Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance his Department has issued on visits by DWP staff to claimant households.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our Operational Instructions include a specific section to support colleagues undertaking Home Visits. For context, please find attached an excerpt from our Core Visits Referral Guide. Other topics in this section include content relating to Safeguarding, Communication Strategies and links to Learning and Development products. This content is available to all DWP staff.
Further sections related to Identity Verification and Keeping Customer Interactions Safe includes instructional content that supports DWP staff navigating systems, which store sensitive customer data and therefore is not suitable for public disclosure.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Health and Safety Executive inspection officials are based in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As the table below shows, as of 31 October 2025, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) currently employs 899 full time equivalent (FTE) inspector staff in all grades and roles including trainees, managers and specialists with warrants. There are currently 666 FTE Band 3 and 4 inspectors who undertake the delivery of the operational division workplans. This includes inspections and investigations into reported incidents and concerns and where non-compliance with health and safety legislations is identified, the inspectors take regulatory action in accordance with HSE’s published Enforcement Policy Statement.
Although HSE staff work across England, Scotland and Wales, these figures are based on the office location where the staff are employed.
Job Band | England | Scotland | Wales | Total |
SCS | 9 | 1 | 0 | 10 |
Band 1 | 25 | 3 | 4 | 32 |
Band 2 | 153 | 27 | 11 | 191 |
Band 3 | 402 | 96 | 42 | 540 |
Band 4 | 98 | 19 | 9 | 126 |
Total | 686 | 146 | 66 | 899 |
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many in-person inspections were carried out by the Health and Safety Executive in Scotland in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below shows the number of proactive inspections that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has carried out for the last 6 years in Scotland. Six years has been provided, not 5, as the period requested includes the COVID 19 pandemic where additional COVID specific visits which were carried out as a response to that situation. For that reason, we have included the year 2019/2020 for pre-COVID context.
Total Number of Proactive Inspections Undertaken by HSE since 1st April 2019 at sites in Scotland Government Office Region
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Total with COVID 19 inspections | 1732 | 2085 | 1566 | 1570 | 1341 | 1444 |
Total not including COVID 19 inspections | 1728 | 559 | 1295 | 1569 | 1341 | 1444k |
To note: The figures are based on raw live data and can be subject to change due to updates to historical cases. Therefore these figures may differ to the figures published in HSE’s Annual Reports.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) guidance, (b) training and (c) minimum standards are provided to work coaches supporting clients with learning difficulties.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All Work Coaches new to DWP receive mandatory learning to support vulnerable customers and complex needs as part of their induction and onboarding, this includes helping customer who need additional support.
DWP Work Coaches also receive comprehensive training to support individuals with additional needs. This learning begins with the core Work Coach learning journey, and is reinforced through ongoing, point-of-need learning throughout their role. Key topics include:
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the 5 week wait for Universal Credit on housing arrears owed to (a) local authorities and (b) social housing providers.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made.
The Government is reviewing Universal Credit, to make sure it is doing the job we want it to. Procedures are in place to support customers having difficulty in managing their housing payments. Payment of housing costs and rent arrears can be made direct to landlords. Direct payment requests are considered on a case-by-case basis and can be considered at the start or at any point during the UC claim to support the tenancy for the home the customer currently lives in. The need may be identified in the Service Centre, Jobcentre or requested by the claimant, their appointee, caseworker, or landlord advising of a vulnerability, rent arrears or risk of eviction.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the mean processing time was for Carer's Allowance applications in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Carer’s Allowance application Average Actual Clearance Times are measured weekly. For the Carer’s Allowance figures shown here, Average Actual Clearance Time (AACT) is calculated as the average length of time (working days) from the receipt of a claim to the date the first payment was issued. Please see attached annex for details of weekly Carer’s Allowance application Average Actual Clearance Times from week commencing 2 January 2023 to week commencing 2 June 2025.
