Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason her department collects data on (a) race and (b) ethnicity and c) religion from benefit claimants.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The purpose of collecting race and ethnicity data is because it they are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.
All public bodies have a requirement under the Public Sector Equality Duty to pay due regard to the impacts of policies to those who share protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act.
To do so requires that meaningful data be collected in a harmonised form, as set out by the Cabinet Office. Claimant declarations of their protected characteristics are optional, and not mandatory.
Data collected on protected characteristics is solely used for analytical and statistical purposes in aggregate form and has no part in decisions relating to benefit claims.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants of universal credit received additional consideration due to (a) racial, b) ethnic and (c) religious data in each of last three years.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department does not hold the information requested.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support employment businesses in verifying Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) eligibility in circumstances where agency workers may be registered at multiple agencies and claim SSP from each party.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Currently, agency workers can sign up to work for multiple agencies and, once they have done some work under that contract, are eligible to receive Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) from each individual employer during periods of sickness absence. This will not change. Guidance on gov.uk already provides support to employers in verifying an employee’s eligibility to SSP.
The changes being made to SSP through the Employment Rights Act ensure that people who work through employment agencies and employment businesses have comparable rights and protections to their counterparts who are directly employed. The changes to SSP are limited and do not change the existing eligibility criteria beyond removing the waiting period and Lower Earnings Limit.
The Government intends to conduct a post-implementation review (PIR) of the Employment Rights Act within five years of implementation. The impact of the measures to strengthen Statutory Sick Pay will be monitored on employers and employees alike. This can include considering the impact on workers in the agency sector.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support neurodivergent individuals in the workplace.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have in place a range of measures to support employees with a disability or long-term health condition, including neurodivergent individuals, in the workplace.
Our digital information service for employers, Support with Employee Health and Disability provides tailored guidance to employers to support employees to remain in work, including guidance on health disclosures and having conversations about health, legal obligations, including statutory sick pay, and making reasonable adjustments.
We continue to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme, which encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. This includes resources around employing people with hidden disabilities including autism and other neurodivergent conditions.
DWP also operates Access to Work, which provides grant funding to support Workplace Adjustments that go beyond an employer's duty to provide reasonable adjustments as outlined in the Equality Act 2010. The grant provides personalised support and workplace assessments, travel to work, support workers, and specialist aids and equipment. In March 2025, we published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. We are considering responses to the consultation and will set out our plans in due course.
Furthermore, in the plan to Make Work Pay (October 2024), government committed to raising awareness of all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace. Early this year DWP launched an Expert Academic Panel on Neurodiversity to advise government on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The Panel considered why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. We have received the Panel’s report and are considering its findings alongside the Keep Britain Working Review, which has now entered its Vanguard Phase testing new employer-led approaches to improving support for individuals to stay in work.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to support people living with mental health conditions and on benefits into the workplace.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. Backed by £240 million investment, the Get Britain Working White Paper launched in November 2024 is driving forward approaches to tackling economic inactivity.
Disabled people and people with health conditions, including people with mental health conditions, are a diverse group so access to the right work and health support, in the right place, at the right time, is key. We therefore have a range of specialist initiatives to support individuals to stay in work and get back into work including those that join up employment and health systems. Existing measures include support from Work Coaches and Disability Employment Advisers in Jobcentres and Access to Work grants, as well as joining up health and employment support around the individual through Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies and WorkWell. We are also rolling out Connect to Work, our supported employment programme for anyone who is disabled, and has a health condition or is experiencing more complex barriers to work.
In recognition of employer’s vital role in addressing health-related economic activity we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the Keep Britain Working independent review, which was published on 5 November. In partnership with DBT and DHSC colleagues we are immediately launching Vanguards to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work, putting his key recommendations into action from day one. In the review, Sir Charlie has recommended that mental health in young people should be a priority area as a deep dive for the Vanguards.
The NHS 10 Year Health Plan, published in July, stated the Government’s intention to break down barriers to opportunity by delivering the holistic support that people need to access and thrive in employment by ensuring a better health service for everyone, regardless of condition or service area. It outlines how the neighbourhood health service will join up support from across the work, health and skills systems to help address the multiple complex challenges that often stop people finding and staying in work.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to stop illegal gas installation in (a) England and (b) Romford constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 (GSIUR) forms the basis of the Health and Safety Executive’s approach to ensuring the safety of gas appliances and systems within England (a) and Romford (b). This includes taking enforcement action against those who do not comply with their legal obligations, including unsafe gas work or carrying out gas work whilst unregistered.
GSIUR also allows for the establishment of the Gas Safe Register (GSR). GSR aims to protect the public from unsafe gas work through:
GSR will apply appropriate sanctions on those businesses found carrying out unsafe gas work as per their Sanctions Policy.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many asbestos-related deaths have occurred in England in the last year; and what steps the Health and Safety Executive is taking to help reduce the number of asbestos-related deaths in England.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the devasting impact on those who have asbestos related disease and their families.
In total, there were over 4000 deaths due to asbestos-related diseases in England in 2023, the latest year for which statistics are available, due to past exposures to asbestos. This total includes 1975 mesothelioma deaths, and a similar estimated number due to asbestos-related lung cancer. There were in addition 401 deaths where the death certificate mentioned the non-malignant asbestos-related disease of asbestosis.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is actively tackling Great Britain’s asbestos legacy using a variety of regulatory interventions including licencing of removal contractors and inspection of the management of asbestos in situ, stakeholder engagement, public campaigns (including, ‘Asbestos & You’ for trades people to know what to watch for and what to do when they come across asbestos) as well as research activities.
Collectively, this supports dutyholders and other stakeholders to manage asbestos safely to avoid further exposure to risk and work towards an asbestos-free built environment. HSE is giving further consideration to the recommendations in the 2022 Work and Pensions Select Committee report, “The Health and Safety Executive’s Approach to asbestos management”.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people receive Universal Credit in (a) Romford constituency and (b) the London Borough of Havering.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest available statistics on the number of people who are on Universal Credit, by Westminster parliamentary constituency and by local authority, are published in the ‘People on Universal Credit’ dataset on Stat-Xplore.
Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access general guidance on how to extract the information required. For guidance on the Universal Credit datasets on Stat-Xplore, see the Universal Credit Official Statistics Stat-Xplore User Guide.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help reduce youth unemployment.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As part of our plan to Get Britain Working, we are launching a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 in England to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education are working closely with the eight Mayoral Strategic Authorities in England, which began mobilising the Youth Guarantee Trailblazers in April 2025. The eight areas delivering Trailblazers are: the West of England, Tees Valley, East Midlands, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Liverpool City Region, West Midlands and two areas within the Greater London Authority. The trailblazers will run for 12 months, and we will use the learning to inform the future design and development of the Youth Guarantee as it rolls-out across the rest of England.
This is part of a broader package of reforms, including introduction of a new jobs and careers service to help get more people into work, the development of work, health and skills plans for the economically inactive, and the launch of Skills England to open up new opportunities for young people. We will work in partnership with organisations and businesses at the national and local level to offer exciting and engaging opportunities to young people. This could include work experience, training courses or employability programmes.
In addition, DWP continues to provide young people aged 16-24 with labour market support through an extensive range of interventions at a national and local level. This includes flexible provision driven by local need, nationwide employment programmes and support delivered by work coaches based in our Jobcentres and in local communities working alongside partners.