Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2020 to Question 60659 on Renewable energy, what plans her Department has to install solar panels and wind turbines on its buildings in the next five years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
DWP is in the process of drafting and internally socialising its Carbon & Utilities Management Plan, covering 2020 to 2025 to meet the Greening Government Commitments targets and the UK Net Zero Carbon emissions trajectory. DWP’s approach is to reduce emissions utilising the Energy Management Hierarchy. With this in mind, and when the plan is agreed, we will commit to investigate opportunities to reduce site energy and building baseloads and where economics are favourable whilst using our Crown Commercial Services frameworks we will consider but not limit ourselves to the following renewable & low or zero carbon schemes:
1. District Heat Networks (DHNs)
We will commit to explore and work with UK city wide DHN developments to decarbonise the heat demand within our buildings.
2. Water/ground/air source heat pumps
We will commit to carry out Low or Zero Carbon studies where we instruct new builds and major refurbishments.
3. Photovoltaic and thermal installations
We will commit to exploring utilising our car parks and building rooftops for solar PV and solar thermal systems.
4. Wind generators
We will commit to reviewing our sites to assess the practicality of using wind turbine technology.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when a Minister from her Department last visited a food bank on an official visit.
Answered by Will Quince
Ministers engage closely with food bank providers and I meet regularly with the Trussell Trust. The Secretary of State and I held an independent foodbank provider roundtable meeting on 12 February.
Ministers in the Department also visit food banks on a regular basis. The most recent official visit was made by Baroness Stedman Scott on 30 January. The Department has been respecting Governmental guidelines around non-essential travel but is maintaining close contact with its stakeholders until normal visits and roundtables can be resumed. This includes those in the food bank sector.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of (a) civil servants, (b) special advisers and (c) contract staff in her Department who claim universal credit.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave to question 28737 on 17 March 2020.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have had their benefits capped since January 31st 2020; and how many of those caps were still in place on 1 June 2020.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to undertake a universal basic income pilot in Kingston upon Hull; and whether she has made an estimate of the timescale for the implementation of such pilots.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department for Work and Pensions does not have any plans to undertake a pilot of universal basic income (UBI).
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the timetable is for the publication of the white paper on the plumbers’ pension scheme.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Government published a detailed White Paper on Defined Benefit pensions on 23 March 2018. This included a discussion on issues facing multi-employer schemes like the plumbers’ pension scheme. Chapter 4 of this White Paper: ‘Protecting defined benefit pensions’ sets out the government’s position on employer debt and is available on the government website at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protecting-defined-benefit-pension-schemes
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether rights under the UN Convention on Rights of Disabled People will continue to have primacy in UK law after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The UK’s decision to leave the European Union does not change its commitment to ensuring the rights and liberties of disabled people are protected domestically and to fulfilling its international obligations. The UK Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009 and remains committed to the Convention and to the progressive realisation of the rights for disabled people that it sets out.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether a comprehensive consultation process (a) has or (b) will take place with disabled people and their representative groups, as required under Article 4.3 the UN Convention on Rights of Disabled People (UNCRDP), before any change in the status of the UNCRPD in UK law.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The UK Government ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009 and remains committed to the Convention and to the progressive realisation of the rights for disabled people that it sets out. The UK will remain a signatory to the UNCRPD.
The UK is committed to engaging with disabled people and their organisations. We have clear consultation guidelines that set out how Government should consider, in full, the impact of all proposals and ensure access to consultations.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many ESA65B letters her Department has sent to GPs in 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The ESA65B letter is sent to GPs when an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant has been found fit for work following a Work Capability Assessment (WCA), to inform them of the outcome of the WCA and advise them that fit notes are no longer required for ESA purposes.
The ESA65B is computer generated and the action of sending it out is a ‘business as usual’ process. As a result, we do not hold the information required to calculate the number of staff used to issue this type of letter.
Furthermore, due to the volumes of different letters issued by the Department to claimants and third parties, we are unable to provide a figure for how many ESA65B letters were sent to GPs in 2018.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of her Department posting ESA65B letters to GPs in 2018.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The ESA65B letter is sent to GPs when an Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) claimant has been found fit for work following a Work Capability Assessment (WCA), to inform them of the outcome of the WCA and advise them that fit notes are no longer required for ESA purposes.
The ESA65B is computer generated and the action of sending it out is a ‘business as usual’ process. As a result, we do not hold the information required to calculate the number of staff used to issue this type of letter.
Furthermore, due to the volumes of different letters issued by the Department to claimants and third parties, we are unable to provide a figure for how many ESA65B letters were sent to GPs in 2018.