international students to UK Universities. Alongside Sir Steve’s appointment, our review of the International Education Strategy this autumn will respond to the new context and the challenges that are posed by COVID-19 across all education settings to ensure we can continue to welcome international students in the future.

From the week commencing 1 June 2020, at the earliest, we will be asking primary schools to welcome back children in nursery, reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside priority groups. We will only do this provided that the five key tests set by government justify the changes at the time.

Eligible children – including priority groups - are strongly encouraged to attend their education setting, unless they are self-isolating or they are clinically vulnerable. Parents will not be fined for non-attendance at this time and schools and colleges will not be held to account for attendance levels.

The department is committed to ensuring that all pupils and students, including those who are disabled, are able to learn and access educational support during the COVID-19 outbreak. That is why we have asked educational settings to remain open for pupils and students with an education, health and care (EHC) plan where a risk assessment has determined that their individual needs can be better supported at their educational setting than at home.

For pupils and students who remain at home, while educational settings remain responsible for education provision, we have worked to help provide additional support to disabled pupils and students of all ages and needs.

We have published a list of high quality online educational resources to support home learning, including materials for children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND). This includes resources that are suitable for pupils and students with SEND of all ages, from early years to those in further and higher education settings. We will be publishing a second wave of home learning resources within the next few weeks. The initial list of resources can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-online-education-resources/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-online-education-resources-for-home-education#special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-send.

In addition, to support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education for disabled pupils, the Oak National Academy launched its SEND Specialist Curriculum on 4 May. This is providing educational support to disabled children and young people with more profound needs who would normally receive their education in specialist settings. More details are available here:
https://www.thenational.academy/online-classroom/specialist/#subjects.

Furthermore, we have published detailed guidance for parents, teachers and schools on how to best provide educational support at home. This includes specific guidance for parents and carers of children and young people with SEND, which provides links to further specialist home learning resources for disabled pupils and students. Designed to cater to all needs and ages, these links include resources from the Early Years Alliance and TechAbility, a specialist organisation for students in mainstream and specialist further education colleges. More details are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-children-with-send-continue-their-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

The Office for Students has committed to protecting university students by working with providers to develop practical ways to maintain teaching quality and standards, and enable adequate exams and assessment, including for students who are disabled.

The department is committed to ensuring that all pupils and students, including those who are disabled, are able to learn and access educational support during the COVID-19 outbreak. That is why we have asked educational settings to remain open for pupils and students with an education, health and care (EHC) plan where a risk assessment has determined that their individual needs can be better supported at their educational setting than at home.

For pupils and students who remain at home, while educational settings remain responsible for education provision, we have worked to help provide additional support to disabled pupils and students of all ages and needs.

We have published a list of high quality online educational resources to support home learning, including materials for children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND). This includes resources that are suitable for pupils and students with SEND of all ages, from early years to those in further and higher education settings. We will be publishing a second wave of home learning resources within the next few weeks. The initial list of resources can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-online-education-resources/coronavirus-covid-19-list-of-online-education-resources-for-home-education#special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-send.

In addition, to support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education for disabled pupils, the Oak National Academy launched its SEND Specialist Curriculum on 4 May. This is providing educational support to disabled children and young people with more profound needs who would normally receive their education in specialist settings. More details are available here:
https://www.thenational.academy/online-classroom/specialist/#subjects.

Furthermore, we have published detailed guidance for parents, teachers and schools on how to best provide educational support at home. This includes specific guidance for parents and carers of children and young people with SEND, which provides links to further specialist home learning resources for disabled pupils and students. Designed to cater to all needs and ages, these links include resources from the Early Years Alliance and TechAbility, a specialist organisation for students in mainstream and specialist further education colleges. More details are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/help-children-with-send-continue-their-education-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

The Office for Students has committed to protecting university students by working with providers to develop practical ways to maintain teaching quality and standards, and enable adequate exams and assessment, including for students who are disabled.

As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children eligible for free school meals by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. We know that many schools are successfully delivering food parcels or arranging food collections for eligible children and we encourage this approach where it is possible.

However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the Department for Education.

We are monitoring the use of the national voucher scheme on a daily basis. As of 28 April, Edenred has indicated that over 16,500 schools have placed orders for codes under this scheme. Edenred has reported that over £65 million worth of voucher codes has been redeemed into supermarket eGift cards by schools and families through the scheme as of Monday 11 May.

We are working tirelessly with Edenred to resolve any outstanding technical problems. We are very grateful to families and schools for their understanding and patience while we upgrade this service to meet increased demand.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

We are encouraging schools to use existing catering arrangements to provide meals or food parcels to pupils who are eligible for free school meals while they are staying at home. Where this is not possible, the Department for Education has developed a centrally funded national voucher scheme as an alternative to support schools with this process.

Schools are best placed to determine what is most appropriate locally and are free to make their own arrangements outside the national voucher scheme. We understand that some approaches, such as providing food parcels or purchasing vouchers for shops currently not included in the national scheme, may mean that schools incur additional expenses. Guidance is available setting out how we will compensate schools who incur these additional costs in providing free school meals or vouchers to pupils affected by coronavirus:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

We are working hard to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on all parts of our society, including individuals and business. Childcare providers will have individual agreements with parents and therefore we urge all childcare providers to be reasonable and balanced in their dealings with parents, given the great uncertainty they will be facing too.

Guidance for early years settings, including the support available to them, can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures/coronavirus-covid-19-early-years-and-childcare-closures.

Further guidance on funding and financial support available for education, childcare and children’s social care organisations can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-education-early-years-and-childrens-social-care.

The Department intends to publish guidance on income generation later this year.

The Department is developing this resource, which will include advice on how schools can use their premises for the community and set out other types of income generation such as letting out premises, working with local businesses, selling goods and services, and applying for grants.

The Department’s aim is to inform schools in their ability to generate income and help them build strong community links at the same time.

The pupil premium is additional funding that state-funded schools in England receive to help improve the attainment and wider outcomes of pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds; and also of looked after and previously looked after children.

Schools are allocated deprivation pupil premium funding based on the number of pupils on roll at the time of the January school census who have been registered for benefits-based free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last six years (known as Ever6 FSM). Schools also receive pupil premium funding at a higher rate (known as pupil premium plus) for pupils who have left local authority care in England and Wales through adoption, a special guardianship order, a child arrangements order or a residence order. Pupils who are in local authority care for one day or more also attract pupil premium plus funding; this is paid to the local authority and managed by the Virtual School Head.

The Department publishes information annually showing the number of pupils at school, local authority, Parliamentary constituency and national levels who attract the pupil premium to the schools they attend – this is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2019-to-2020.

The Department does not routinely monitor or publish statistics on the number of pupils who would be eligible for the deprivation pupil premium through having a parent in receipt of benefits that meet the qualifying criteria for FSM, but who do not attract this funding to the schools they attend because they are not registered for FSM.

The pupil premium is additional funding that state-funded schools in England receive to help improve the attainment and wider outcomes of pupils from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds; and also of looked after and previously looked after children.

Schools are allocated deprivation pupil premium funding based on the number of pupils on roll at the time of the January school census who have been registered for benefits-based free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last six years (known as Ever6 FSM). Schools also receive pupil premium funding at a higher rate (known as pupil premium plus) for pupils who have left local authority care in England and Wales through adoption, a special guardianship order, a child arrangements order or a residence order. Pupils who are in local authority care for one day or more also attract pupil premium plus funding; this is paid to the local authority and managed by the Virtual School Head.

The Department publishes information annually showing the number of pupils at school, local authority, Parliamentary constituency and national levels who attract the pupil premium to the schools they attend – this is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2019-to-2020.

The Department does not routinely monitor or publish statistics on the number of pupils who would be eligible for the deprivation pupil premium through having a parent in receipt of benefits that meet the qualifying criteria for FSM, but who do not attract this funding to the schools they attend because they are not registered for FSM.

The Department wants to support all young people to be happy, healthy and safe. We want to equip them for adult life and to make a positive contribution to society. From September, we are making relationships education compulsory for all primary pupils, relationships and sex education compulsory for all secondary pupils and health education compulsory for all pupils in state-funded schools.

The statutory guidance sets out that as part of health education, primary and secondary pupils should be taught about menstrual wellbeing including key facts about the menstrual cycle. Schools have the flexibility to design the content of their curriculum in an age appropriate way to support their cohort of pupils. To help schools design their curriculum, we have signposted them to expert advice from Public Health England on reproductive health. This advice covers data, key facts and women’s experiences from menstruation to menopause. The statutory guidance can be accessed via the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/805781/Relationships_Education__Relationships_and_Sex_Education__RSE__and_Health_Education.pdf.

The Government is also fully funding access to free period products in schools and colleges across England, for pupils who need them. The new scheme gives young people easy access to period products at school or college, breaking down stigma and ensuring that no young person’s education is disrupted by their period.

This scheme is part of a wider programme of work, led by the cross-sector Period Poverty taskforce, with the vision to eliminate period poverty and shame around menstruation in the UK by 2025.

The National Funding Formula (NFF) commits extra funding for pupils with additional needs, based on levels of deprivation, low prior attainment, English as an additional language and mobility. Evidence shows that pupils with these characteristics are more likely to fall behind, and need extra support to reach their full potential. In 2020-21, £6.3 billion will be allocated in the NFF for 5-16 year olds with additional needs in England. Areas with high levels of additional needs will attract more funding, and as a result, both the Lewisham, Deptford constituency and the wider region of London will receive higher than average per pupil funding. Next year, primary and secondary schools in Lewisham, Deptford will attract, on average, £5,381 and £7,086 per pupil respectively. Across all of London, primary and secondary schools will attract, on average, £4,827 and £6,370 per pupil respectively. In both cases, this is above the national average of £4,352 for primary schools and of £5,578 for secondary schools.

The Government is taking forward an ambitious programme of action on behaviour, exclusion and alternative provision (AP). This will respect head teachers’ powers to use exclusion, enable schools to support children at risk of exclusion, and ensure that excluded children continue to receive a good education. The Department will expand AP and improve the quality of the sector so that pupils in AP receive the support and education they need to help them overcome the challenges they are facing, and to prepare them for the next stage of their lives.

Further information on the timeframes for this work will be provided in due course.

The Commission has collected and published information about allegations of electoral fraud from the police since 2008.

The Commission’s data shows that between 2014 and 2018 there were no convictions of in-person voter fraud in the London Borough of Lewisham. There was one conviction in the Waltham Forest constituency at the 2017 UK Parliamentary General Election. In total there have been two convictions in the UK for in-person voter fraud during the period specified; these occurred in Waltham Forest (as noted above) and in East Ayrshire at the 2016 EU Referendum.

The Commission will publish information about allegations of electoral fraud during 2019 in spring 2020.

The Government published data on the cost of delivering childcare in England for 2015 and 2018. The average hourly costs of delivery are shown in the attached table (with the respective publications from which the data is sourced).

The Government also published data on the cost of delivery childcare in London, by all provider types, for 2015 and 2018. The average hourly costs of delivery are shown in the attached table (with the respective publications from which the data is sourced).

Average hourly costs in both tables are based on different collection methodologies and from different sources, so comparability is limited.

