Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to share data for free with local councils on (a) Universal Credit, (b) unemployment benefits, (c) young people who are out of work and (d) benefit fraud.

DWP share personal data with local authorities. That includes three shares of Universal Credit data, with improvements to two of these due in the next 6 months, and an additional Universal Credit data share currently being explored. Similarly, DWP share information about citizens on unemployment benefits, and young people out of work in multiple different data shares. On benefit fraud, we work closely with local authorities on HB fraud, and are not aware of any specific requests for any data in relation to this topic. But we are always open to considering local authority requests, so long as there is a legal gateway and business justification to do so.