Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2021 to Question 30321 on Business Premises: Coronavirus, what budget has been made available for enforcement activities in respect of business premises ventilation in each of the last 10 years; what enforcement action has been taken in respect of ventilation of business premises in each of the last 10 years; and when she most recently discussed ventilation of business premises with national bodies representing businesses.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) allocates resources based on planned levels of activity to deliver it’s published strategy and plans. It does not allocate budgets by specific risk areas such as business premises ventilation, but inspectors will take action to respond to poor ventilation if identified during regulatory activity.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the risks associated with poor general ventilation in a workplace increased due to the risk of transmitting coronavirus. HSE has carried out more than 300,000 interventions since the start of the pandemic, to check how businesses are implementing measures to reduce transmission of coronavirus at their sites, including whether employees are working in poorly ventilated spaces. Where contraventions are identified, HSE inspectors will take action to secure compliance by providing verbal advice, written correspondence or serving enforcement notices.
HSE has also updated their website guidance to support businesses in addressing the issue of ventilation in businesses www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/equipment-and-machinery/air-conditioning-and-ventilation/index.htm.
HSE does not collate all enforcement action taken specifically in respect of ventilation. However, HSE’s operational database shows that in the last ten years, there have been 7 enforcement notices specifically citing Regulation 6 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (as amended), which imposes general requirements for ensuring workplaces are adequately ventilated. Please see table below for figures:
Year | Number of enforcement notices citing contraventions of Regulation 6 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (as amended) |
2011 | 2 |
2012 | 1 |
2013 | 0 |
2014 | 1 |
2015 | 0 |
2016 | 0 |
2017 | 0 |
2018 | 0 |
2019 | 3 |
2020 | 0 |
Total | 7 |
This table does not, however, provide a full picture of HSE enforcement in respect of ventilation, for example because enforcement action on coronavirus-related ventilation deficiencies may be taken under the general provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, without reference to the above-mentioned regulation (and in such cases cannot readily be identified on HSE systems). Further, HSE does not collate information to identify how often verbal advice or written correspondence has been provided by inspectors to deal specifically with ventilation deficiencies.
HSE has had numerous recent meetings with national representative groups in which the issue of workplace ventilation was discussed and is involved in scientific activities researching ventilation issues. The Secretary of State has not been involved in these discussions personally.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of benefits decisions in Doncaster have been appealed in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Information on appeal outcomes in relation to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessments by several geographical areas is available on Stat-Xplore.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
Information on the percentage of initial Personal Independence Payment (PIP) decisions that have been appealed, by region and for Great Britain, is shown in the table below.
Table: Initial PIP decisions and appeals lodged by region, initial decisions in 2018-19 | |||||
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Region | Appeals lodged | Initial decisions | % of initial decisions appealed |
|
|
East Midlands | 3,190 | 54,280 | 6% |
|
|
East of England | 3,460 | 61,030 | 6% |
|
|
London | 5,920 | 87,470 | 7% |
|
|
North East | 3,220 | 48,920 | 7% |
|
|
North West | 7,000 | 109,170 | 6% |
|
|
Scotland | 5,880 | 82,980 | 7% |
|
|
South East | 4,840 | 80,430 | 6% |
|
|
South West | 3,760 | 63,150 | 6% |
|
|
Wales | 2,820 | 47,490 | 6% |
|
|
West Midlands | 4,560 | 77,680 | 6% |
|
|
Yorkshire and The Humber | 4,740 | 72,050 | 7% |
|
|
Great Britain | 49,380 | 784,690 | 6% |
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|
For Doncaster Local Authority, 4,790 initial PIP decisions were made in 2018-19, of which 5% have been appealed.
Notes
To provide the information requested across all other DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of benefits decisions have been appealed in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Information on appeal outcomes in relation to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessments by several geographical areas is available on Stat-Xplore.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
Information on the percentage of initial Personal Independence Payment (PIP) decisions that have been appealed, by region and for Great Britain, is shown in the table below.
