Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that displaced Ukrainians in the United Kingdom have access to long-term residency, education, and employment; how it determines whether return to Ukraine is considered safe; and what measures are in place to ensure that policies affecting displaced Ukrainians are applied fairly and in accordance with human rights obligations, including the best interests of children.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The UK’s support for Ukraine remains steadfast and, together with our partners and allies, the UK stands in solidarity with Ukraine and condemns the Russian government’s unprovoked and premeditated war. Since the launch of the Ukraine schemes, the UK has offered or extended sanctuary to over 310,000 Ukrainians and their families through the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Homes for Ukraine Scheme, and the Ukraine Extension Scheme.
The Government has already taken significant steps to extend support for those in the UK under the Ukraine visa schemes. Since February 2025, individuals have been able to apply to the Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) scheme for a further 18 months’ permission, with continued access to work, benefits, healthcare and education. On 1 September 2025, the Government announced a further 24‑month extension to the scheme, providing additional certainty and stability for Ukrainian guests and reflecting our ongoing commitment to support those displaced by the conflict.
The Government has been clear from the outset that the Ukraine scheme routes are temporary and do not provide a direct path to settlement, in line with the Ukrainian government’s strong desire for its citizens to return home when it is safe to do so.
The Government recognises the importance of providing longer‑term clarity for Ukrainians beyond the lifetime of UPE, and a further statement setting out the long‑term position will be issued in due course. As part of this process, the safety situation in Ukraine will also be considered.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans his Department has to help support the national rollout of community-led employment programmes such as JobsPlus following the conclusion of the current pilot phase.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the value of expanding the number of JobsPlus sites across the UK, following the ten current pilot sites across England.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the JobsPlus programme which is being delivered through ten pilot sites across England.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of place-based employment support programmes such as JobsPlus in addressing levels of economic inactivity and unemployment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Jobs Plus is a community-based model with strong potential to tackle inactivity and unemployment. The department is testing the model in ten social housing communities across England to generate evidence on place-based support. The pilots will be evaluated to assess their effectiveness in helping people enter and remain in work.
We will carefully consider what we have learnt from these pilots as we develop our future employment support offer.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to streamline the recruitment process for the armed forces.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Government is focused upon improving Armed Forces recruitment, modernising and refining our policies and processes to attract the best possible talent.
We have delivered this through policies which have included a 35% pay increase for new recruits; one of the largest pay increases in the last 20 years for existing personnel; scrapping over 100 outdated medical policies; the creation of novel entry pathways such as the military Direct-Entry Cyber and ZigZag Careers pathways as well as the recently announced Armed Forces Foundation Scheme (‘Gap Year’); and delivering the ambition to make a conditional offer of employment to candidates within 10 days, and a provisional training start date within 30 days.
These activities and their impacts will inform the development of the Armed Forces Recruiting Service (AFRS) which is being implemented to further improve the speed with which highly motivated and capable people can join our Armed Forces.
The AFRS contract with Serco commenced on 1 April 2025 and will fully unify recruitment by October 2027, replacing the separate schemes that are currently run by the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Airforce.
AFRS will create a streamlined, single-entry point to attract diverse talent and modernise recruitment - making it faster, simpler, and more accessible. It will deliver a single digital system to support candidates and recruiters. It will utilise military personnel and civilian staff to support candidates through the recruitment process. This contract is vital for building a capable, motivated future force ready to meet evolving global challenges.
Asked by: Susan Murray (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what outcome measures will be used to assess the first phase of the Job Guarantee rollout, and when the Department plans to publish the results.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
As a part of our recent publication on the Jobs Guarantee, the department has published a draft Grant Funding Agreement (GFA) which outlines expected outcome measures that will be used to assess grants administered under phase one of the scheme.
Schedule 4, Part B of this draft GFA outlines the expected outputs and outcomes that may be assessed in Phase One of the scheme. Final outputs and outcomes will form part of final grant funding agreements made with successful grant applicants.
We will monitor performance throughout the first phase to inform the delivery of the national roll out later in 2026.
Asked by: Susan Murray (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dunbartonshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will set out how his Department will ensure that jobs under the Jobs Guarantee scheme are additional, including whether they represent newly created roles or existing vacancies.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Eligible young people participating in the scheme are likely to have multiple barriers and complex needs which may have prevented them from securing employment. The scheme will break the cycle of unemployment by guaranteeing meaningful paid employment opportunities that might otherwise be out of reach.
It is a requirement of the Jobs Guarantee scheme that jobs created or sourced under the scheme do not cause existing employees or contractors to be displaced, dismissed, or to have their hours reduced.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Expansion of support scheme to help thousands of people back into work, published on 20 January 2026, what proportion of the £259 million funding to support people with health conditions back into work will be allocated to the South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
WorkWell will be rolled out across all of England backed by up to £259 million over the next three years.
WorkWell gives funding to local Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to lead, design and deliver integrated work and health support that meets the needs of working age disabled people and those with health conditions in their communities.
Management information from the pilot can be found at: WorkWell Pilot Management Information from 1 October 2024 to 30 November 2025 - GOV.UK
An independent consortium of evaluators will carry out a national evaluation to measure the effectiveness of the WorkWell pilot, using surveys, interviews and econometric measures of success. The final evaluation report is estimated to be available in Autumn 2028.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of graduate schemes in supporting graduate-level employment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Graduate schemes are designed and operated by individual employers and are not overseen or monitored by DWP. As such, DWP does not hold a central assessment of the adequacy of these employer‑run schemes.
Although we do not capture data on the adequacy of graduate schemes, the latest published DfE data shoes the unemployment rate for graduates is lower than non-graduates. A link to this data can be found here.
DWP’s role is to support all jobseekers, including graduates, into work through Jobcentre Plus and wider programmes; departments and employers are responsible for the design and evaluation of their own graduate schemes.