Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department received advice from the Government Legal Service on the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit report into the effectiveness of support for vulnerable people claiming Universal Credit and the cover report to it that went to the UC Programme Board in October 2019 should be withheld from publication on the basis of section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs).

The Department has not received advice from the Government Legal Service related to this request. Engaging section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act requires that a ‘qualified person’ agrees that, on balance, it is in the public interest to withhold the information from publication.