Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of a requirement to ensure all venues have (a) toilets accessible to wheelchair users and (b) clear information that there are no accessible toilets for wheelchair users.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Under the Equality Act 2010, businesses that provide goods and services to the public are required not to discriminate against disabled people. The Act also places an anticipatory duty on service providers to make reasonable adjustments to improve access to premises/buildings and services so that disabled customers have the same access to goods and services and are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled customers. This duty is anticipatory, meaning that service providers are expected to foresee the requirements of disabled people and the reasonable adjustments that may have to be made for them. This includes the provision of disabled toilets and wheelchair access.
The Act recognises the need to strike a balance between the needs of disabled people and the interests of service providers. What is ‘reasonable’ will vary from one situation to another, depending on the circumstances of the case. This is because factors like the practicability of making the adjustment, the cost of the adjustment and the resources available to an organisation, will vary from one situation to another. In the event of a claim of disability discrimination, it will ultimately be for the courts to decide on a case-by-case basis, what reasonable adjustments should be made for a particular disabled service-user, taking into account all relevant circumstances of the case.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of spending a proportion of the funding increase for to the Connect to Work programme in Huntingdonshire on people in that area.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Connect to Work funding will cover all of England and Wales. Huntingdonshire is part of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area for Connect to Work. Cambridge and Peterborough Combined Authority are the Lead Authority (Accountable Body) for this area, working in partnership with Cambridge County Council and Peterborough City Council. The Combined Authority’s Delivery Plan is currently in the final stages of approval, with funding expected to be announced shortly. We understand that the Connect to Work service for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is expected to be open for participants in early 2026.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of restoring occupational pensions to people who withdrew them prior to the establishment of the Pension Protection Fund.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
This Government has not made an assessment on the matter.
The Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) existed prior to the Pension Protection Fund, to make payments to members of qualifying DB schemes that started to wind-up between 1 January 1997 and 5 April 2005.
The FAS provides compensation to eligible members of DB pension schemes, such as in cases where the employer has undergone a qualifying insolvency event and the scheme lacks sufficient assets to meet its liabilities. It makes payments to eligible members who are unable to receive the full value of their accrued pension benefits, helping to safeguard retirement income where the scheme itself cannot secure those benefits in full.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Timms review on the Health Transformation Programme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire Personal Independence Payment (PIP) service to improve customer experience and efficiency, build trust in our decisions and support people to enter or remain in work. The Programme is working closely with the Timms review and will support the delivery of any service changes following its outcome, to ensure PIP is fair and fit for the future.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many days were lost to sickness absence by civil servants in their Department (a) in total and (b) on average per employee between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Sickness absence data for the Civil Service, including departmental breakdowns is published annually, and is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence.
The next update will be for the year ending 31st March 2025.