Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether their Department has run any (a) recruitment and (b) internship schemes aimed to increase the number of people from underrepresented groups in the workforce in the last year.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
All Civil Service departments work within the Recruitment Principles, as regulated by the Civil Service Commission, to recruit using a fair and open process and appoint on merit.
As set out in the Civil Service People Plan 2024 - 2027, we are committed to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds, to create a modern Civil Service, now and for the future.
The Home Office have run Internship schemes aimed at increasing representation of underrepresented groups within the Home Office workforce in the last year:
The Home Office also support Government Employment Programs that utilse an exception within the Civil Service Recruitment Principles. This allows departments to appoint individuals temporarily for up to two years, providing fixed-term Civil Service roles for those whose circumstances and previous life chances make it difficult to compete for appointments on merit, and on the basis of fair and open competition, without further work experience and/or training opportunities. The programs the Home Office have employed over the last 12 months are:
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the press release entitled Internship Scheme To Get More Working Class Students Into Civil Service, published on 1 August 2025, whether prison wardens are defined as working class, for the purpose of their children applying to the internship scheme.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As we set out in August, we will be opening our Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme exclusively for undergraduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds for 2026. We will determine eligibility based on parental occupation at age 14 in line with guidance from the Social Mobility Commission and the Office for National Statistics definition.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether income levels affect socio-economic classifications and, therefore, whether train drivers earning £80,000 per year should be classed as working class under State of the Nation 2024: Local to national, mapping opportunities for all, published by the Social Mobility Commission in September 2024; and what assessment the Office for National Statistics has made of the classification of train drivers under the national statistics socio-economic classifications.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
Emma Rourke | Acting National Statistician
Lord Jackson of Peterborough
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
30 September 2025
Dear Lord Jackson,
As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking whether income levels affect socio-economic classifications and, therefore, whether train drivers earning £80,000 per year should be classed as working class under State of the Nation 2024: Local to national, mapping opportunities for all, published by the Social Mobility Commission in September 2024; and what assessment the Office for National Statistics has made of the classification of train drivers under the national statistics socio-economic classifications (HL10733).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not incorporate income in the methodology or derivation of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC).
The ONS classifies Train Drivers to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020 code 8231, which corresponds to " Train and tram drivers”. Under the simplified NS-SEC framework, this occupation is classified as analytic class 5: Lower supervisory and technical occupations.
There are 8 analytic classes in the NS-SEC used by the ONS:
· Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation
· Lower managerial, administrative and professional occupations
· Intermediate occupations
· Small employers and own account workers
· Lower supervisory and technical occupations
· Semi-routine occupations
· Routine occupations
· Never worked, unemployed, and not elsewhere classified
The Social Mobility Commission groups these into 5 categories: ‘higher professional and managerial’, ‘lower professional and managerial’, ‘intermediate’, ‘higher working class’, and ‘lower working class’.
Yours sincerely,
Emma Rourke
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government press release entitled Internship Scheme To Get More Working Class Students Into Civil Service, published on 1 August 2025, whether children of (a) House of Commons Ministers and (b) civil servants will be eligible to apply for the Summer Internship Programme in 2026.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As we set out in August, we will be opening our Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme exclusively for undergraduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds for 2026. We will determine eligibility based on parental occupation at age 14 in line with guidance from the Social Mobility Commission and the Office for National Statistics definition.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government press release entitled Internship Scheme To Get More Working Class Students Into Civil Service, published on 1 August 2025, whether children of Hon. Members will be able to apply for the Summer Internship Programme in 2026.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As we set out in August, we will be opening our Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme exclusively for undergraduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds for 2026. We will determine eligibility based on parental occupation at age 14 in line with guidance from the Social Mobility Commission and the Office for National Statistics definition.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2025, to Question 70499, on Public Bodies: Unpaid Work, whether the parental occupations of a (a) tool-maker and (b) factory owner are deemed to be eligible working class socio-economic background for applicants to the Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As we set out in August, we will be opening our Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme exclusively for undergraduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds for 2026. We will determine eligibility based on parental occupation at age 14 in line with guidance from the Social Mobility Commission and the Office for National Statistics definition.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Internship Scheme To Get More Working Class Students Into Civil Service, published on 1 August 2025, whether children of asylum seekers that (a) are permitted to work and (b) have a parent that is also an asylum seeker would be classified as working class for these purposes.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As we set out in August, we will be opening our Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme exclusively for undergraduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds for 2026. We will determine eligibility based on parental occupation at age 14 in line with guidance from the Social Mobility Commission and the Office for National Statistics definition.
Regardless of whether or not a person is eligible under the social mobility criteria all applicants must meet the Civil Service Nationality rules (CSNR). Under this, asylum seekers are not permitted to work unless they have been waiting for a decision on their claim for 12 months or more and the delay is through no fault of their own. If granted permission to work, they are able to take up employment in jobs included on the Shortage Occupation List (replaced by the Immigration Salary List in April 2024). We do not consider roles offered on the Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme to be included on the ‘Immigration Salary List’.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the (a) Office for National Statistics and (b) Social Mobility Commission classify the socio-economic background of a firefighter.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th September is attached.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Lincoln (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report Drowning in debt, published by Christians Against Poverty in July, and in particular its findings on the impact of debt cases and associated mental ill-health on social mobility.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP remains committed to working with anyone who is struggling with their repayment terms. The Department strives to set affordable, sustainable repayment plans, and encourages anyone unable to afford the proposed rate of repayment to contact DWP’s Debt Management at the earliest opportunity.
DWP has introduced several measures to support our most vulnerable customers including a Vulnerability Hub for DWP Debt Management colleagues to ensure that customers who are in challenging circumstances or have complex needs are supported to help them manage their debts effectively and a specially trained Advanced Customer Support team with access to a range of tools and guidance to support our most vulnerable customers. The Department can also enlist support from a DWP Visiting Officer who can visit the individual to offer tailored support and advice and where appropriate referrals can be made to external support providers. DWP also continues to work in partnership with the Money Adviser Network (MAN) who offer free professional independent and impartial money and debt advice, and customers are routinely offered a referral to this service with their consent. DWP also remains committed to HM Treasury’s Breathing Space policy, which provides those with problem debt the right to legal protections from creditor action for a period of 60 days to enable them to receive debt advice and enter an appropriate debt solution.
In addition, we have introduced our Universal Credit Act which legislates to rebalance Universal Credit by bringing in, for the first time ever, a sustained above inflation increase to the UC standard allowance for all claimants. We have also introduced a new Fair Repayment Rate, helping 1.2 million low-income households to keep more of their Universal Credit and we have extended Free School Meals to all pupils in households in receipt of Universal Credit - lifting 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament.
Asked by: Fred Thomas (Labour - Plymouth Moor View)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on the prescription of Fampridine as a treatment for MS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ministers and departmental officials have regular discussions with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on a range of issues, including in relation to its guidelines.
NICE’s guideline on the diagnosis and management of multiple sclerosis in adults, published in June 2022, recommends that fampridine should not be offered to treat mobility issues in people with multiple sclerosis as it is not found to be a cost-effective treatment.