Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
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 closure of 41 of her Department's facilities on the ability of people to access benefit support.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The changes the Department is making to estates will both improve the working environment for staff, become greener by becoming smaller, helping meet the Government’s carbon reduction target, and provide value for money for the taxpayer.
The announcement made by the Department on 17 March does not impact Jobcentres and customer facing services – or the ability of customers to access benefit support. Rather, it is about consolidating back-office DWP functions into fewer sites.
Where possible, staff will be moved to alternative locations. Each colleague will have a discussion with their line manager to assess the impact of the move on them and if they are able to relocate. The Department’s priority will be to retain, retrain and redeploy colleagues either within DWP, or within other Government Departments in the area and with no reduction in the overall services people receive.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many of her Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Lost and stolen | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 |
Computers (laptops and Surface Pros) | 0.66% | 0.17% | 0.17% | 0.17% | 0.06% | 0.07% |
Mobile Phones | 0.37% | 0.30% | 0.56% | 0.57% | 0.17% | 0.22% |
The information for memory sticks and external hard drives is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
All DWP mobile phones and laptops are password protected and encrypted in accordance with Data Protection guidelines.
The figures provided combine lost and stolen items and do not include cases where items have been recovered. The majority of these losses/thefts occurred in home/office break-ins and whilst travelling. To put this in context, DWP is the largest government department employing over 82,000 staff and is a geographically dispersed organisation.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that all holders of a Turkish Businessperson Visa applying for a National Insurance number are granted it within 16 weeks of submitting their online application and CA5400D form.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The National Insurance Number (NINo) interviewing service was suspended from 17th of March 2020 as a result of COVID-19. Since fully re-opening on 28th April 2021, we have been experiencing high demand for the NINo Service.
Additional staff have been recruited and trained in the NINo process to reduce backlogs.
Whilst we are advising applicants it may take up to 16 weeks to process their application, the majority are being dealt with in around 4-6 weeks, however some may take longer if additional checks are required.
Additionally, we reviewed the National Insurance number process for Turkish Businesspersons and introduced a more streamlined process for this group on 9th June 2021.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce the cost of transferring (a) workplace and (b) personal pensions overseas through a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS).
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In the same way as transfers to UK pension schemes, a transfer to a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (QROPS) is covered by the requirement to take regulated financial advice if transferring more than £30,000 from a Defined Benefit scheme. This cost is a commercial matter for the firms and financial advisors who are subject to Financial Conduct Authority authorisation to conduct this activity, and who choose to provide the service.
A transfer to a QROPS may also be subject to the overseas transfer charge (OTC). This is not a cost of transferring, it was introduced to limit the opportunities for tax avoidance so that the generous tax regimes of the UK and the tax rules of other countries cannot be manipulated to provide more relief than was intended. Whilst the Government keeps all policy under review there are no plans to make any changes to the overseas transfer charge at this time.
Transfers to overseas schemes have been connected to pension scams in recent years and this is why HMRC requirements around QROPS were tightened in 2017. My department has been working alongside the FCA on regulations in relation to pension transfers, which aim to facilitate transfers to legitimate schemes while preventing transfers to scams.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the number of job placements made via the Kickstart scheme (a) to date, (b) in each of the last six months and (c) by region.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As of the 11th October, 86,000 young people have started a Kickstart job. Over 204,900 roles have been made available for young people to apply to through the scheme and over 307,500 jobs have been approved for funding.
The tables below list the number of starts per month over the last 6 months as well as the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain. The figures used are correct as of the 11th October and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.
The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.
Table 1- Jobs started on the Kickstart Scheme by month.
Month | Monthly Starts |
April | 9,480 |
May | 10,300 |
June | 11,940 |
July | 11,610 |
August | 11,280 |
September | 16,640 |
Table 2- Jobs made available and started on the Kickstart Scheme by Location.
Location | Jobs Made Available | Total Jobs Started |
East Midlands | 12,500 | 5,240 |
East of England | 16,400 | 6,060 |
London | 43,500 | 18,560 |
North East | 8,300 | 4,000 |
North West | 25,400 | 10,930 |
Scotland | 15,200 | 7,420 |
South East | 23,500 | 9,330 |
South West | 14,700 | 5,610 |
Wales | 11,100 | 4,190 |
West Midlands | 18,500 | 7,870 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 15,800 | 6,760 |
*These numbers are rounded and so may not match provided totals. Jobs Made Available include 1,000 non-grant funded vacancies and Total Starts include around 900 starts to non-grant funded jobs |
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Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that workplaces promote and facilitate the use of British Sign Language.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Provision for accessing services by users of British Sign Language (BSL) are covered by the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty. Equality legislation means that employers, service providers and public bodies have to provide services in BSL and other formats when it is reasonable to do so. The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies, when carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the needs of a range of protected characteristics, including disability.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if the Government will recognise British Sign Language as an official language.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
On 18 March 2003 the UK government formally recognised that British Sign Language (BSL) is a language in its own right. Provision for accessing services by users of BSL are covered by the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Existing equality legislation already means employers, service providers and public bodies have to provide services in BSL and other formats when it is reasonable to do so. The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies to have due regard to the needs of all those with protected characteristics.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to remedy the winter fuel allowance payment letters that were sent out with incorrect information and ensure that people who are entitled to that payment receive it.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This problem has been rectified.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to encourage businesses to use a gateway for the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We encourage any employer looking to access the scheme, who needs support in the application process or delivering employability support, to apply for funding through one of the Kickstart gateways. Guidance on finding a Kickstart Gateway, including a list of many approved Gateways that continues to be updated, can be found on the Kickstart scheme website.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support the work provided by gateways in the Kickstart scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the honourable member to PQ 145148.