The Government does not hold such data relating specifically to the Lewisham Deptford constituency or the UK, nor does it hold this data relating to 2016 and 2017.

The Government is providing councils with an additional £1 billion for adults’ and children’s social care in every year of this Parliament. This is on top of the continuation of the £410 million social care grant in 2020-21. This will support local authorities to meet rising demand.

We are taking a range of steps to continue to raise awareness of Access to Work among people with a disability or long-term health condition.

We regularly promote the scheme through the Department’s social media channels, signposting people to the Access to Work pages on the JobHelp website and on gov.uk.

We are also ensuring advisers who work with potential customers, including Jobcentre Plus, health professionals and advisory groups, have the information and tools to act as advocates for the scheme.

In addition, we are continuing to work with stakeholders, partners and employer associations to raise awareness of Access to Work through communications to their customers, and we have produced a communications toolkit to help them raise awareness.

We are continuing to promote Access to Work to employers as part of the Disability Confident scheme.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) provides a minimum level of income for employees when they are sick or incapable of work. Employers are legally required to pay SSP to eligible employees who are off work sick or incapable of work, where employees meet the qualifying conditions. Some employers may also decide to pay more, and for longer, through Occupational Sick Pay.

The government has previously consulted on reform to SSP. The consultation posed several important questions on the future of SSP which require further consideration and as we learn to live with a new virus there is space to take a broader look at the role of SSP. The government maintains that SSP provides an important link between the employee and employer but that now is not the right time to introduce changes to the sick pay system.

SSP is just one part of our welfare safety net and our wider government offer to support people in times of need. Where an individual’s income is reduced while off work sick and they require further financial support, they may be able to claim Universal Credit and new style Employment and Support Allowance, depending on their personal circumstances.

To support transitions into work and between jobs, Access to Work has been working with stakeholders to develop an Adjustments Passport. Later this year we will run a series of pilots for those transitioning from education into work and service leavers leaving the armed forces. These pilots will enable us to gain an understanding of the passport’s effectiveness in supporting transitions and raising awareness of in-work support.

The Adjustments passport is already being tested with Access to Work customers who take up freelance and contractor opportunities and with 400 young job seekers in the Health Model Offices since May 2021.

Once fully evaluated we will consider making the passport more widely available during 2022. To raise awareness of the pilots we will promote the passport pilots through social media channels and our stakeholder forums.

As set out in the National Disability Strategy, published on 28 July, the Cabinet Office will consult later this year on workforce reporting on disability for large employers, exploring voluntary and mandated workplace transparency, before publishing next steps.

As set out in the National Disability Strategy, published on 28 July, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Cabinet Office will set up an Extra Costs Taskforce, bringing together disabled people, regulators and businesses, to better understand the extra costs faced by disabled people, including how this breaks down for different impairments – by summer 2022.

Officials are currently developing proposals for the taskforce and its terms of reference and membership. Insight from disabled people and organisations will inform the development of the Taskforce.

As set out in the National Disability Strategy, published on 28 July, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Cabinet Office will set up an Extra Costs Taskforce, bringing together disabled people, regulators and businesses, to better understand the extra costs faced by disabled people, including how this breaks down for different impairments – by summer 2022.

Officials are currently developing proposals for the taskforce and its terms of reference and membership. Insight from disabled people and organisations will inform the development of the Taskforce.

The Department has registered the following breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation involving the personal information of claimants to the Information Commissioner's Office.

The following table details the number of General Data Protection Regulation breaches involving customer information which were referred to the Data Protection Team.

All instances of claimant’s personal information being sent to the wrong address are recorded as breaches of the General Data Protection Regulations.

The Department continues to work closely with both IAS and Capita to deliver an audio recording service for face to face assessments that removes the requirement for the Claimant to provide the equipment. Arrangements are being finalised and we hope to have this in place as soon as practicably possible.

I refer the honourable member to the answer given for PQ 6284.

The government remains committed to supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive at work. Further to our response to Question 368, we continue to work with stakeholders to develop the proposals set out in the Health is Everyone’s Business consultation. The forthcoming government response to the consultation draws

on evidence in the ‘Sickness absence and health in the workplace’ report. It is therefore our intention for the research report to be published alongside the consultation response which we anticipate will be published shortly.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Companions play a crucial role in obtaining accurate information on how a claimant’s disability or health condition affects their day to day life.

The Personal Independence Payment Assessment Guide (PIPAG) and the Work Capability Assessments (WCA) Handbook provide comprehensive guidance for Health Professionals (HPs) on how to carry out assessments, including specific guidance on the role of companions. Please see links below to the PIPAG and WCA Handbook:

PIP guidance can be found on: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers

ESA guidance can be found on: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-capability-assessment-handbook-for-healthcare-professionals

Assessment providers incorporate this guidance into their standard HP training programmes. The role of companions is addressed throughout HP training and learning is consolidated with practical case examples.

Companions play a crucial role in obtaining accurate information on how a claimant’s disability or health condition affects their day to day life.

The Personal Independence Payment Assessment Guide (PIPAG) and the Work Capability Assessments (WCA) Handbook provide comprehensive guidance for Health Professionals (HPs) on how to carry out assessments, including specific guidance on the role of companions. Please see links below to the PIPAG and WCA Handbook:

PIP guidance can be found on: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers

ESA guidance can be found on: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-capability-assessment-handbook-for-healthcare-professionals

Assessment providers incorporate this guidance into their standard HP training programmes. The role of companions is addressed throughout HP training and learning is consolidated with practical case examples.

We don’t routinely send a copy of the AP report to a customer, instead we send a decision letter advising whether the customer will receive PIP, which components and at which rate. According to published Official Statistics for PIP, the time between the AP reporting to DWP and the DWP decision can vary during the year due to demand, but currently it takes on average 2 weeks for a new claims customer to receive a decision after assessment and on average 3 weeks for a re-assessment decision (median values in April 2021). There may be a delay between the assessment being carried out and the AP reporting to DWP, but the actual assessment date is not collected on DWP analytical data sets.

If a customer does wish to receive a copy of their AP report then they can do so by contacting the DWP and requesting this.

Data on the average time between return of the Assessment Provider’s recommendation to DWP and the date of the DWP decision is published in table 2A (column F) of the following published statistical tables:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/993434/tables-pip-statistics-to-april-2021.xlsx

Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance Work Capability Assessments outcomes are published quarterly here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employment-and-support-allowance-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessment

Statistics on Work Capability Assessments for Universal Credit are currently under development for future publication and have not previously been published as official statistics. We will issue them in due course as an official statistics release in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Whilst the initial statistics will not have median clearance times these will be developed for publication in due course.

The Department did implement this Work and Pensions Committee recommendation and has commissioned independent research to understand claimants’ experience of completing the PIP and ESA questionnaires to identify improvements. It will be published alongside the forthcoming Health and Disability Green Paper.

From November 2020 to date, 930 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments and 760 Work Capability Assessments (WCA) have been carried out by video call. We are unable to break down the WCAs into Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance.

Video assessments were introduced, along with telephone assessments, as part of the Covid-19 response, however video assessments are still in the trial stage. The experience and feedback from the trial will inform wider roll out and initially participation in video assessments will be limited, and by invitation only. Video assessments, where appropriate, have taken place alongside telephone and paper based assessments, which have been carried out successfully throughout the pandemic. In addition, face to face assessments resumed in May.

*All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10.

All of the above data is derived from management information produced by the Assessment Providers.

Please note: the above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

We are currently exploring alternative ways of conducting health assessments as part of the Covid-19 response, and this includes a trial of video assessments.

Stage one of the video trial for Work Capability Assessment (WCA), which includes assessments for Universal Credit (UC) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), was completed in March 2021 and the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) trial is still ongoing. The experience and feedback from the trials will inform wider roll out and initially participation in video assessments will be limited and by invitation only.

Video assessments, where appropriate, have taken place alongside telephone and paper based assessments, which have been carried out successfully throughout the pandemic. In addition, face to face assessments resumed in May.

All volumes have been rounded to the nearest 10.

All of the above data is derived from management information produced by the assessment providers.

Please note: the above data is derived from unpublished management information which is collected for internal departmental use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics Publication standards.

We do not comment on specific legal matters including costs of litigation.

The National Disability Strategy will be published in the shortly. The strategy will take into account the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on disabled people and will focus on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects of life.

Separately, and ahead of the strategy’s publication, the Department for Health and Social Care has already taken comprehensive action to address potential backlogs in care and treatment.

In April 2021, NHS staff completed 1.8m diagnostic tests and began treatment for 1.1m patients, against the backdrop of caring for 400,000 seriously ill COVID-19 patients in hospital since the pandemic began.

The 2020/21 Spending Review provided £1 billion to help tackle the elective backlog and support hospitals to cut long waits for treatment, systems are asked to deliver activity levels above set thresholds in order to access this additional funding as Elective Recovery Funding (ERF).

On 13 May 2021, NHS England launched a £160 million initiative to tackle growing waiting lists. A network of "accelerator" areas has been established to pilot new initiatives, including extra clinics at weekends, virtual assessments at home and new clinics that can complete high numbers of cataract operations.

During the pandemic, £450 million was provided to expand and upgrade A&E departments to reduce overcrowding and improve infection control so we can continue to treat both Covid and non-Covid patients safely.

The first site in the Departmental Transformation Area went live on 21 April 2021 as planned.

The Department commissions independent research with disability benefit claimants on an ongoing basis. The forthcoming Health and Disability Support Green Paper, will explore proposals to improve the health and disability benefit system in the short and long-term, which are grounded in research evidence, data analysis and consultation.

I am grateful to the Committee for their report and pleased to see that our sustained efforts to engage with disabled people have been recognised. We are planning to respond to the Committee in the coming weeks.

I am grateful to the Committee for their report and pleased to see that our sustained efforts to engage with disabled people have been recognised. We are planning to respond to the Committee in the coming weeks.

The Department commissions independent research with disability benefit claimants on an ongoing basis. The forthcoming Health and Disability Support Green Paper, will explore proposals to improve the health and disability benefit system in the short and long-term, which are grounded in research evidence, data analysis and consultation.

The upcoming Green Paper on health and disability will explore how the welfare system can better meet the needs of disabled people and people with health conditions now and in the future. As part of this, we plan to seek views on how to improve assessments both in the short and longer term. This will cover the Work Capability Assessment for Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit as well as the Personal Independence Payment assessment.

The Government is committed to supporting disabled people affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.We are ensuring that disabled people continue to have access to employment support, disability benefits, financial support, as well as accessible communications and updated guidance.

We are actively working on policies to prevent health related job losses, and provide specific employment support for disabled people out of work. We are helping disabled people stay in work and enter work through initiatives like Access to Work and Disability Confident and employment programmes like the Work and Health Programme, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support.

The Disability Unit is working with the Office for National Statistics to improve our understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on disabled people.

The impact of COVID-19 on disabled people, and those with health conditions, continues to be monitored across Government using a range of sources including regular engagement with disabled people and disability stakeholders to ensure the needs of disabled people are considered in the Government’s response to COVID-19.

