Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he expects the Health and Safety Executive to launch a public consultation as part of the statutory process for the potential renewal of the approval of glyphosate for use in Great Britain.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) expects to launch the statutory public consultation on the assessment of the renewal of the approval of glyphosate in Summer 2026. Further information can be found here Active substance renewal: glyphosate - HSE
The consultation will be hosted on the HSE consultation website, and they will announce the start of the consultation via their e-bulletin service. In line with the regulations, the consultation will last for 60 days.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what has been the financial cost to his Department of litigation related to the WASPI campaign since December 2024.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Based on the information held, since December 2024, the recorded legal costs on litigations with WASPI including disbursements and VAT are £135,999.61.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2025 to Question 92325 on Access to Work Programme, how many Access to Work awards have been (a) decided, (b) reduced at renewal, (c) increased at renewal and (d) removed at renewal.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
A total of 20,852 Access to Work renewal awards have been decided since July 2024.
The Department does not hold information on the number of awards that have been (a) reduced, (b) increased, or (c) removed at the point of renewal. Determining these figures would require a manual review of individual cases, which would result in a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to Written Statement HCWS1044 on 11 November 2025, which findings contained in the 2007 DWP evaluation of the effectiveness of automatic pension forecast letters were not provided to his predecessor.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Secretary of State announced in his oral statement of 11 November 2025 that we will retake the decision made in December 2024 as it relates to the communications on State Pension age.
This was because findings from a 2007 report had not been drawn to the attention of the previous Secretary of State as its potential relevance to the making of her decision was not evident at the time.
The process to retake the decision is underway and it is important that we give this full and proper consideration. We will update Parliament on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential impact of State Pension age changes on 1950s-born women living in Brighton Pavilion constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
All women born since 6 April 1950 have been affected by changes to State Pension age.
Estimates can be made with ONS 2022 Census Data of how many women born in the 1950s were resident in each constituency in that year.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether as part of the Timms review ministers will consult Social Security Scotland and look at how assessments and reassessments are carried out.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We engage closely with officials and disability stakeholders from across the devolved governments, including the Scottish Government, to ensure the Timms Review is informed by diverse approaches to disability support from across the United Kingdom.
The Review’s Terms of Reference, which set out its scope, include an explicit reference to re-assessments to recognise that PIP must be fair and fit for new and existing claimants. You can view the Terms of Reference on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) households, and (b) children, will not receive the full potential increase in benefit support they would be entitled to from the abolition of the two-child benefit cap from April 2026 due to being subject to the overall benefit cap after any increase provided through the abolition of the cap (i) across England, (ii) in Sussex, and (iii) in Brighton Pavilion constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is not available.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) households, and (b) children, will not receive an overall increase in benefit support from the abolition of the two-child benefit cap from April 2026 due to being subject to the overall benefit cap (i) across England, (ii) in Sussex, and (iii) in Brighton Pavilion constituency.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is not available.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Motability Scheme on transport barriers experienced by disabled people.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Motability Scheme supports many disabled people and families, by enabling them to lease a car, wheelchair accessible vehicle, scooter or powered wheelchair in exchange for an eligible disability benefit allowance. The scheme helps people with significant mobility issues participate in society, including by breaking down barriers to work.
The Motability Foundation have published its strategy to support and empower disabled people by improving their access to transport. The plan sets out how they will act directly and work with others to drive change.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of job vacancies in key professions within his Department’s responsibilities, including contractor organisations.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The independent Office for National Statistics publish monthly estimates of online job adverts by occupation Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2020), UK - Office for National Statistics and vacancies across each industrial sector VACS02: Vacancies by industry - Office for National Statistics.