Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish their disability action plan; and whether they expect publication to be delayed due to the cancellation of the role of minister for disabled people, health and work.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Disability Action Plan consultation was published on 18 July 2023. The consultation ran for 12 weeks from 18 July to 6 October 2023. Since then, we have been carefully working through the responses and will publish our response to that plan in early 2024.
On 14 December, Government confirmed the appointment of Mims Davies as the new Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work.
The Minister will build upon this Government’s strong track record and champion the issues disabled people face to ensure that their voices continue to be heard in all parts of government. We will build on our existing measures including through our multi-billion-pound support plans announced at Autumn Statement to help millions more disabled people get into and stay in work.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to consult with interested parties prior to the publication this year of the national strategy for disabled people outlined in the Queen's Speech.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The Government will publish a National Strategy for Disabled People in 2020 focusing on removing barriers to ensure disabled people can lead a life of opportunity and fully participate in British society. The strategy will be developed with disabled people, disability organisations and charities, and will support disabled people in all aspects and phases of their lives, including housing, education, transport and jobs.
Asked by: Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of abolition of the Child Poverty Unit on literacy rates of children living in poverty.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Prime Minister has set out clearly that she is committed to building a country that works for everyone – not just the privileged few.
Tackling child poverty and disadvantage is a priority for this government. To do this, we need to focus on the root causes of poverty, not the symptoms.
This is why we repealed the narrow, income-based targets as set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010, and which the Child Poverty Unit was established to support. Instead, we replaced them with statutory measures of parental worklessness and children’s educational attainment – to drive action on the two areas that can make the biggest difference to children’s outcomes.