We are learning as much as we can, as quickly as we can about this virus, who it affects and how best to keep everyone safe from it and protect those who may be more vulnerable than others.

There is no objective way of deciding what an adequate level of benefit should be as everyone has different requirements. Income related benefit rates are not made up of separate amounts for specific items of expenditure such as food or fuel charges. There are no plans to undertake such an assessment.

The Government has given a commitment that no eligible claimant who has had no change of circumstances and who claims Universal Credit as part of the move to Universal Credit process will have a lower entitlement to Universal Credit than they had to their total legacy benefits at the point they claim. To ensure this commitment is met, Transitional Protection will be awarded where necessary.

Payments will continue to be available to those entitled to a relevant legacy benefit that includes a severe disability premium (SDP) and who move to Universal Credit following a change of circumstances on or after the removal of the SDP Gateway on 27 January 2021. These payments are subject to claimants continuing to meet the SDP qualifying criteria at the time they make their new Universal Credit claim. The transitional SDP element will be set at the same levels as now.

The Department is committed to delivering an improved benefit system for claimants that are nearing the end of their lives and is working across Government to bring forward proposals following the evaluation. The Department remains committed to implementing the key areas identified in the evaluation and will announce the outcome in due course.

The Department is currently working with both PIP Assessment Providers to deliver an audio recording service for face to face assessments that removes the requirement for the Claimant to provide the equipment. This will bring the audio recording of face to face assessments in line with the audio recording of telephone assessments.

As highlighted in our response to Question 166493, the forthcoming government response to the Health is Everyone's Business consultation draws on evidence in the ‘Sickness absence and health in the workplace’ report. It is therefore our intention for the research report to be published alongside the consultation response which we anticipate will be available shortly.

The Department is committed to delivering an improved benefit system for claimants that are nearing the end of their lives and is working across Government to bring forward proposals following the evaluation. I remain committed to implementing the key areas identified in the evaluation; a consensus to change the six-month rule; improving ​consistency with other services used by people nearing the end of their lives; and raising awareness of the support that is available.

Following their suspension in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be resuming WCA face-to-face assessments from next month. Initially, these will only be for those who we are unable to fully assess by other channels.

We are committed to assessing people as quickly as possible in order that they receive the benefit they are entitled to. The resumption of face-to-face assessments, together with our enhanced capability and improved processes for telephone assessments, will allow us to do this. Furthermore, we are prioritising for assessment contributory Employment and Support Allowance claims that have exhausted or are at risk of exhausting.

Following their suspension in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be resuming WCA face-to-face assessments from next month. Initially, these will only be for those who we are unable to fully assess by other channels.

We are committed to assessing people as quickly as possible in order that they receive the benefit they are entitled to. The resumption of face-to-face assessments, together with our enhanced capability and improved processes for telephone assessments, will allow us to do this. Furthermore, we are prioritising for assessment contributory Employment and Support Allowance claims that have exhausted or are at risk of exhausting.

Following their suspension in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be resuming WCA face-to-face assessments from next month. Initially, these will only be for those who we are unable to fully assess by other channels.

We are committed to assessing people as quickly as possible in order that they receive the benefit they are entitled to. The resumption of face-to-face assessments, together with our enhanced capability and improved processes for telephone assessments, will allow us to do this. Furthermore, we are prioritising for assessment contributory Employment and Support Allowance claims that have exhausted or are at risk of exhausting.

I refer the honourable member to the answer given for PQ 143815.

Restart will be fully accessible for all scheme participants, including those with health conditions and disabilities. At the core of Restart is the requirement on providers to design and deliver a personalised service that addresses individuals’ support needs.

The contracts also make specific requirements on providers regarding accessibility. Under the terms of the Equality Act, providers will be required to enable equal access to the provision. They will be required to fund additional support for anyone who needs extra help to attend and fully participate in Restart, which may include travel and specialist equipment. They must also take necessary steps to obtain and provide special aids or services that might be needed to enable participation.

Restart providers will also be required to be Disability Confident Leaders, and therefore to be fully aware of best practice in supporting disabled people.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The available statistics for ESA WCA by month of claim start (to June 2020) for initial assessment outcomes, including those still in progress, and assessment outcome by month of decision to September 2020, are published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-march-2021

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The available statistics for ESA WCA by month of claim start (to June 2020) for initial assessment outcomes, including those still in progress, and assessment outcome by month of decision to September 2020, are published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-march-2021

The Department is considering its response to the judgment and will communicate further details in due course.

This is an informal meeting. No minutes are recorded, therefore these are not publically available. Any actions arising are shared within the membership of the group.

The content of the survey was informed by research conducted by the Cabinet Office’s Disability Unit and tested with disabled people and organisations prior to launch.

This question was included in the survey to improve our understanding of perceptions and attitudes towards disability and disabled people.

Insights from the UK Disability Survey - alongside our wider engagement and evidence gathering programme - will inform the National Strategy for Disabled People, including action to challenge negative perceptions of disabled people.

It is vital that the voices of disabled people are at the centre of health and disability policy development. Over the past 18 months I have personally led a series of events in which I have heard directly from disabled people about their lived experiences with the benefits system. We will continue this direct engagement with disabled people up to and following the publication of the Health and Disability Green Paper.

I am grateful to the Committee for their report and pleased to see that our sustained efforts to engage with disabled people have been recognised.

It is vital that the voices of disabled people are at the centre of health and disability policy development. Over the past 18 months I have personally led a series of events in which I have heard directly from disabled people about their lived experiences with the benefits system. We will continue this direct engagement with disabled people up to and following the publication of the Health and Disability Green Paper.

I am grateful to the Committee for their report and pleased to see that our sustained efforts to engage with disabled people have been recognised.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

All Universal Credit claimants are required to accept a Claimant Commitment as a condition of entitlement. Claimants’ obligations are recorded in one place, clarifying both what they are expected to do in return for benefits and support, and exactly what happens if they fail to comply.

Claimant commitments will be reasonable for this unprecedented time, reflecting the reality of a person’s local jobs market, the local/national public health guidelines and personal circumstances to help prepare them for getting back into work. Those who have declared a health condition that restricts their ability to work, including those who are shielding and clinically extremely vulnerable, will not be required to be available for work. These claimants will have their conditionality tailored to ensure it is reasonable. This may includeswitching off conditionality altogether where appropriate.

It is recognised that there are occasions when reasonable adjustments need to be offered and put into place to support customers.

In addition to services being available online, the facility for customers to make new claims by phone is available, face to face support in Jobcentres which can include the use of hearing loops and private rooms dependent upon the specific access needs of the customer.

For face to face interviews, staff will work with the customer to find the right environment to meet with the customer, and where required translation services such as British Sign Language that will be arranged.

Appointees can be nominated for customers who are unable to manage their claims independently, and can be either personal or corporate appointees. We will offer a home visit if the customer’s access need cannot be met after all other reasonable adjustments have been explored and deemed unsuitable.

If the adjustment required relates to the provision of information, in practical terms this means putting contact arrangements in place via alternative channels e.g. email or providing forms and letters in accessible formats.

The Government is considering the timing of the response in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A response will be available as soon as possible.

Our progress update published on 25 February 2021 set out the number of cases cleared against the MH and RJ Upper Tribunal (UT) decisions. All these claimants will have been sent a decision letter, including next steps if they disagree with our decision. We are still reviewing claims and will send a decision letter to everyone we review.

As I explained in my previous answer (161810), we are writing to other claimants, explaining how we apply the UT decisions and letting them know they can get in touch with us if they think they are affected. We will review any claim where claimants ask us to and they will receive a decision letter.

This is a very complex and substantial exercise and we are committed to ensuring that claimants get the PIP they are entitled to.

The Advice for Decision Making (memos 15/18 and 16/18) give guidance on applying the MH and RJ Upper Tribunal (UT) decisions. This is publically available through this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/advice-for-decision-making-staff-guide

The estimates in the Equality Analysis were based on medical and policy expert advice, as well as a small in-depth exercise to look at actual cases. This was before knowing the full detail of which claimants would be eligible for additional payments and producing the guidance to implement the MH decision.

The Personal Support Package (PSP) introduced in 2017 has helped fund a range of new initiatives and additional voluntary support for claimants with long term health conditions and disabilities.

This has included additional work coach time, mental health training for work coaches and more than doubling the number of Disability Employment Advisors to approximately 685 across England, Scotland and Wales in the 19/20 financial year. We aim to increase this number further during the 21/22 financial year.

It has also funded a number of small scale tests of new interventions designed to help understand what works to support claimants with long term health conditions and disabilities.

The PSP was not designed as an impact evaluation with a robust counterfactual and therefore we are unable to quantify the number of employment outcomes due to the PSP.

In the Improving Lives: the future of work, health and disability White Paper in 2017, we set a goal to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. In the first three years of the goal, between 2017 and 2020, the number of disabled people in employment increased by 800,000.

The Personal Support Package (PSP) introduced in 2017 has helped fund a range of new initiatives and additional voluntary support for claimants with long term health conditions and disabilities.

This has included additional work coach time, mental health training for work coaches and more than doubling the number of Disability Employment Advisors to approximately 685 across England, Scotland and Wales in the 19/20 financial year. We aim to increase this number further during the 21/22 financial year.

It has also funded a number of small scale tests of new interventions designed to help understand what works to support claimants with long term health conditions and disabilities.

The PSP was not designed as an impact evaluation with a robust counterfactual and therefore we are unable to quantify the number of employment outcomes due to the PSP.

In the Improving Lives: the future of work, health and disability White Paper in 2017, we set a goal to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. In the first three years of the goal, between 2017 and 2020, the number of disabled people in employment increased by 800,000.

In 2017 ‘Improving Lives’ set out the Government’s goal to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. In the first three years of the goal, between 2017 and 2020, the number of disabled people in employment increased by 800,000.

We are continuing to build our evidence base on what works, through ongoing research, tests and large scale trials including of Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services and Individual Placement and Support in partnership with the health system.

In 2019, our ‘Health is Everyone's Business’ consultation set out proposals to support and encourage employers to minimise the risk of ill-health related job loss among their employees, including employers incentives and obligations, reforms to SSP, and Occupational Health reform. We intend to publish our response shortly.

The Department is bringing forward a Green Paper on health and disability support to consider how we improve our current service so it’s better and easier to use, explore how we provide extra support to navigate the system, and understand how we improve our employment support offer.

One of the commitments from Improving Lives was to publish annual statistics to support the monitoring of progress on disability employment. The most recent statistics, published in 2020, provide detailed analysis and break downs of the number of disabled people in employment. The latest statistics are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/the-employment-of-disabled-people-2019

The Reasonable Adjustments Forum is a working level meeting that was established in order to identify, test and recommend service improvements for those with accessible communication needs.

Due to the informal nature of these meetings and the focus on processes, Ministers do not attend. However, they are aware of the important work of the group.

The Reasonable Adjustments Forum has met three times since its creation in July 2020. The dates were 14 October 2020, 9 December 2020 and 24 February 2021.

