Found: Rishi Sunak provides an updated statement on coronavirus ™, 20 March 2020 32 Department for Work and Pensions

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employees in his Department work on matters related to covid-19.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities

Since August 2022 COVID-19 work has become ‘business as usual’, therefore any work specifically connected to COVID related activities is no longer tracked or recorded by the department.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that her Department and its agencies remove all internal covid-19 related policies, restrictions and mask mandates.

Answered by Guy Opperman

On 21 February 2022, the Government published their COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19. This document sets out how and when the remaining restrictions will be lifted in England. Government guidance was subsequently amended, including the Working Safely guidance.

We continue to follow specific devolved administration guidance for Wales and Scotland.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to mandate individual risk assessments for all employees in her Department before they return to the workplace following the easing of covid-19 restrictions; and how many individual risk assessments for people returning to work have been conducted by her Department as of 21 February 2022.

Answered by Guy Opperman

DWP has maintained its services throughout the pandemic with Jobcentres remaining open for anyone who needed face-to-face support and whom we could not help in any other way. When DWP returned to its standard opening hours within our jobcentres in April 2021, we launched a template to support one-to-one discussions between managers and colleagues about returning to the workplace. This template is a document for managers and colleagues to capture key information from these discussions, providing support for conversations about the barriers and concerns that may arise for colleagues in returning to the workplace.

The template covers a number of important considerations and topics relating to the health and safety of our colleagues, and includes reasonable and workplace adjustments, risk assessments for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic colleagues, mental health support, caring requirements, and wellbeing issues such as referrals to occupational health. The one-to-one template links to a suite of products and supporting mechanisms available to all colleagues across DWP, and has been widely publicised in various communications and channels since its launch. The one-to-one process is focussed on the individual, and was not centrally monitored.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance has been issued to clinically vulnerable and clinically extremely vulnerable people who may be required to attend a mandatory face to face appointment with the Department for Work and Pensions.

Answered by Maggie Throup

People previously considered clinically extremely vulnerable are advised to follow general guidance, while considering additional precautions to reduce their risk of infection. Updated public health advice was issued on 24 December 2021 for those previously considered clinically extremely vulnerable, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19/guidance-on-shielding-and-protecting-extremely-vulnerable-persons-from-covid-19

We have also issued guidance for people whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19, which is available at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-risk/covid-19-guidance-for-people-whose-immune-system-means-they-are-at-higher-risk

We will continue to keep this guidance under review.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that staff working in (a) Jobcentres and (b) other offices of her Department are protected from covid-19 transmission.

Answered by Guy Opperman

DWP takes the safety of colleagues and customers very seriously and all of our offices are COVID secure. We have a suite of Health & Safety risk assessments in place developed following extensive consultation with departmental trade union representatives that cover all of the measures in place to protect staff and customers. These risk assessments are regularly reviewed, for example following changes to government guidance, including that from the respective governments in the devolved nations.