Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the green paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, if she will publish the membership of the panel to ensure that the views of (a) disabled people and (b) people with health conditions are used in the (i) design and (ii) delivery of reforms.

As part of wider efforts to put disabled voices at the heart of policy, the Get Britain Working White Paper announced a commitment to establishing a panel to consult disabled people. We are in the process of establishing this panel, which will also consider the reforms set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper.

We also committed to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ in the Pathways to Work Green Paper to further develop our welfare reforms. These will involve bringing together groups of disabled people and other experts for specific work areas to collaborate and provide discussion, challenge, and recommendations.

Both initiatives will include people who have lived experience of disability and representation of a range of disabilities. Further information about both initiatives will be announced soon.