The Department is committed to delivering an improved benefit system for claimants that are nearing the end of their lives and is working across Government to bring forward proposals following the evaluation. I remain committed to implementing the key areas identified in the evaluation; a consensus to change the six-month rule; improving ​consistency with other services used by people nearing the end of their lives; and raising awareness of the support that is available.

The Department is committed to delivering an improved benefit system for claimants that are nearing the end of their lives and is working across Government to bring forward proposals following the evaluation. I remain committed to implementing the key areas identified in the evaluation; a consensus to change the six-month rule; improving ​consistency with other services used by people nearing the end of their lives; and raising awareness of the support that is available.

The response refers to the Work and Health Programme, which was announced in Improving Lives: the future of work, health and disability. The Work and Health Programme (WHP) is a national programme of employment support, which began in November 2017. It predominantly helps disabled people, as well as the long-term unemployed, and certain priority groups (known as early access groups) to enter into and stay in work.

Since, November 2018, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has released experimental statistics about the WHP. These provide information on a regular basis about referrals, starts and employment outcomes of WHP participants. WHP statistics are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/work-and-health-programme-statistics

The WHP has been delivered as a Randomised Control Trial, where a small percentage of claimants who were eligible for the WHP were randomly allocated to a control group and were given standard Jobcentre Plus support. This will enable a robust impact assessment of the programme.

I can confirm an equality analysis was undertaken by the Department to enable Ministers to fulfil the requirements placed on them by the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) as set out in the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the approach to be taken for the MH/RJ administrative exercise.

In 2019, the Government consulted on ways to support and encourage employers to minimise the risk of ill-health related job loss among their employees in Health is Everyone's Business: proposals to reduce ill-health related job loss. The Government is considering the timing of the response in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; we anticipate that a response will be available shortly. The response draws on evidence in the ‘Sickness absence and health in the workplace’ report; it is therefore our intention for the report to be published alongside the consultation response.

DWP is continually reviewing and improving services and many of these are now ‘digital-first’, ensuring we make best use of technology to deliver a modern and effective welfare system which enables citizens to access services quickly and flexibly. This allows our colleagues to concentrate on those people who require additional support.

Although the Department offers support for claimants to use our digital services, we recognise that there are occasions where people are unable to access services online, for a range of reasons. As a result, we ensure that they can do so through alternative channels, such as by telephone or face-to-face in offices as well as providing documents in accessible format when requested. Throughout the pandemic, Jobcentre Plus offices have also remained open to support the most vulnerable claimants.

The first link refers to the 2018 employer survey (which tells us what % of employers pay what sick pay), second link refers to the 2014 employee survey (which tells us what % of employee are paid what sick pay).

Employer Survey interim report:​

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/810840/interim-report-sickness-absence-and-health-in-the-workplace.pdf

Employee survey:​

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/447127/rr901-health-and-wellbeing-at-work.pdf

The Government is committed to reducing the disability employment gap and supporting disabled people and those with health conditions to thrive at work. We received a good response from a range of stakeholders. The Government is considering the timing of the response in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We anticipate that a response will be available shortly.

Our published estimates were for the MH legal judgment only. They were produced before knowing the full detail of which claimants would be eligible for additional payments. We were clear that these estimates were very likely to change once the guidance implementing the judgment was produced and data was gathered from the administrative exercise to implement it.

At the beginning of the administrative exercise the department had a dedicated resource for cases where the claimant was deceased to ensure their next of kin received payments as quickly as possible. Since then, regular checks are carried out for deceased claimants and these cases are prioritised for review.

Our progress update on the MH and RJ administrative exercise published on 25th February 2021 gives the number of cases that have been cleared following a review – approaching 1 million cases for both the MH and RJ Upper Tribunal decisions.

Through continuous monitoring of the exercise, we have been identifying claimants most likely to benefit, so that we can focus on paying these claimants backdated payments more quickly. We are writing to other claimants, explaining how we apply the Upper Tribunal decisions and letting them know they can get in touch with us if they think they are affected, and we will review their claim.

We have dedicated substantial resource to checking claims and are committed to ensuring that everyone with a health condition or disability gets the support they are entitled to.

We had started to test a single digital platform in a small number of assessment centres but this was paused due to the impact of COVID-19. We have been reviewing our delivery plans and expect the IT development to form part the work of the new Departmental Transformation Area (DTA). The DTA will provide a safe environment to test, adapt and learn from new ideas and processes before rolling out at a greater scale, and ultimately nationally. The first site in the DTA will be in London and is scheduled to start from April 2021. This approach recognises that our claimants include some of the most vulnerable in society and it is critical that we carefully develop the new integrated health assessment service.

We had started to test a single digital platform in a small number of assessment centres but this was paused due to the impact of COVID-19. We have been reviewing our delivery plans and expect the IT development to form part the work of the new Departmental Transformation Area (DTA). The DTA will provide a safe environment to test, adapt and learn from new ideas and processes before rolling out at a greater scale, and ultimately nationally. The first site in the DTA will be in London and is scheduled to start from April 2021. This approach recognises that our claimants include some of the most vulnerable in society and it is critical that we carefully develop the new integrated health assessment service.

We have previously committed to developing a consistent approach for audio recording of assessments, by aligning to the Work Capability Assessment approach, however this work has been paused due to the impact of COVID-19. As face to face assessments are currently suspended, we continue to review our delivery options and plans, and updates can be provided once these have been finalised.

We have previously committed to developing a consistent approach for audio recording of assessments, by aligning to the Work Capability Assessment approach, however this work has been paused due to the impact of COVID-19. As face to face assessments are currently suspended, we continue to review our delivery options and plans, and updates can be provided once these have been finalised.

We had previously announced that we would be undertaking a procurement exercise to establish contracts for conducting Work and Capability Assessments (WCA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP) from 1 August 2021. The impact of Covid-19 meant that it was not possible to launch that procurement.

WCA contract

We recognized that it is vital for our claimants to have a safe and stable service. Consequently, in July last year, the department announced via a VEAT Notice (link attached below) its intention to extend the current contracts for up to two years, which will ensure continuity of services when the current contract ends on 31 July 2021.

https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:333758-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML

The Commercial arrangements for the extension period are subject to ongoing negotiations, which are on plan to complete in the required timeframe.

PIP contract

The PIP Assessment Service Contracts are split into three Lots. An extension has been agreed with Independent Assessment Services for Lots 1 and 3, details of which can be viewed in the VEAT notices that were published in December (links attached below)

https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:622817-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML

https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:622816-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML

Commercial negotiations for the extension of the Lot 2 Contract with Capita are ongoing; our intention to extend these Contracts was issued in July 2020 (link attached below)

https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:333754-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML

The department intends to re-procure Health Assessment Services contracts during this extension period anticipates that these will commence in August 2023.

We had started to test a single digital platform in a small number of assessment centres but this was paused due to the impact of COVID-19. We have been reviewing our delivery plans and expect the IT development to form part the work of the new Departmental Transformation Area (DTA). The DTA will provide a safe environment to test, adapt and learn from new ideas and processes before rolling out at a greater scale, and ultimately nationally. The first site in the DTA will be in London and is scheduled to start from April 2021. This approach recognises that our claimants include some of the most vulnerable in society and it is critical that we carefully develop the new integrated health assessment service.

We have undertaken engagement with a range of stakeholders, disabled people’s organisations and disabled people ahead of the forthcoming publication of the health and disability Green Paper. This will ensure the Green Paper focuses on the issues that are important to those who use our services.

This has included several consultation events, face to face prior to the pandemic and through video after, attended by disabled people, representatives from charities and disabled people’s organisations from across the country.

We will produce the Green Paper in a range of accessible formats. Engagement will continue alongside the formal consultation after publication where we will maximise the way we engage using a variety of digital methods such as on-line video platforms and Citizen Space. There is not a fixed budget for the public consultation, but it will come from the Department’s existing funding allocation.

We have undertaken engagement with a range of stakeholders, disabled people’s organisations and disabled people ahead of the forthcoming publication of the health and disability Green Paper. This will ensure the Green Paper focuses on the issues that are important to those who use our services.

This has included several consultation events, face to face prior to the pandemic and through video after, attended by disabled people, representatives from charities and disabled people’s organisations from across the country.

We will produce the Green Paper in a range of accessible formats. Engagement will continue alongside the formal consultation after publication where we will maximise the way we engage using a variety of digital methods such as on-line video platforms and Citizen Space. There is not a fixed budget for the public consultation, but it will come from the Department’s existing funding allocation.

We have undertaken engagement with a range of stakeholders, disabled people’s organisations and disabled people ahead of the forthcoming publication of the health and disability Green Paper. This will ensure the Green Paper focuses on the issues that are important to those who use our services.

This has included several consultation events, face to face prior to the pandemic and through video after, attended by disabled people, representatives from charities and disabled people’s organisations from across the country.

We will produce the Green Paper in a range of accessible formats. Engagement will continue alongside the formal consultation after publication where we will maximise the way we engage using a variety of digital methods such as on-line video platforms and Citizen Space. There is not a fixed budget for the public consultation, but it will come from the Department’s existing funding allocation.

Since March 2020, in all cases where a claimant is found fit for work the claimant will receive a call to talk through the Work Capability Assessment outcome and to ask about any changes since the assessment.

There are currently no home visits, and the COVID easements in place do not allow for the claimant to have a face to face assessment, so full importance is put on the conversation the Decision Makers have with the claimant.

If the Decision Maker is not able to speak with the claimant a case conference is held, before the decision is uploaded, and in conversation with the Health Care Professional Advice line. If there is any doubt of risk with the claimant the case will be referred back for a face to face assessment when the easements are lifted.

If during the course of the decision making process a safeguarding issue is identified the Decision Maker will make a referral to a Senior Safeguarding Lead who will engage with other agencies to support the customer.

The decision outcome notifications provide adequate information for disabled and seriously unwell people to decide whether to request a Mandatory Reconsideration of the Department’s decision.

The notification clearly explains what information has been taken into account to decide whether the claimant would have difficulty in carrying out work related activities.

It explains that the claimant can ask for a more detailed written explanation either via the Journal or by Telephone. It also advises that this needs to be done within one month of the date of the letter, and that the claimant can ask someone who has authority to act for them.

It advises that if the claimant has further information or if they think the department has overlooked something they can ask the Department to reconsider the Decision. This has to be done within one month of the letter. Following this it explains they will receive a letter called a Mandatory Reconsideration Notice and if they disagree with the Mandatory Reconsideration they can appeal to the tribunal.

Since March 2020, in all cases where a claimant is found fit for work the claimant will receive a call to talk through the Work Capability Assessment outcome and to ask about any changes since the assessment.

There are currently no home visits, and the COVID easements in place do not allow for the claimant to have a face to face assessment, so full importance is put on the conversation the Decision Makers have with the claimant.

If the Decision Maker is not able to speak with the claimant a case conference is held, before the decision is uploaded, and in conversation with the Health Care Professional Advice line. If there is any doubt of risk with the claimant the case will be referred back for a face to face assessment when the easements are lifted.

If during the course of the decision making process a safeguarding issue is identified the Decision Maker will make a referral to a Senior Safeguarding Lead who will engage with other agencies to support the customer.