Special Notes:
The Average Actual Clearance Time figures are unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Care's Allowance have been processed by her Department in each month since 1 November 2023; and how many and what proportion of those applications took (a) between six and nine months and (b) more than nine months to be processed.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of Carer’s Allowance new claim applications cleared in each month, starting November 2023, is shown below in Table 1 below. This is based upon weekly data, starting week commencing 30th October 2023 (see ‘Notes to Table 1’ for more information).
For all other questions, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Table 1: Number of Carer’s Allowance new claim applications cleared, by month, November 2023 to April 2025.
Month | Number of Carer’s Allowance New Claim Applications Cleared |
Nov-23 | 36,300 |
Dec-23 | 21,800 |
Jan-24 | 33,800 |
Feb-24 | 29,700 |
Mar-24 | 28,700 |
Apr-24 | 25,700 |
May-24 | 37,400 |
Jun-24 | 30,400 |
Jul-24 | 35,600 |
Aug-24 | 25,600 |
Sep-24 | 28,200 |
Oct-24 | 35,500 |
Nov-24 | 29,900 |
Dec-24 | 25,200 |
Jan-25 | 32,400 |
Feb-25 | 26,200 |
Mar-25 | 26,000 |
Apr-25 | 33,700 |
Source: DWP Management Information
Notes to Table 1:
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the median processing time for Carer's Allowance applications was in each of the first five months of 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of Carer’s Allowance new claim applications cleared in each month, starting November 2023, is shown below in Table 1 below. This is based upon weekly data, starting week commencing 30th October 2023 (see ‘Notes to Table 1’ for more information).
For all other questions, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Table 1: Number of Carer’s Allowance new claim applications cleared, by month, November 2023 to April 2025.
Month | Number of Carer’s Allowance New Claim Applications Cleared |
Nov-23 | 36,300 |
Dec-23 | 21,800 |
Jan-24 | 33,800 |
Feb-24 | 29,700 |
Mar-24 | 28,700 |
Apr-24 | 25,700 |
May-24 | 37,400 |
Jun-24 | 30,400 |
Jul-24 | 35,600 |
Aug-24 | 25,600 |
Sep-24 | 28,200 |
Oct-24 | 35,500 |
Nov-24 | 29,900 |
Dec-24 | 25,200 |
Jan-25 | 32,400 |
Feb-25 | 26,200 |
Mar-25 | 26,000 |
Apr-25 | 33,700 |
Source: DWP Management Information
Notes to Table 1:
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of applications for Carer's Allowance received in each month since 1 November 2025 were processed in (a) under 20, (b) 21 to 40, (c) 41 to 50, (d) 51 to 60, (e) 61 to 70, (f) 71 to 80, (g) 81 to 90, (h) 91 to 100, (i) 101 to 110, (j) 111 to 120, and (k) 121 or more days.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of Carer’s Allowance new claim applications cleared in each month, starting November 2023, is shown below in Table 1 below. This is based upon weekly data, starting week commencing 30th October 2023 (see ‘Notes to Table 1’ for more information).
For all other questions, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Table 1: Number of Carer’s Allowance new claim applications cleared, by month, November 2023 to April 2025.
Month | Number of Carer’s Allowance New Claim Applications Cleared |
Nov-23 | 36,300 |
Dec-23 | 21,800 |
Jan-24 | 33,800 |
Feb-24 | 29,700 |
Mar-24 | 28,700 |
Apr-24 | 25,700 |
May-24 | 37,400 |
Jun-24 | 30,400 |
Jul-24 | 35,600 |
Aug-24 | 25,600 |
Sep-24 | 28,200 |
Oct-24 | 35,500 |
Nov-24 | 29,900 |
Dec-24 | 25,200 |
Jan-25 | 32,400 |
Feb-25 | 26,200 |
Mar-25 | 26,000 |
Apr-25 | 33,700 |
Source: DWP Management Information
Notes to Table 1:
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the median processing time for Carer's Allowance applications was in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.