Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the letter from the Government Equalities Office to the hon Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston in December 2019, ref COGEO-001047, when the timetable for ending conversion therapy will be released.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government takes this issue very seriously and fundamentally disagrees with attempts to forcibly change someone’s sexuality.
My officials are working at pace on the matter, and we will outline plans to end its practice in due course.
We have commissioned research that looks at the scope of practices and experiences of those subjected to conversion therapy. Once the findings have been reviewed, we will continue engaging other key stakeholders, and ensure we quickly progress an effective approach.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) inspections have been carried out and (b) enforcement notices have been issued by the Health and Safety Executive in each of the last four months.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The number of proactive inspections carried out and enforcement notices issued by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in each of the last four months are below:
Calendar Month 2020 | Proactive Inspections | Enforcement Notices Served |
January | 897 | 375 |
February | 1040 | 562 |
March | 587 | 483 |
April | 78 | 68 |
Up to 18th May | 50 | 57 |
1) The above data was extracted from HSE’s operational database on 18th May 2020 and is subject to change e.g. the administrative process of recording the information in the database can take up to 10 days.
2) In March, HSE temporarily suspended proactive visits to sites to allow social distancing measures to be put in place to protect visiting staff. It has since developed plans for resuming proactive site inspections.
3) The above data excludes investigations of workplace concerns including those relating to COVID-19, where checks have been made to ensure that measures have been put in place to comply with the law.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many spot checks have been conducted by the Health and Safety Executive in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Information on the number of proactive inspections carried out from 2011/12 is published in the Health and Safety Executive’s Annual Reports and Accounts which can be found here. HSE aims to publish figures for 2019/20 during the summer. Figures on the numbers of inspections were not required as part of the Health and Safety Executive’s targets or performance measures prior to 2011/12 and were therefore not collated.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of suspending the requirement to complete the online work journal in order to continue receiving universal credit payments for people who do not have computer or internet access from home during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
DWP took the decision to temporarily suspend both the requirement to attend a face to face appointments and to conduct checks on conditionality compliance with work search for 3 months from 19th March 2020. This means no sanctions will be applied for these reasons for the 3 month period, though DWP still encourages people who can work to seek work.
For people that are unable to access or use digital services, assistance to make and maintain their Universal Credit claim is available via the Freephone Universal Credit helpline.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when the Government plans to publish its response to the consultation on Reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, published in July 2018.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Any changes to the Gender Recognition Act must be carefully planned. We will take into account the need to protect single sex spaces for women and girls, and also that adults who decide they are transgender are free to live their lives as they wish. We will publish our response to the consultation once our next steps have been agreed.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to uprate the state pension paid to people living in the EU each year in the next three years.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The three year State Pension up-rating guarantee was part of the Government’s no deal preparations. The Withdrawal Agreement has now been ratified.
Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, UK state pensioners living in the EEA or Switzerland by 31 December 2020 will have their state pensions increased annually as long as they continue living there.
Currently, the basic state pension and amounts of new state pension up to the full rate are increased in line with the “triple lock” mechanism, which ensures they will rise each year by the highest of either 2.5 per cent, the rate of price inflation or average earnings growth.
People will get their state pensions up-rated in the EU even if they claim their pension on or after 1 January 2021, as long as they meet the UK state pension qualifying conditions and are covered by the Withdrawal Agreement.
The position of those who do not fall within the scope of the Withdrawal Agreement will be covered by the future relationship with the EU, which is yet to be negotiated.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 carers who care for more than one person.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
From data published in March 2019, covering the period 17/18, there were around 360,000 informal carers that care for more than one individual.
The information is published and available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-resources-survey-financial-year-201718
(Table 5_1 and table 5_7)
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has for Access to Work to fund communication support for disabled people who are required to undertake work-related activity as a condition for receiving employment and support allowance.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
I have no plans to expand the eligibility criteria for Access to Work.
Access to Work is a grant that provides practical and financial support for individuals whose health or disability affects the way that they do their job. The type of support is tailored to an individual’s needs and can include travel to work, support workers, communication support and specialist aids and equipment for the individual, as well as advice for employers and awareness raising sessions for their staff.
Access to Work does not replace the duty an employer has under the Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments. Instead it provides support that is over and above that which is a reasonable adjustment.
To be eligible for this grant, the person must be in work or about to enter work. This can include disabled people who are undertaking employment and support allowance permitted work, support permitted work and permitted work Personal Capability assessment as a work-related activity.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what standards are in place to ensure that disabled people are effectively supported when making a claim to the Access to Work scheme.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Access to Work (ATW) applicants can apply for the scheme in a number of ways including telephony, on-line and by text-phone. The on-line service is continually being improved to ensure it meets accessibility and user needs. There is also information about how to make an application and a range of supporting material on Gov.uk. This includes use of British Sign Language (BSL) video relay service and alternative formats such as braille, large print and audio CDs.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of people in Birmingham, Edgbaston constituency have (a) opted out after being auto-enrolled into a workplace pension and (b) saved more than the auto-enrolment minimum contribution.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Automatic enrolment has achieved a quiet revolution through getting employees into the habit of pension saving, and reversing the decline in workplace pension participation in the decade prior to these reforms. Workplace pension participation rates are being transformed with 87% of eligible employees saving into one in 2018, up from 55% in 2012.
The DWP does not hold data for individual constituencies in relation to opt outs or the number of individuals who have saved above the automatic enrolment minimum contribution level. However, we do know that overall around 9% of automatically enrolled workers have chosen to opt out which is significantly below original estimates; and our latest evaluation report shows that, in April 2017, approximately 5.9 million eligible employees were already meeting the April 2019 minimum contribution rates.
In the Birmingham, Edgbaston constituency, since 2012, approximately 10,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled and 1,630 employers have met their duties.
Automatic Enrolment Evaluation Report 2018, available via the following weblink: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/764964/Automatic_Enrolment_Evaluation_Report_2018.pdf.
The Pensions Regulator’s data on Automatic enrolment declaration of compliance by constituency, available via the following weblink: https://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/en/document-library/research-and-analysis/data-requests