The decision outcome notifications provide adequate information for disabled and seriously unwell people to decide whether to request a Mandatory Reconsideration of the Department’s decision.

The notification clearly explains what information has been taken into account to decide whether the claimant would have difficulty in carrying out work related activities.

It explains that the claimant can ask for a more detailed written explanation either via the Journal or by Telephone. It also advises that this needs to be done within one month of the date of the letter, and that the claimant can ask someone who has authority to act for them.

It advises that if the claimant has further information or if they think the department has overlooked something they can ask the Department to reconsider the Decision. This has to be done within one month of the letter. Following this it explains they will receive a letter called a Mandatory Reconsideration Notice and if they disagree with the Mandatory Reconsideration they can appeal to the tribunal.

The Department does not collect this information.

We have provided an unprecedented package of support throughout the pandemic, injecting billions into the welfare system for those most in need, including uplifting the Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of local market rents in each area, and are maintaining that uplift in cash terms for 2021/22.

In addition we have legislated through the Coronavirus Act 2020 to delay when landlords can evict tenants, a 6 month stay on possession proceedings in court and a pause on bailiffs enforcing eviction notices.

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 introduced the Duty to Refer, which came into force on 1 October 2018. This requires named public authorities, including jobcentres in England, to refer service users who they think may be homeless or threatened with homelessness to the local housing authority of the claimant’s choice. This earlier intervention is intended to give people the stability they need to move into, and remain in, work.

The Department does not collect this information.

We have provided an unprecedented package of support throughout the pandemic, injecting billions into the welfare system for those most in need, including uplifting the Local Housing Allowance to the 30th percentile of local market rents in each area, and are maintaining that uplift in cash terms for 2021/22.

In addition we have legislated through the Coronavirus Act 2020 to delay when landlords can evict tenants, a 6 month stay on possession proceedings in court and a pause on bailiffs enforcing eviction notices.

The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 introduced the Duty to Refer, which came into force on 1 October 2018. This requires named public authorities, including jobcentres in England, to refer service users who they think may be homeless or threatened with homelessness to the local housing authority of the claimant’s choice. This earlier intervention is intended to give people the stability they need to move into, and remain in, work.

No such assessment has been made. Housing Support for claimants living in the Private Rented Sector has been paid directly to the claimant, rather than the landlord, since 2008 when LHA was introduced.

We strongly encourage landlords and agents to consider all potential and existing tenants in receipt of Housing Support on an individual basis, as everyone deserves a safe and secure home, regardless of whether they are in receipt of benefits.

No such assessment has been made. Housing Support for claimants living in the Private Rented Sector has been paid directly to the claimant, rather than the landlord, since 2008 when LHA was introduced.

We strongly encourage landlords and agents to consider all potential and existing tenants in receipt of Housing Support on an individual basis, as everyone deserves a safe and secure home, regardless of whether they are in receipt of benefits.

There is no target timescale for processing applications for Alternative Payment Arrangements (APAs). APAs are available at any point during Universal Credit claims where there is risk of financial harm to a claimant and/or their family.

APAs can help claimants who need additional support with:

• paying housing costs of Universal Credit as a Managed Payment direct to the landlord;
• more frequent than monthly payments; or;
• split payment of an award between partners.

Universal Credit payment timeliness statistics are published in the Households on Universal Credit section on Stat-Xplore. These figures can be broken down by those with APAs and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/(opens in a new tab).

Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

Regarding (b) approval rate and (c) refusal rate, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 141531.

The Department publishes Personal Independence Payment assessment data online which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics?_sm_byp=iVVWb5570W4jkbMj#content

The PIP clearance times are available to October 2020 and can be focused down to region level. Any further geographical breakdowns are not available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

The Department publishes Employment Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) data online which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-january-2021.

The ESA clearance times are available to June 2020 at a national level only. The clearance times are only currently available to March 2020, but can be focused down to region and local authority level. Any further geographical breakdowns are not available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

The question enquires into ‘disablement pension’, we have understood that to refer to the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) which this Department administers. The Department publishes quarterly statistics on claims and assessments under IIDB scheme in Great Britain here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/industrial-injuries-disablement-benefit-quarterly-statistics

The latest claims information is to March 2020, with the lowest geographical level available of Region. Statistics to June 2020 will be published on 23 February 2021

Further geographical breakdowns and average clearance times are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN 141531.

The Department publishes Personal Independence Payment assessment data online which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics?_sm_byp=iVVWb5570W4jkbMj#content

The PIP clearance times are available to October 2020 and can be focused down to region level. Any further geographical breakdowns are not available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

The Department publishes Employment Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) data online which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/esa-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessments-including-mandatory-reconsiderations-and-appeals-january-2021.

The ESA clearance times are available to June 2020 at a national level only. The clearance times are only currently available to March 2020, but can be focused down to region and local authority level. Any further geographical breakdowns are not available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

The question enquires into ‘disablement pension’, we have understood that to refer to the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) which this Department administers. The Department publishes quarterly statistics on claims and assessments under IIDB scheme in Great Britain here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/industrial-injuries-disablement-benefit-quarterly-statistics

The latest claims information is to March 2020, with the lowest geographical level available of Region. Statistics to June 2020 will be published on 23 February 2021

Further geographical breakdowns and average clearance times are not readily available and to provide them would incur disproportionate cost.

The safety of our claimants and staff is our key priority. As a result, all face to face assessments for sickness and disability benefits have remained suspended since March 2020. Throughout the pandemic, for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)/Universal Credit (UC) we have continued to assess people on paper evidence where we can as normal. We have also introduced telephone assessments and are working to increase the number of these assessments in order that we can make the right decision for as many people as possible, while keeping people safe.

Where it is not possible to carry out a PIP telephone assessment we are making a decision based on all the evidence available to ensure any payment is not delayed. For ESA/UC, claimants will remain on their current award until we are able to gather the evidence needed for a recommendation to be made (or until contributory ESA ends)); any additional amounts the claimant may qualify for after their assessment will be backdated to ensure no long-term loss. Where an individual’s contributory ESA ends they may be able to claim Universal Credit, depending on their personal circumstances if they require further financial support.

The question refers to ‘disablement pension’; we have understood that to refer to the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB). Following a successful trial, we have now begun paper based assessments in IIDB for certain prescribed diseases. To protect our most vulnerable claimants with the most serious health conditions we are continuing to process IIDB claims for people with terminal illnesses, and those for Fast Track prescribed diseases as they can be assessed without the need for a face to face assessment. Once face-to-face assessments resume, awards will be backdated to the date of application to ensure claimants do not lose out on funds they are entitled to.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Health Professionals continue to deliver PIP assessments in accordance with the PIP Assessment Guide published on GOV.UK. The link to which I have included below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-independence-payment-assessment-guide-for-assessment-providers

Employment Support Allowance (ESA) Healthcare Professionals, continue to deliver ESA Work Capability Assessments (WCA) in accordance with the WCA Handbook published on GOV.UK. The link to which I have included below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-capability-assessment-handbook-for-healthcare-professionals

Our Assessment Providers, Independent Assessment Services (IAS), Capita and Centre for Health and Disability Assessments (CHDA) have supported their Health Professionals to carry out health and disability assessments throughout all COVID-19 lockdowns. Following the suspension of face to face assessments to ensure the safety of claimants, companions and staff, Health Professionals have been given additional training and guidance on conducting telephone assessments, which were introduced in PIP and ESA in response to COVID-19.

I have interpreted Disablement Pension to mean Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB). The suspension of face to face assessments for IIDB means the majority of new claims are not being assessed at present. We continue to test new ways to carry out IIDB assessments and have now begun conducting paper based assessments for certain prescribed diseases.

Given the focus on the departmental response to Covid-19 and providing citizens with the support they need, we are working to a longer timescale than previously anticipated. We will continue to develop the Green Paper, supported by virtual engagement with charities and disabled people, and plan to publish the formal consultation later in 2021. The Green Paper aims to better understand the needs of disabled people and will seek views and ideas on what improvements should be made to the health and disability benefits system.

The Green Paper aims to better understand the needs of disabled people and will seek views and ideas on what improvements should be made to the health and disability benefits system.

The Department has ensured a strong emphasis on engaging with stakeholders and we have hosted a series of workshops across the country with local disability organisations, disabled people and people with health conditions. This engagement has continued virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic and will continue until publication and during the consultation period.

The consultation on the Health and Disability Support Green Paper will follow the Government consultation principles which provide clear guidance to Government departments on conducting consultations. These principles are published on gov.uk. We will be mindful of any covid-19 restrictions that are in place at the time of publication.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Member for Ceredigion on 30 November 2020, UIN 120973.

Job placements created through the DWP’s Kickstart Scheme are normal jobs, and so young people finding work through the Kickstart Scheme can get advice from their Work Coach about making the transition into employment. This may include support with the Access to Work process.

Young people who are successful in securing a job offer through Kickstart, and submit their application to Access to Work within 4 weeks of their start date, will have their application automatically prioritised by Access to Work.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Member for Ceredigion on 30 November 2020, UIN 120975.

The legislation we introduced to remedy the Court of Appeal Judgment in the case of Johnson and Others came into force on 16^th November and means that in future, for cases affected by this issue, monthly earnings can be reallocated to another assessment period, which means that only one set of earnings should be taken into account rather than two.

My Department works closely with the Scottish Government to bring about the safe and secure transition to a new devolved social security system. Ministerial oversight is provided by the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare, which is supplemented as necessary by ad hoc Ministerial discussions. At senior official level, each Government has observer status on the other’s monthly Devolution Programme Board. At working level, both Governments have teams dedicated to the transition to the new system, and contact at official level is constant.

These are matters for the Scottish Government, with which my Department works closely.

These are matters for the Scottish Government, with which my Department works closely.

These are matters for the Scottish Government, with which my Department works closely.

These are matters for the Scottish Government, with which my Department works closely.

These are matters for the Scottish Government, with which my Department works closely.

In law there is no entitlement to Employment and Support Allowance during the Mandatory Reconsideration period, therefore benefit is not being withheld.

Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance Work Capability Assessment (WCA) Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) clearance times by reason for raising an MR are published quarterly and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

The relevant table is: ESA Work Capability Assessments – Mandatory Reconsideration Clearances – Table 4, Median Clearance Times by Date of Decision.

Guidance for users is available at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

The MR average clearance times is derived using calendar days by calculating the median of the time taken from the date the Benefit Centre (BC) has decided the MR to be valid, having considered any new information, until the date the decision is cleared by the decision maker at the Dispute Resolution Team (DRT).

The Department for Work and Pensions has not appealed against the High Court judgment in the case of Connor v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and is in the process of implementing the judgment. Claimants who are entitled to ESA payment pending appeal will no longer need to pursue a mandatory reconsideration before lodging an appeal at the First-tier Tribunal.

As with all such challenges against a departmental policy, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is the Respondent.

The Department for Work and Pensions has not appealed against the High Court judgment in the case of Connor v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and is in the process of implementing the judgment. Claimants who are entitled to ESA payment pending appeal will no longer need to pursue a mandatory reconsideration before lodging an appeal at the First-tier Tribunal.

As with all such challenges against a departmental policy, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is the Respondent.