Table: Initial PIP decisions and appeals lodged by region, initial decisions in 2018-19 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Region | Appeals lodged | Initial decisions | % of initial decisions appealed |
|
|
East Midlands | 3,190 | 54,280 | 6% |
|
|
East of England | 3,460 | 61,030 | 6% |
|
|
London | 5,920 | 87,470 | 7% |
|
|
North East | 3,220 | 48,920 | 7% |
|
|
North West | 7,000 | 109,170 | 6% |
|
|
Scotland | 5,880 | 82,980 | 7% |
|
|
South East | 4,840 | 80,430 | 6% |
|
|
South West | 3,760 | 63,150 | 6% |
|
|
Wales | 2,820 | 47,490 | 6% |
|
|
West Midlands | 4,560 | 77,680 | 6% |
|
|
Yorkshire and The Humber | 4,740 | 72,050 | 7% |
|
|
Great Britain | 49,380 | 784,690 | 6% |
|
|
For Doncaster Local Authority, 4,790 initial PIP decisions were made in 2018-19, of which 5% have been appealed.
Notes
To provide the information requested across all other DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of benefits decisions have been appealed in each Government region in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Information on appeal outcomes in relation to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessments by several geographical areas is available on Stat-Xplore.
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/
Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/index.html
Information on the percentage of initial Personal Independence Payment (PIP) decisions that have been appealed, by region and for Great Britain, is shown in the table below.
Table: Initial PIP decisions and appeals lodged by region, initial decisions in 2018-19 | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
Region | Appeals lodged | Initial decisions | % of initial decisions appealed |
|
|
East Midlands | 3,190 | 54,280 | 6% |
|
|
East of England | 3,460 | 61,030 | 6% |
|
|
London | 5,920 | 87,470 | 7% |
|
|
North East | 3,220 | 48,920 | 7% |
|
|
North West | 7,000 | 109,170 | 6% |
|
|
Scotland | 5,880 | 82,980 | 7% |
|
|
South East | 4,840 | 80,430 | 6% |
|
|
South West | 3,760 | 63,150 | 6% |
|
|
Wales | 2,820 | 47,490 | 6% |
|
|
West Midlands | 4,560 | 77,680 | 6% |
|
|
Yorkshire and The Humber | 4,740 | 72,050 | 7% |
|
|
Great Britain | 49,380 | 784,690 | 6% |
|
|
For Doncaster Local Authority, 4,790 initial PIP decisions were made in 2018-19, of which 5% have been appealed.
Notes
To provide the information requested across all other DWP administered benefits would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in Doncaster North constituency that are eligible to claim pension credit do not claim that benefit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested on the number of people who are eligible to claim Pension Credit but do not claim the benefit is only available at national level.
Official statistics on the take-up of income related benefits at Great Britain level, including pension credit, can be found in the ‘Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up in 2016 to 2017’ publication.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the most recent (a) youth unemployment, (b) unemployment and (c) employment rates are in Doncaster North constituency; and what proportion of the working age population are recipients of employment support allowance in that constituency.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The latest available estimates from the Annual Population Survey (APS) for the year to December 2017 estimate that:
Due to small, disclosive sample size issues the information requested for youth unemployment in the Doncaster North constituency is not available.
Administrative data from November 2017 shows that there were 4,876 Employment Support Allowance (ESA) claimants in Doncaster North. This represents approximately 8.5% of the working age population (those aged 16-64) in Doncaster North.
Note:
*The sub-regional labour market data is estimated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), using the Annual Population Survey. The figures above are the best central estimates of the labour market performance in Doncaster North, taking into account sampling variability. However, the small sample size of survey respondents at constituency level means that the confidences levels are generally too large at this level to be able to say there has been a real change in data over the period with any certainty. For that reason, both the rise in employment and the fall in unemployment are said to be statistically insignificant.
The level of youth unemployment in the Doncaster North constituency was unpublished due to very small disclosive sample sizes.