Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of local authorities that no longer provide local welfare assistance schemes.

The reforms to the Social Fund in 2013 allowed local authorities in England, and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, to deliver their own local provision for people who are in need of urgent help. We passed funding over to local authorities and devolved administrations (from April 2013) on a non-ring-fenced basis, with no statutory duties or monitoring requirements attached. Local authorities are best placed to decide how to target flexible help to support local welfare needs. The Government has no plans to alter policy on LWP or to review this provision at this time.