The 2019/20 Access to Work statistics show that 43,000 people with disabilities and health conditions are receiving tailored and flexible support to do their job.

During this period Access to Work has continued to expand its reach to underrepresented groups including those with Mental Health conditions, seeing the highest ever number of people approved for support: up 95% on the previous year.

Full details of Access to Work expenditure is published here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/915547/access-to-work-statistics-april-2007-to-march-2020-tables.ods

When considering our response to PQ 72774, the Department undertook a sampling exercise that indicated an estimated cost in excess of £850 for providing the requested data. For this reason, the Department considered that the information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

As I stated during recent oral questions [Hansard, 14 September 2020, Column 3]. The evaluation took longer due to covid-19. It has shown that there are three themes: the need to change the six-month rule, to improve consistency and to raise awareness of the support. The Department is working at pace across government to bring forward proposals.

Access to Work is a demand-led, discretionary grant to de-risk the recruitment and retention of disabled people for employers. The grant contributes to the disability related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition that are beyond reasonable adjustment, but it does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments. Access to Work is a popular and well regarded programme, and in 2018/19 the official Access to Work statistics illustrated the increase in support provided by Access to Work, as the highest ever number of people received payments, 36,240, up 7% on 17/18. Expenditure increased to £129.1 million, equating to a 14% increase in real terms expenditure on 17/18.

A number of studies have explored various aspects of Access to Work but no definitive impact evaluation has taken place. Being in work brings advantages for disabled people, including independence, income, improved confidence, social interaction and mental health and wellbeing, and if the benefits of the Access to Work programme exceed its costs the whole economy will benefit from a financial boost. The 2018 Access to Work Qualitative Research found that the support provided was especially valued and often came at a point of crisis when people might otherwise have fallen out of work. But currently there is no robust cost benefit analysis available, the 2018 ‘Feasibility of Evaluating the Impact of the Access to Work Programme’ Report (please see link below), found that to pursue this analysis would be expensive and require a very large survey sampling exercise which is not feasible at present.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/756442/Feasibility_of_evaluating_the_impact_of_the_Access_to_Work_programme.pdf

We are monitoring the employment of a number of groups, including disabled people, using the quarterly Labour Force Survey along with other relevant sources throughout the pandemic. There will however be a lag until the data needed to fully assess any effects of easing lockdown restrictions on disabled and vulnerable people’s employment becomes available. We do know from Opinions and Lifestyle Survey * that lower proportions of disabled people report that COVID-19 has affected their job in comparison to non-disabled respondents (27.1% vs 50.2%). This may reflect a lower proportion of disabled people are in work. We will continue to monitor these issues alongside the wider labour market experiences of both disabled and vulnerable people.

When out of work, we know that disabled people tend to find it more difficult to get jobs. That is why we are actively working on policies to prevent ill-health related job losses, and to provide specific employment support for disabled people both in and out of work.

* https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/disability/articles/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsondisabledpeopleingreatbritain/may2020

Periodically, the Department undertakes research which enables activity on workplace adjustments to be examined. For example, a 2014 survey of employees found that 61 per cent of those who reported having a health condition and/or a sickness absence lasting more than two weeks had received workplace adjustments of some kind.

Among employees who had adjustments made, just over half (55 per cent) reported that their employer made adjustments as soon as they were made aware of their health condition. A further third (33 per cent) of employees reported that their employer did not make adjustments until after a period of sickness absence, and 20 per cent only after their GP recommended changes.

Source: Health and wellbeing at work: a survey of employees, 2014. Research Report 901. DWP; 2015. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-and-wellbeing-at-work-survey-of-employees

Statistical information about Access to Work is published annually. The most recent data were published in September 2019 and can be viewed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/access-to-work-statistics-april-2007-to-march-2019

The next set of statistics are due to be published in September 2020, and will cover the twelve months to March 2020.

Under the Code of Practice for Statistics, the figures for 2020/21 cannot be released ahead of the official publication date. For this reason, it is not possible to provide figures for the period you have requested.

Access to Work is a demand-led scheme. The measures that DWP has put in place during the COVID-19 outbreak have allowed the scheme to continue to support both existing and new customers.

Statistical information about Access to Work is published annually. The most recent data were published in September 2019 and can be viewed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/access-to-work-statistics-april-2007-to-march-2019.

The next set of statistics are due to be published in September 2020, and will cover the twelve months to March 2020. Under the Code of Practice for Statistics the figures for 2020/21 cannot be released ahead of the official publication of the Access to Work Statistics. For this reason, it is not possible to provide figures for the period you have requested.

(a) Access to Work does not ask applicants whether they are in full time work. The employment criterion for eligibility is that the applicant has a paid job or is about to start or return to one.

(b) Access to Work does not ask applicants to specify whether they would describe themselves as a disabled person. The eligibility criteria for the scheme include the requirement that the applicant is affected by a health condition or disability that makes it hard for them to do parts of their job or get to and from work. The annual published statistics report the number of people who have received at least one Access to Work payment in a given financial year, including a breakdown by primary medical condition. More detail about the eligibility criteria for Access to Work may be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/access-to-work/eligibility

(c) The data requested regarding how many Access to Work customers ask to work from home are not centrally held.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

In recognition of the challenges COVID-19 may present, Access to Work has introduced a number of measures to support disabled people whether they are working from home, or returning to their workplaces. The new Blended Offer complements support provided by employers and contains a flexible mix of support, including support to work from more than one location, a package of home working support which can be blended with workplace support, mental health support for people returning to work after a period of furlough or shielding, travel-to-work support where the individual’s disability means social distancing on public transport is too risky and the prioritisation of applications from disabled people in the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable Group.

We do not hold the information requested.

We do not hold the information requested.

I refer the Hon. Members to question 62298 answered by my Hon. Friend the Minster for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets on 30th June. https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2020-06-22/62298/

I can further advise, DWP’s new Employer Help site provides advice on employment of disabled people, explaining how Access to Work and Disability Confident can help businesses to ensure their practices are fair and inclusive.

Statistics on Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) clearances for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessments (WCA) covering the period up to April 2020 are published and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml

Guidance for users is available at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

Statistics for May 2020 are due to published in September 2020.

In 2019 there were 144,790 completed Universal Credit (UC) Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR). The information requested on the issue the UC MRs relate to, is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

In May 2020 there were 12,740 completed UC MRs.

This information is for Great Britain and is rounded to the nearest 10.

The Department continues to engage and update stakeholders on support for people with a health condition or disability during the Covid-19 pandemic.

There is no plan to place each internal memorandum in the Library.

In 2019 there were 144,790 completed Universal Credit (UC) Mandatory Reconsiderations (MR). The information requested on the issue the UC MRs relate to, is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

In May 2020 there were 12,740 completed UC MRs.

This information is for Great Britain and is rounded to the nearest 10.

As previously announced, since 24 March the Department has been extending awards of Personal Independence Payment due to end from that date onwards, regardless of whether the final decision on the award was made by a Case Manager or a Tribunal.

When existing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) recipients begin to get paid a new award of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) a single rule is applied, which is the subject of statutory Regulations, regardless of their circumstances or the outcome of the claim. PIP is a different benefit to DLA and the statutory arrangements maintain the level of DLA paid while the claim to PIP is being processed to ensure continuity of payment. The arrangements also provide for a minimum four week run on to provide additional, limited support to those seeing a decrease in financial support. For those entitled to PIP, the rules also operate to allow a smooth transition without running the risk of over or underpaying anyone and represent the fairest outcomes for the majority of claimants going through the process of being reassessed for PIP.

These arrangements have been in place since DLA to PIP reassessment activity commenced from October 2013 and we have no plans to change them.

Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance Work Capability Assessment (WCA) outcomes are published quarterly. The latest figures covering a) the number and outcome of completed initial and repeat WCAs by month of claim up to September 2019 and b) the median end-to-end clearance time which includes ‘claim registration to WCA referral’ by month of clearance up to December 2019 can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employment-and-support-allowance-outcomes-of-work-capability-assessment

Additional breakdowns of the ESA WCA figures can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

Guidance for users is available at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

The statistics for completed assessments to March 2020 and June 2020 will be published in September and December 2020 respectively and there are currently no plans to publish any additional statistics in those releases.

The following special points should be noted:

We have no plans to publish any additional statistics beyond the already agreed ESA WCA publication schedule.

The published statistics include:

a) WCA numbers and outcomes for completed initial and repeat assessments up to end of December 2019;

b) WCA outcomes by claim start date (up to September 2019) or WCA date (up to December 2019). WCA outcome information is only published for referrals that have completed the WCA and have an outcome;

c) Median end-to-end clearance time which includes ‘claim registration to WCA referral’ by month of clearance up to December 2019. The definition is shown below:

‘Claim registration to WCA referral' measures the time taken from claim registration date to the case's referral date to the WCA assessment provider. Only claims that have completed the WCA process and have an outcome are included. The claim registration date is the date the claimant has first contact with the Department when making a claim to ESA. Referral start date is the date the claimant is referred to the healthcare provider for assessment.

The public health guidance is clear. People are encouraged to work from home where they can. If they cannot, they can still go to work, but need to follow the guidance, for example about social distancing and hand washing. Only those in the shielding group or who are isolating because they or someone in their household has symptoms, or are isolating because they have been contacted by the test and trace service, are advised not to go to work.

A range of support has been made available for people who cannot work. For example:

• Employees who are unable to work because they are shielding in line with public health guidance, or who need to stay home with someone who is shielding, can be furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). Those who are clinically vulnerable but not shielding are eligible for furlough on the same grounds as other employees. The decision to access the CJRS is at the employer’s discretion. The CJRS will close to new entrants from 30 June. From this point onwards, employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full three-week period prior to 30 June.
• We have introduced new provisions making Statutory Sick Pay payable from day 1 – as opposed to day 4 – where an eligible individual is sick, self-isolating or shielding.
• People who are not eligible for Statutory Sick Pay may be able to claim Universal Credit or New Style Employment and Support Allowance, and this will include those people who are self-isolating in accordance with government guidelines.
• We have relaxed the seven waiting days for Employment and Support Allowance for new claimants who may have coronavirus, or isolating in accordance with the government guidelines, or caring for a child (or qualifying young person) who falls into either of those categories, or those extremely vulnerable individuals who have been advised to shield because they are at high risk of severe illness, so they will be entitled from day one of their claim.

The personal allowance in Employment and Support Allowance was increased by 1.7% from 6 April, following the Government announcement to end the benefits freeze in November 2019. The rates of additional-needs disability benefits and of carers’ benefits, which were not subject to the benefit freeze, were increased by the same percentage. Carers on low incomes can receive around an additional £1,950 a year through the Carer’s Element in Universal Credit, and those with health conditions and disabilities can receive an additional £4,100 through the Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity Element.

In addition, the Government has announced a suite of measures that can be quickly and effectively operationalised to benefit those facing the most financial disruption during the pandemic. This includes providing an uplift equivalent to £20 a week to the standard allowance in Universal Credit. The Universal Credit IT system is more flexible than the Department’s legacy systems. It also uses different technology from other DWP systems, and these older systems have complex interactions and interdependencies.

