Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many families would be removed from the benefit cap if child benefit were not included in it; and what would be the cost.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold this data.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to align apprenticeships for 16–18-year-olds with those for people aged 19 and above by removing the requirement to achieve English and maths qualifications.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is committed to high standards of English and maths and funds apprentices aged 16-18 at the start of their training to achieve English and maths qualifications, if they do not already hold suitable equivalent qualifications, in order to complete their apprenticeship.
This is consistent with our expectation that all young people should have a further meaningful opportunity to secure English and maths qualifications post-16, where they do not already hold them. This can be a GCSE or functional skills qualification.
Further flexibility is in place for apprentices with a learning difficulty and/or disability where there is evidence this is likely to be a barrier to them completing their apprenticeship. In these cases, they are able to achieve an entry level 3 functional skills qualification to complete. Since August 2024, this flexibility has been available to apprentices with a learning difficulty and/or disability but without an Education Health and Care Plan.
As with all apprenticeship policies, we continue to monitor the impact of the English and maths requirements, to ensure they are striking the right balance.
Asked by: Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how long the consultation on the proposed scale test for defined contribution schemes will run; and when they expect the consultation process to conclude.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to publish an update to the June 2025 ‘Workplace pensions: a roadmap’. This will include timelines for consultation on the scale measures, which will cover the issues raised amongst others.
Asked by: Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assets will count towards the £25 billion requirement for a Main Scale Default Arrangement under the Pension Schemes Bill; and whether assets held in default funds only, or across all scheme investments, will be included.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government set out its intended approach concerning the Main Scale Default Arrangements (MSDA) in the May 2025 consultation response and final report of the Pensions Investment Review. We have also recently published Pension Schemes Bill: Scale and Consolidation on Gov.UK to give an overview of the government’s direction of travel ahead of detailed consultation on regulations.
As outlined in the final report of the Review, key benefits of scale are realised at the level on which strategic decisions on investment are made. This is generally at an ‘arrangement’ level.
To meet the scale requirement, a provider must demonstrate that it holds assets of at least £25 billion in their MSDA.
These assets may be counted from a number of connected schemes offered by a single provider, but they must all be managed under a common investment strategy.
Further details will be set out in regulations following formal consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the £25 billion Main Scale Default Arrangement requirement will be assessed at the level of the scheme, individual default arrangements, or sections within a scheme.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government set out its intended approach concerning the Main Scale Default Arrangements (MSDA) in the May 2025 consultation response and final report of the Pensions Investment Review. We have also recently published Pension Schemes Bill: Scale and Consolidation on Gov.UK to give an overview of the government’s direction of travel ahead of detailed consultation on regulations.
As outlined in the final report of the Review, key benefits of scale are realised at the level on which strategic decisions on investment are made. This is generally at an ‘arrangement’ level.
To meet the scale requirement, a provider must demonstrate that it holds assets of at least £25 billion in their MSDA.
These assets may be counted from a number of connected schemes offered by a single provider, but they must all be managed under a common investment strategy.
Further details will be set out in regulations following formal consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what issues the consultation on the proposed scale test will consider, including whether it will examine (1) the definition of a Main Scale Default Arrangement, (2) how assets will be counted towards the threshold, and (3) the pathways available for schemes to reach scale.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to publish an update to the June 2025 ‘Workplace pensions: a roadmap’. This will include timelines for consultation on the scale measures, which will cover the issues raised amongst others.
Asked by: Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the formal consultation on the proposed scale test for defined contribution pension schemes.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to publish an update to the June 2025 ‘Workplace pensions: a roadmap’. This will include timelines for consultation on the scale measures, which will cover the issues raised amongst others.
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of including binding targets and milestones for reducing child poverty in the Child Poverty Strategy.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to grouped questions HL15158, HL15156, HL15157, HL15155 HL on 18 March 2026
Our Child Poverty Strategy fulfils our commitment to reducing poverty this Parliament, lifting 550,000 children out of poverty, and sets out our ambition to tackle its structural drivers as part of a long-term, 10-year strategy. This Government has taken decisive action, with the interventions in the Strategy set to lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework Child Poverty Strategy: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework - GOV.UK, published alongside the Strategy, sets out our plans and further details on our approach will follow in a baseline report this Summer. We will continue to have a dedicated team in government that, with Ministerial oversight, will work across government, the public and private sectors and civil society to maintain focus on tackling child poverty and build on the Strategy.
Government already has a statutory duty to publish poverty statistics annually and we also hold ourselves to account on our progress through the monitoring and evaluation arrangements we have put in place, from this year and in future years, so that the progress we make is transparent for all. Deep material poverty estimates based on two-year averages will be published for each of the UK nations in the March 2026 HBAI publication.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to strengthen leak detection, odorisation and public health-related standards for gas used for cooking in domestic and other premises.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Baroness to the answer I gave to question HL13613 on 2 February 2026.
There is already robust regulation in place to detect leaks and odourised gas. Gas Industry standards are set by the relevant industry standard setting bodies, for example, the Institute for Gas Engineers and Managers (IGEM), British Standards Institute (BSI) and Liquid Gas UK.
The Health and Safety Executive has regulatory responsibility for public health-related standards in commercial premises, but not in domestic homes.
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, how many Jobcentres there are as of a) March 2026 and b) March 2025.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Number of Established Jobcentres
31st March 2025 is 633
13th March 2026 is 630