Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the (a) number and (b) proportion of staff employed by his Department in receipt of universal credit; and if he will make a statement.

The department has no central record from which to determine the number and proportion of its staff currently in receipt of universal credit. There are a number of different factors which determine whether or not an individual is eligible to receive universal credit and, as most of this information is not held centrally, we are unable to estimate the number and proportion of staff eligible to receive or likely to have applied for universal credit.