Taken together, DWP’s pandemic measures represent an injection of over £6.5 billion into the welfare system and, along with the other job and business support programmes announced by the Chancellor, represent one of the most comprehensive packages of support introduced by an advanced economy in response to COVID19.

The evaluation remains a priority for the Department. However, we are in unprecedented times and the Government’s immediate focus is on supporting people affected by Covid-19 and getting support to them as quickly as possible. We will keep stakeholders updated with developments.

All face-to-face assessments for sickness and disability benefits are currently suspended in line with public health advice. We continue to complete paper-based assessments and make recommendations based on written evidence available, where possible.

Where a case cannot be progressed by a paper-based assessment, a telephone assessment will be conducted, where appropriate to do so. This decision falls to the Health Professional, rather than the individual.

Companions are able to join the telephony assessment, as they would have done for the face-to-face assessment. This is confirmed to the individual in the initial invitation to assessment letter for all phone assessments. If choosing to request a companion, they will be added to the call by the Health Professional at the start of the assessment.

The department is committed to providing a quality, sensitive and respectful service to everyone. Individuals are encouraged to alert their assessment provider of any additional requirements they may have and providers will endeavour to meet any such reasonable requests.

As previously announced, all face-to-face assessments for health and disability benefits were suspended from 17 March 2020 for an initial period of three months. We are currently in the process of reviewing this measure in light of the latest public health advice and will confirm next steps as soon as possible.

When a person aged 18 or over is admitted to hospital, any benefits and allowances they are receiving continue to be paid for 28 days.

At that stage, payment of certain benefits and additions may be suspended on the basis that the NHS is responsible for the person’s disability-related extra costs and to pay certain benefits in addition would be a duplication of public funds intended for the same purpose. Provided the person’s circumstances are unchanged, payment of the benefits and additions in question are reinstated as soon as the person is discharged. There is no need for the person to re-apply for the benefits.

The Department is not aware of any increase in claims to Universal Credit from those entitled to the Severe Disability Premium, nor do we hold information on the number of people who have made a claim to Universal Credit within the last 3 months despite the Severe Disability Premium gateway being in place. This information could not be provided without disproportionate cost.

The Department is not aware of any increase in claims to Universal Credit from those entitled to the Severe Disability Premium, nor do we hold information on the number of people who have made a claim to Universal Credit within the last 3 months despite the Severe Disability Premium gateway being in place. This information could not be provided without disproportionate cost.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The Department understands the importance of paying the right money to each of its customers and will continue to tackle the causes of underpayments, as part of the wider approach to ensure claimants are paid the amount that they are entitled to.

The majority of underpayments arise through claimants failing to correctly report their circumstances to the Department. We work hard to make it as easy as possible for claimants to understand their obligations.

We also make use of data matching which allows us to identify potential discrepancies in claims. This allows us to ensure these claims are updated, and that claimants receive their correct entitlement.

In addition, the Department is focused on reducing Departmental error. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Department’s Quality Assurance Team reviewed a sample of all cases to help better understand the cause of Departmental error and identify the highest risk errors so action could be taken. However, in order to deal with the significant increase in the number of claims being made for Universal Credit and other benefits, many of these staff were redeployed to support benefit paying operations. This work will recommence as soon as resources allow.

Since 24 March the Department has been extending awards of PIP due to end from that date onwards, regardless of whether the final decision on the award was made by a Case Manager or a Tribunal.

There were a small number of claimants who had previously been awarded short-term fixed awards with no review who had made subsequent new claims to PIP, where safeguards in the system originally prevented us from extending their previous award. I can however now confirm that we have amended the system to correct this and all claimants whose awards were due to end or due for review from 24^th March onwards will have had their benefit extended.

Since 24 March the Department has been extending awards of PIP due to end from that date onwards, regardless of whether the final decision on the award was made by a Case Manager or a Tribunal.

There were a small number of claimants who had previously been awarded short-term fixed awards with no review who had made subsequent new claims to PIP, where safeguards in the system originally prevented us from extending their previous award. I can however now confirm that we have amended the system to correct this and all claimants whose awards were due to end or due for review from 24^th March onwards will have had their benefit extended.

DWP remains committed to ensuring disabled people continue to receive support they need to move into and maintain employment while working from home through Access to Work. Access to Work is working with employers to ensure assistive technology can be transported from the workplace to support home working. And where support cannot be removed from the workplace, Access to Work will work with the disabled person to consider new adjustments or support adaptations to standard equipment.

During COVID-19 Access to Work has introduced various measures to further support disabled people. These include:

• Accepting email claim forms from customers who request this as a reasonable adjustment
• Accepting employer and support worker signatures via email;
• Extending Support Worker awards that are coming to an end by 6 months;
• Extending the timeframe customers have to submit payment claim forms to 9 months;
• Adapting the way our assessments are undertaken to support customers who don’t know what support they need and/or where coping strategies are required as part of the Mental Health Support Service;
• Flexing support and supporting the moving of special aids and equipment from the workplace to home, and providing new equipment for employees working from home where necessary;
• Prioritising new applications from key workers and those with jobs starting within the next 4 weeks.

Currently we do not report aggregate information about whether or not a claimant has a disability or a specific health condition and to collate and quality assure this information would incur disproportionate costs. We do not store whether a claimant meets the legal definition of having a disability in a way that is readily available to analysts, however claimants are invited to provide The Department with the details of any health conditions that restrict their ability to work and this information, when verified, will be used to tailor the available support.

The Department takes seriously the need to support claimants with a disability. We are committed to supporting those with disabilities or those with a restricted ability to work, by ensuring that claimants are treated with the utmost sensitivity and care, when making a claim to Universal Credit. Universal Credit provides enhanced, personalised support for all claimants, including those with disabilities. Our work coaches receive training to ensure they can offer effective support to different claimant groups. This enables them to provide tailored support and gain an excellent understanding of whether their claimants have conditions that require extra support.

The information for Employment & Support Allowance, Housing Benefit and Jobseeker’s Allowance is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. However, figures are available by medical condition for Employment and Support Allowance claimants, and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/.

The Department does not hold information on the disability status of Universal Credit claimants. However, figures are available at a household level for Universal Credit claims containing a ‘Limited Capability for Work element’, 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

I refer the Rt.Hon./hon. Member to the answer I gave on 1 May 2020 to Question UIN 41931:

https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2Clords&uin=41931

If customers have difficulties using the phone, they can use the following services:

• Relay UK which is a national service provided by BT that helps people with hearing and speech difficulties communicate with people over the phone. This can be used to contact all of our benefit and pension services.
• Textphone which is available for all benefits and pensions services. The textphone number is given with the other contact details in benefits and pensions guides.
• Video Relay Service (VRS) which is available to customers claiming Universal Credit, in disability benefits and Access to Work. By October we will further extend VRS into all DWP services. VRS enables British Sign Language (BSL) users to contact DWP via a BSL interpreter. The customer uses a video link accessed through their own computer, smartphone or tablet. The interpreter will then speak to a DWP agent relaying the conversation by phone. There is no need for anyone to be in the same location and the customer does not have to book the service in advance. This means that the customer and DWP agent can have a telephone conversation in real time.

If customers cannot use these, they can ask for:

• communication by email –if they tell us this is because of their disability or health condition.
• support from a family member, a friend or someone else such as a welfare rights adviser – as long as they have the customer’s permission to help them.
• a home visit.

This remains a priority for the department, and we will plan the extensive stakeholder engagement once it is safe to do so.

Data on the average processing time (Average Actual Clearance Time) for new Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims for each month from April 2019 to January 2020 (the latest available data) in Great Britain and broken down by region (including London) is included in the Data Tables:

“Data tables: PIP award rates, clearance/outstanding times, and tracking of initial decisions following a PIP assessment through to Mandatory Reconsiderations or Appeals, to January 2020 (XLS)” which are published here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-april-2013-to-january-2020

Data for Lewisham Deptford is presented in the table below.

Table: PIP Average Actual Clearance Times (Median number of weeks) from registration to DWP decision for New Claims (Normal Rules) for Lewisham Deptford, April 2019 to January 2020.

Source: PIP Computer System claimant records.

Notes:

1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number of weeks.

2. The status of claims as 'normal rules' and 'new claim' is shown as at the point of the DWP decision, in accordance with the measure. It is possible for claims to transition between normal/special rules and new claims/reassessments during the course of the claimant journey.

3. The figures in the table are the average clearance time of claims cleared within that calendar month.

4. The median time is the middle value if you were to order all the times within the distribution from lowest value to highest value. The median is presented here instead of the mean because the mean can be unduly affected by outlying cases (e.g. cases where the person has been hard to reach due to being in prison, hospital, failed to attend the assessment on numerous occasions etc.)

5. The 'Registration to DWP decision' clearance time is measured as the average time between the date of registration of the claim and the date of the DWP decision to either award or disallow the claim. It does not include claims that were withdrawn by the claimant or claims that were disallowed by DWP pre-referral to the Assessment Providers (e.g. for failure to meet basic eligibility criteria or failure to return the Part 2 form within the time limit).

6. '-' Fewer than 50 claims in this category.

The information requested for February to April 2020 is not yet readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. It is due for future publication in the PIP Quarterly Official Statistics which will be released on 11 June 2020.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

We are absolutely committed to improving our services, especially to the most vulnerable, which is why we have set up the Serious Case Panel. The panel does not consider individual cases and instead takes themes and systemic issues that come out of various case reviews to make recommendations for improvements.

The Department established the coroner focal point in March 2016, aiming to provide a single point of entry for coroner communications. Before this point there were multiple routes by which coroners might contact the department, including locally. To try to collate information over the past 10 years would require going out to all business areas for historical information which may not be comprehensive and would incur disproportionate cost. The figures available are below in table 1.

N.B. This does not include PFDs for the Health and Safety Executive.

DWP considers the information confidential and it is the Chief Coroner’s decision whether to publish these reports. Published reports are available on the judiciary.uk website, and details of the procedures are set out in Regulations 28 and 29, Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013.

The Department is doing all we can to deal with exceptional levels of demand. Our priority is ensuring people get their benefit payments and that we can continue to support those who need them most. The Department has mobilised robust business continuity plans to ensure we can do just that. We are already redeploying 10,000 staff from other parts of DWP and are also recruiting additional staff to assist with the processing of claims, including support from other government departments and the private sector.

We have also introduced new processes to ease pressure on waiting times for identity verification over the phone and other processes. People making new claims for Universal Credit no longer need to call the Department as part of the process. Once they have completed their online application we will call them if we need to check any of the information they have given us

The Universal Credit system is facing extraordinary pressures exerted by the unprecedented volume of new claims, but it is standing up to this challenge. The agility of the system means that capacity can be built rapidly and this has enabled it to cope in the face of demand which would have overwhelmed the complex legacy benefit regime.

Students who do not ordinarily have entitlement to Universal Credit (UC) and who receive a maintenance loan or grant through the student finance system, will continue to be able to draw upon this financial support until the end of this academic year.

