Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they give to the working hours of Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel when calculating pay for those staff; and what assessment they have made of whether Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel remuneration meets minimum hourly wage levels.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the noble Lady to the reply given by my hon. Friend, the Minister for Veterans and People (Louise Sandher-Jones), in the House of Commons on 3 March 2026 to the hon. Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) in response to Question 115299.
James MacCleary
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has assessed the adequacy of National Minimum Wage compliance for Royal Fleet Auxiliary roles.115299
Answer
Louise Sandher-Jones
Royal Fleet Auxillary salaries are benchmarked against comparable roles across the wider maritime industry to ensure competitiveness and reflect market conditions. Constructive pay discussions with the Maritime Trade Unions are ongoing, focused on supporting retention and delivering a modern, growing organisation capable of meeting current and future defence tasking.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on Royal Navy operational capabilities of the strike action being undertaken by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary remains essential in supporting operations alongside the Royal Navy and our global allies. They continue to meet their operational commitments, and we are dedicated to resolving this dispute through ongoing dialogue with their trade unions.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assess the importance of maintaining the temporary shortage list status of dancers and choreographers (standard occupational classification code 3414); and what assessment they have made of the impact of recent changes to salary thresholds and visa restrictions on professional dance companies and the UK performing arts industry.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the new Temporary Shortage List (TSL), which provides limited exemptions from the skills threshold. The MAC are due to report in the summer and we will consider their recommendations at that time.
An impact assessment of changes to the Skilled Worker immigration route has been published alongside the statement of changes.
There are also provisions within the immigration system for dancers to use the Temporary Work – Creative Worker and Visitor routes.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide longer-term funding certainty for schools supported by the Music and Dance Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 79898.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that talented children from non-privileged backgrounds continue to have access to specialist music and dance schools.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 79898.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what provision they are making to ensure that specialist music and dance schools continue to be financially supported so that they are able to offer places on the basis of talent and potential, not ability to pay.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer of 4 November 2025 to Question 79898.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people currently receiving personal independence payments live in Scotland.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The powers to make provision for extra costs disability benefits were devolved to the Scottish Parliament under the Scotland Act 2016. The Scottish Government has replaced Personal Independence Payment (PIP) with Adult Disability Payment (ADP). There have been no new claims to PIP in Scotland since the end of August 2022. Since Summer 2022, all existing PIP claims in Scotland have been transferring from the Department for Work and Pensions to Social Security Scotland and ADP has been put into payment.
As of July 2025 (the most recent available data), the number of people who live in Scotland receiving personal independence payment is 2,568. This data can be found on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/jsf/login.xhtml).
From July 2025 onwards, any data appearing in Stat-Xplore for PIP activity in Scotland relates to cases where a person moves to Scotland from England or Wales while in receipt of PIP and are in the process of having their benefit transferred.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the devolved administrations about the impact of the discontinuation of care worker visas on care provision.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Adult social care is a devolved matter. Prior to publication of the Immigration White Paper, devolved administrations were invited to submit their proposals for inclusion and had the opportunity to discuss the paper. Post-publication engagement with the devolved administrations has continued at both ministerial and senior official level to discuss the impacts of reforms.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of closing social care visas for carers from overseas on vacancies in the care workforce.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Immigration White Paper, visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights will be permitted for a transition period until 2028. This will be kept under review.
Care workers are essential to those who draw on care and support, helping them to maintain their quality of life, independence and connection to the things that matter to them. In England, as per the Care Act 2014, it is the responsibility of local government to develop a market that delivers a wide range of sustainable high-quality care and support services, that will be available to their communities. English local authorities have responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to meet social care needs and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care.
The care worker route has seen unacceptable levels of abuse and exploitation, between July 2022 and December 2024 the Home Office revoked over 470 sponsor licences, impacting around 40,000 workers in the care sector. The Department of Health and Social Care is providing up to £12.5 million to regional partnerships in 2025/26 to respond to unethical international recruitment practices in the adult social care sector. This includes supporting international recruits impacted by sponsor licence revocations to find alternative employment.
In the technical annex published alongside the Immigration White Paper on 12 May 2025, the Home Office has estimated an annual reduction of approximately 7,000 main visa applicants as a result of ending overseas recruitment for care workers and senior care workers. This is based on their internal management information for entry visas granted covering the period March 2024 to February 2025. This estimate reflects that there was a drop in visa grants of more than 90% compared with the 12 months ending in March 2024. This analysis will be refined and included within the relevant Impact Assessments accompanying the rule changes, as appropriate.
The Department of Health and Social Care continues to monitor adult social care workforce capacity, bringing together national data sets from Skills for Care’s monthly tracking data, the Capacity Tracker tool and intelligence from key sector partners. The Department of Health and Social Care primarily uses filled posts as the most accurate measure of adult social care workforce capacity rather than number of vacancies. As vacancies are the total number of posts advertised by the adult social care sector’s independent and competing providers, they don’t necessarily reflect the number of workers required to meet adult social care needs. Vacancies are ultimately impacted by other factors such as providers’ ambitions to grow and are not necessarily a good indicator of capacity pressures as a result.
Asked by: Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the discontinuation of care worker visas on care provision.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out in the Immigration White Paper, visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights will be permitted for a transition period until 2028. This will be kept under review.
Care workers are essential to those who draw on care and support, helping them to maintain their quality of life, independence and connection to the things that matter to them. In England, as per the Care Act 2014, it is the responsibility of local government to develop a market that delivers a wide range of sustainable high-quality care and support services, that will be available to their communities. English local authorities have responsibility under the Care Act 2014 to meet social care needs and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care.
The care worker route has seen unacceptable levels of abuse and exploitation, between July 2022 and December 2024 the Home Office revoked over 470 sponsor licences, impacting around 40,000 workers in the care sector. The Department of Health and Social Care is providing up to £12.5 million to regional partnerships in 2025/26 to respond to unethical international recruitment practices in the adult social care sector. This includes supporting international recruits impacted by sponsor licence revocations to find alternative employment.
In the technical annex published alongside the Immigration White Paper on 12 May 2025, the Home Office has estimated an annual reduction of approximately 7,000 main visa applicants as a result of ending overseas recruitment for care workers and senior care workers. This is based on their internal management information for entry visas granted covering the period March 2024 to February 2025. This estimate reflects that there was a drop in visa grants of more than 90% compared with the 12 months ending in March 2024. This analysis will be refined and included within the relevant Impact Assessments accompanying the rule changes, as appropriate.
The Department of Health and Social Care continues to monitor adult social care workforce capacity, bringing together national data sets from Skills for Care’s monthly tracking data, the Capacity Tracker tool and intelligence from key sector partners. The Department of Health and Social Care primarily uses filled posts as the most accurate measure of adult social care workforce capacity rather than number of vacancies. As vacancies are the total number of posts advertised by the adult social care sector’s independent and competing providers, they don’t necessarily reflect the number of workers required to meet adult social care needs. Vacancies are ultimately impacted by other factors such as providers’ ambitions to grow and are not necessarily a good indicator of capacity pressures as a result.