Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much paraquat the Health and Safety Executive recorded as exported from the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) no longer has access to data to give a UK specific figure for the export of paraquat in 2019.
However, the European Chemicals Agency has published EU data for 2019 showing an aggregated export volume for paraquat and carbon tetrachloride, which is available here: Annual reporting on PIC exports and imports - ECHA (europa.eu).
HSE’s data, collected annually since 2020, shows that exports of paraquat from Great Britain (GB) totalled 10,158 tonnes in 2020 and 10,562 tonnes in 2021.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which countries have given consent for the import of paraquat from the UK.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Health and Safety Executive’s data on exports under the Great Britain Prior Informed Consent Regulation, collected annually since 2020, shows that the following countries have given consent to the import of paraquat from Great Britain: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, European Union, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of women who were affected by the decision to increase the state pension age for women from 60 to 65 in the London Borough of Hounslow.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
Datasets can be found here: Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk)
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 financial impact of the decision to change the state pension age on women aged between 60 and 65 in the London Borough of Hounslow.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
Successive governments have given due consideration to the financial impact of the proposals made in the Pensions Acts of 1995, 2007, 2011 and 2014, that introduced changes to the State Pension age. These assessments have been published.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 level of take up of pension credit by women living in the London Borough of Hounslow; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The latest Pensions Credit take-up statistics from 2019 to 2020 can be found at: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). These statistics do not break down to geographical areas lower than Great Britain.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions officials in his Department have had with officials in the Department for Health and Social Care on GPs charging fees to individuals with disabilities who require medical letters in order to access benefits.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
We do not require claimants to seek medical evidence or letters from their GP. If medical evidence is required from a claimant’s GP, the DWP will request it directly.
GPs are able to charge for letters and reports if claimants request them directly, as this is activity they are not contractually required to undertake.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 effect on disabled people's ability to access benefits of the practice of GPs charging fees to individuals with disabilities who request medical letters.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
We do not require claimants to seek medical evidence or letters from their GP. If medical evidence is required from a claimant’s GP, the DWP will request it directly.
GPs are able to charge for letters and reports if claimants request them directly, as this is activity they are not contractually required to undertake.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate her Department has made of the number of people who would be eligible to receive Bereavement Support Payments each year if people who had been cohabiting before one partner died but who were not married or in a civil partnership were entitled to receive such payments.
Answered by Julie Marson
We do not have an estimate of the total number of people who would be eligible to receive BSP each year if people who had been cohabiting before one partner died but who were not married or in a civil partnership were entitled to receive such payments.
We have published estimates of the number of bereaved cohabiting partners who would receive BSP, if eligibility were extended to cohabitees – that is, those surviving cohabiting partners who we estimate would claim BSP if they were to become eligible. This is given below and was published in January 2020 as part of an ad hoc statistical release.
Table 1: Estimated number of bereaved cohabiting partners who would receive BSP, if eligibility were extended to cohabitees
Year | Total |
2022 to 2023 | 15,000 |
2023 to 2024 | 15,000 |
2024 to 2025 | 15,000 |
The numbers in Table 1 are rounded to the nearest 5,000.
Source: Figures taken from DWP ad hoc statistical release and can be found at found at:
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she expects that the draft Bereavement Benefits Remedial Order will be laid before Parliament for a second period before December 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman
This issue remains an absolute priority for this department, and we are working at pace to lay the Order as soon after the return to Parliament as possible.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many unsuccessful applications for Bereavement Support Payments have been made since 2018.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The published Bereavement Support Payments claims received statistics are easily accessible on Stat-Xplore, which provides a breakdown of those claims allowed and disallowed monthly back to Apr 17.
The total number of Disallowed Bereavement Support Payment claims from January 2018 to March 2022 was 22,447. Data in Stat-Xplore is only available until March 2022.