Those who do not receive student finance and who would ordinarily not have entitlement to UC, such as those undertaking a part-time course which would otherwise not be considered as compatible with the requirements for them to look for and be available for work, will have entitlement to UC. We have disapplied UC and both legacy and new style JSA work preparation, work search and availability requirements and related sanctions. This will initially be for a three-month period. After three months, consideration will be given as to whether a further extension is required.

Local Housing Allowance (LHA) determines the maximum financial support available for renters in the private rented sector. In response to COVID-19, this Department has increased LHA rates to the 30^th percentile of local market rents from April for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit claimants, giving additional financial support for private renters.

All LHA rates are now at the 30^th percentile including those in the London Borough of Lewisham, with the exception of 15 LHA rates in Central and Inner London where the national maximum caps continue to apply. The national caps have also been increased and are now based on the Outer London LHA rate plus 20%.

We have been working very closely with our cross-government Family Test Network, including officials from DCMS on the refreshed guidance on applying the Family Test. We intend to make the improved guidance available by March 2020.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 all providers of regulated activities, including National Health Service and independent providers, must register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and follow a set of fundamental standards of safety and quality. The CQC uses its enforcement powers to address failings in poor care and to remove organisations that are not meeting the fundamental standards of care from the provider marketplace. The enforcement action can range from issuing cautions, fines to prosecuting cases where people are harmed as a result of neglect or placed in danger of harm.

In any setting, local authorities have a statutory duty to safeguard adults with care and support needs and should take swift action to investigate where anyone alleges poor care, abuse or neglect. The Health and Care Bill will introduce a new duty for the CQC to assess local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties, including safeguarding. The Department is working closely with the CQC and other key stakeholders to design a system to ensure the best possible outcomes for care users.

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan the care and support needs of their local populations and must ensure a diverse range of quality, sustainable care and support services are provided.

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) commission high quality community health services to meet health needs of people living at home, helping recovery or maximising health and wellbeing for people with disability or long-term conditions, including nursing care. CCGs must also commission specialist health services for people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions. All service must be delivered to address health inequalities and provide access for marginalised and vulnerable groups.

There is a mandatory requirement under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 for all Care Quality Commission regulated providers, including those in private healthcare, to ensure that their employees have the appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal necessary to carry out the duties they are employed to perform.

As set out in ‘‘Right to be heard’: The Government’s response to the consultation on learning disability and autism training for health and care staff’ published in 2019, we have allocated £1.4 million to develop and trial the Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training in learning disability and autism for all health and social care staff. This training is intended to ensure that health and social care staff have the skills and knowledge to provide safe, compassionate and informed care.

There are no plans to provide specific resources. However, more information about the rates of COVID-19 in the last seven days in local authority areas is available at the following link:

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

The COVID-19 vaccination programme is playing a key role in protecting the health and wellbeing of people formerly considered as clinically extremely vulnerable, most of who will be well protected by the vaccine. The vast majority of people who were on the Shielded Patient List will also be eligible for a booster vaccine to help maintain their protection against severe COVID-19. In addition, a range of mental health and wellbeing support is available to everyone, including those previously considered as clinically extremely vulnerable.

We have a dedicated complaints team which received one such complaint which did not involve security staff. However, we regularly meet with security companies to ensure all staff adhere to the highest professional standards. It is a requirement that our contracted security staff have passed the Security Industry Accreditation process. If staff fall below these standards, we demand an immediate investigation by the company, including police involvement where necessary, resulting in the suspension and/or dismissal of individuals where appropriate.

The terms of reference and first meeting summary note have been published at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/ministerial-oversight-group-on-do-not-attempt-cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-dnacpr-decisions

Guidance has been issued to the National Health Service on 10 August recommending actions for medical directors, nursing directors, general practitioners and pathology laboratories to optimise resources for pathology laboratory work. Further guidance was issued on 26 August advising of anticipated short-term shortages on certain product types and how to safely reduce demand of all tubes in order that clinically urgent testing can continue.

We have secured tens of millions of additional blood test tubes, including importing additional supplies from the European Union and the United States of America, which are now in NHS use. There continues to be stock in place to ensure clinically urgent testing continues. The Department is working closely with NHS England, the devolved administrations and the National Health Service to minimise any impact on patient care.

I replied to the hon. Member on 24 August 2021.

We are unable to provide the information requested on the AstraZeneca synthetic monoclonal antibody treatment as it is commercially sensitive.

The Therapeutics Taskforce and the cross-agency United Kingdom-wide group RAPID C-19 are monitoring clinical trials of monoclonal antibodies. We are in contact with a number of manufacturers and encourage others to come forward, to ensure that United Kingdom patients have access to COVID-19 therapeutics as evidence continues to emerge. The final decisions on any procurement for therapeutics will be dependent on there being evidence to support safety and efficacy, and on value for money and the licensing approval.

Public Health England has been monitoring the effectiveness of vaccinations in clinical risk groups with immunosuppression, which includes recipients of solid organ transplants. From the evaluation of the vaccine programme, the data shows that completion of the two dose schedule correlates well with protection from both disease and severe outcomes, including hospitalisation and death.

Virus Watch, supported by the UK Research and Innovation and National Institute for Health Research COVID-19 Rapid Response initiative and NHS Test and Trace, provided information regarding patients’ antibodies and included immunocompromised patients as part of their cohort. This suggests some protection against COVID-19 but is only one measure of protection and excludes cellular immunity.

NHS England and NHS Improvement, NHS Blood and Transplant and transplant centres are carefully managing organ donation and transplant services. Transplants will only take place if it is safe and appropriate to do so, with transplant clinicians assessing individual cases in the current situation. As transplant patients are immunosuppressed, any risks must be minimised. Potential organ donors are tested for COVID-19 and if positive, they are not able to donate. Potential recipients are also tested when they are admitted for a possible transplant.

Senior officials oversee the development and implementation of policy drawing on clinical expertise as required.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) published interim advice on a potential COVID-19 booster vaccination programme on 30 June, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-5-year-action-plan-for-antimicrobial-resistance-2019-to-2024

The JCVI advises a two staged approach, with individuals in stage one offered a booster and flu vaccine as soon as possible from September. Individuals in stage two should be offered a booster vaccine as soon as practicable after stage one, with equal emphasis on deployment of the flu vaccine where eligible. The JCVI suggests that adults aged 16 years old and over who are immunosuppressed are offered a booster vaccine in stage one.

Final decisions on the timing and scope and cohort eligibility of any COVID-19 vaccine booster programme will be confirmed once the JCVI has provided their final advice.

The terms of reference were agreed by attendees and will be published, along with meeting summaries, in due course.

Local authorities and individuals hiring social care support directly can continue to recruit staff domestically and we are supporting recruitment into the sector such as our recent national recruitment campaign highlighting the vital work care workers do. People who hire social care support directly can also access information and support from third parties such as Skills for Care and Think Local Act Personal.

While 7% of the existing workforce identify as European Union citizens, they have been able to apply to remain in the UK under the EU settlement scheme and so we do not expect a sudden loss of this workforce. The flow of EU workers into the sector annually is small comparable to the size of the workforce; fewer than 5% of all workers joining the sector in a direct care role in 2019/20 had arrived from the EU in the previous 12 months. Therefore, we do not anticipate that the end of transition will have an immediate impact on workforce supply. We are confident that employers will be able to recruit domestically to outnumber any decreased flow of workers from the EU and we are working closely with counterparts across Government to encourage people with the right skills and values to work in the sector.

The Health and Care Bill will introduce a new duty for the Care Quality Commission to review and make an assessment of how local authorities are undertaking their adult social care duties to drive quality and outcomes for people across England. The assessment function is in the early stage of development and the Department will work with a wide range of stakeholders across the sector to inform detailed system design and practice.

The Best MSK Health programme was recently launched by NHS England and NHS Improvement and covers the breadth of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions, spanning primary, secondary and community services.

One of the four key rheumatology pathways in the Best MSK Health collaborative specifically addresses care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis. This pathway provides for early diagnosis and treatment for people with rheumatoid arthritis and therefore increases their prospects of achieving remission. The pathway also addresses key features in their follow-up care which will help to maintain remission, such as prompt access to clinical staff through advice lines, patient initiated follow up and access to ongoing physiotherapy, occupational therapy and psychological support.

The Virus Watch study, supported by NHS Test and Trace, shows a modestly reduced antibody response after one COVID-19 vaccine dose among individuals with immunosuppression, including those on immunosuppressive therapy. However, this is not a direct measure of protection and it is still early to determine impact on clinical disease or whether the antibody response remains after a complete course of vaccination.

Shielding was paused on 1 April 2021. Clinically extremely vulnerable people are advised to take the extra precautions provided by the Government to reduce their chance of infection and must continue to follow the current regulations.

We have made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing evidence-based guidance for the NHS on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. NICE is committed to publishing draft guidance on all new medicines at the time of licensing with final guidance published within three months of licensing wherever possible. The National Health Service in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance.

NICE has recommended a number of medicines for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis for some or all of the eligible patient population, including upadacitinib for treating severe rheumatoid arthritis in December 2020 and filgotinib for treating moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis in February 2021. NICE expects to publish further guidance on treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondylarthritis and psoriatic arthritis in the next few months.

We have made no such assessment. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for providing evidence-based guidance for the NHS on whether new medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. NICE is committed to publishing draft guidance on all new medicines at the time of licensing with final guidance published within three months of licensing wherever possible. The National Health Service in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended in a NICE appraisal, usually within three months of final guidance.

NICE has recommended a number of medicines for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis for some or all of the eligible patient population, including upadacitinib for treating severe rheumatoid arthritis in December 2020 and filgotinib for treating moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis in February 2021. NICE expects to publish further guidance on treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, axial spondylarthritis and psoriatic arthritis in the next few months.

The 19 topics listed as follows have been delayed as a result of operational challenges in 2021.

The exact topics that will be addressed by the Women’s Health Strategy have not yet been decided. The information gathered through the call for evidence will inform the priorities, content and actions in the new Women’s Health Strategy for England.

New research from the Office for National Statistics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine published on 16 June 2021, which also considers deaths from COVID-19 by disability status, concludes that a combination of circumstances explain the increased risk to disabled people but more information is needed to ascertain whether the findings are robust as well as which protective and policy measures should be put in place. We will continue to monitor the latest research and draw on the latest available evidence to inform policy-making.

Rapid vaccine deployment is the most important means to protect people in the event of a further wave of COVID-19. We will continue to prioritise vaccines for those who are deemed to be most at risk, following the advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. NHS Digital’s data shows that as of 13 June, 93.6% of the clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) population, which includes many disabled people, have been vaccinated with at least one dose. Of those, 95.7% have received a second dose.

The information is not held in the format requested.

The information is not held in the format requested.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) guidelines and quality standards cover the full patient pathway. NICE has issued a number of guidelines and quality standards that include recommendations that relate to local authority tertiary preventative services where relevant.

Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are responsible for making sure people who live in their areas have access to timely, high quality and appropriate adult social care services, including specialist vision rehabilitation. The forthcoming Health and Care Bill will introduce the Department’s plans to develop an enhanced assurance framework to improve adult social care oversight across England. This includes a new duty for the Care Quality Commission to review and make an assessment of local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties to help drive quality and outcomes for care users.