Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many organisations were consulted on the decision to cut funding for specialist software from the Disabled Student's Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department engaged with disability experts who support disabled students to gather their feedback and insights on the decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students’ Allowance funding. These persons contributed in a personal capacity.
The department does not expect that students will be negatively impacted by the changes, because specific technology packages will no longer be funded where free-to-access versions, with the required functionality, are available to meet students’ disability-related support needs.
Asked by: Caroline Voaden (Liberal Democrat - South Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to support adults with dyslexia to access further education.
Answered by Janet Daby
All education and training providers, including further education colleges and other related service providers, have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, including those with dyslexia, so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled students. This duty is set out under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010.
There is a range of support on offer for dyslexic students. Students should discuss their needs with the college or education provider before the course begins. The college must explain what support they will provide to meet the person’s individual learning needs, and this support will be reviewed on a regular basis. Support can include assistive technology, coloured overlays or question papers printed on coloured paper note-takers, specialist tuition or additional time in exams.
Disability Rights UK have information available which describes how reasonable adjustments can be provided for students with disabilities.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which groups were consulted on the withdrawal of funding for non-specialist assistive software through the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby
The department engaged with individual disability experts with relevant experience to gather feedback on the proposals. These experts were consulted in a personal capacity, and the department is therefore not able to provide their personal information.
This policy change relates to non-specialist spelling and grammar software only. The decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) funding was made on the grounds that there are now free to access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs, and it is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through DSA.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support individuals with limb loss to use the healthcare system by innovation in assistive technologies.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Appointments for prosthetics services are offered over a range of media, including via video and telephone. All patients, including individuals with limb loss, can access environmental controls if they meet the criteria as set out within the service specifications Environmental Control Equipment for Patients with Complex Disability (All Ages) and Complex Disability Equipment – Prosthetic Specialised Services For People Of All Ages With Limb Loss, copies of which are attached.
NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory Group has approved a new service specification titled Prosthetic Specialised Services For People Of All Ages With Limb Loss, due for publication in May 2025. This will be implemented by all 35 specialist centres providing prosthetics care. It will improve outcomes for those with limb loss by offering personalised care and enabling patient choice. It also includes metrics which can be used to monitor access times and the quality of care.
NHS England is also reviewing the Clinical Commissioning Policy relating to multi-grip hand and upper limb prosthesis. To inform this review, an audit exploring data relating to the uptake and the latest clinical outcomes is underway, with results expected in Summer 2025. Alongside this, NHS England is commissioning a horizon scan of the latest prosthesis innovations.
The Department will continue to encourage greater innovation in the health sector to help support the three big shifts in healthcare, from hospitals to communities, from analogue to digital, and from treatment to prevention, which are set out as part of the Government’s Health Mission.
The upcoming Life Sciences Sector Plan, as part of the United Kingdom’s industrial strategy, and the 10-Year Health Plan present significant opportunities to enable patients to benefit from the strengthening of the UK’s life sciences sector, ensuring that innovation is embedded across the healthcare system. This will build on the Department’s Medical Technology Strategy, published in February 2023, and the subsequent One Year On Report in April 2024, outlining our priorities for improving the adoption and spread of safe, effective, and innovative medical technologies across the National Health Service.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the accessibility of online HMRC services.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Accessibility is a priority for HMRC, and its digital services are continuously assessed against the obligations of the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Regulations (PSBAR) (2018), which came into force in September 2020. Technical accessibility testing takes place when a new digital service is prepared for release to the public and again as it enters a mature, steady state. Any significant change to a service also requires an accessibility test to be conducted. This testing ensures that citizens who rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers or dictation software, can use these tools to access the services and transact with HMRC.
In addition to this, HMRC strives to involve users of assistive technology in the research, design and development of its digital services which is key to building and running digital services that everyone can use.
There are also feedback mechanisms in place where citizens who run into accessibility issues with a live service can report these issues to our digital support team for investigation and resolution.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the savings to her Department from the withdrawal of funding for non-specialist assistive software through the Disabled Students' Allowance.
Answered by Janet Daby
Funding under the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) is in general not available for goods and services that may be needed by the general student population, whether disabled or not. The department has withdrawn funding for non-specialist software as this falls outside the scope of the DSA. We will monitor the savings from the implementation of this policy.
This policy change relates to non-specialist spelling and grammar software only. The decision to remove non-specialist spelling and grammar software from DSA funding was made on the grounds that there are now free to access versions available with the required functionality to meet students’ disability-related support needs, and it is therefore not an effective use of public money to continue to fund this type of software through the DSA.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
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 merits of helping blind and partially sighted people by extending the Access to Work scheme to formal volunteering placements.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant which supports the recruitment and retention of disabled people in paid employment. We recognise the important role that volunteering, and other programmes can play in securing employment, and DWP provides support for individuals participating in supported internships and applicable apprenticeships and traineeships. There are no plans to extend Access to Work to those on formal volunteering placements.
In March 2025, we published the Pathways to Work Green Paper, to consult on the future of Access to Work. We are considering the role of employers in creating accessible and inclusive workplaces, as well as the future of assistive technology.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they analyse the use of assistive technology to ensure there is a continuity of supply offered to students and workers throughout their lifetimes, and if so, which department is responsible for the analysis.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In 2022 the Disability Unit within the Cabinet Office contracted the Global Disability Innovation Hub to complete a needs and capacity assessment of Assistive and Accessible Technology (ATech).
This research sought to improve our understanding of the country’s capacity to finance, procure and provide ATech; identifying system inefficiencies and maximising the greatest positive impact on the life outcomes for individual ATech users.
The research, “Assistive Technology Changes Lives: an assessment of AT need and capacity in England” was published in 2023.
This research, alongside our engagement with disability stakeholders and Atech experts, has enabled us to understand some of the biggest barriers that disabled people face in accessing Atech to support them into employment and wider society.
Insights from this research have recently fed into the DWP Pathways to Work Spring Green Paper, which announced that the government is going to develop and deliver a digital resource that will help raise awareness of existing Atech and provide guidance on how it can be used to support disabled people. We will also set up an Atech expert working group to identify and, where possible, develop solutions to the barriers disabled people face when trying to use and access Atech.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will hold discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of including information on the Access to Work scheme in correspondence from HMRC to employers.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We want to support more disabled people into work and to stay in work. In doing so, we need to get the balance right between supporting employers to understand and provide reasonable adjustments as part of their legal duties, and interventions that go beyond this to enable employment.
As announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we are consulting on the future of the Access to Work scheme so that it better helps people to start and stay in work through reasonable adjustments and making use of assistive technology. The government will consider next steps on Access to Work following the consultation.
Asked by: Lord Addington (Liberal Democrat - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria they have for provision of paid-for software packages from free or built-in technology systems in the Disabled Students Allowance, and whether these criteria take into account capacity to train students to use new systems.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has conducted an Equality Impact Assessment on this policy change and has identified the risk that this decision may have a negative impact on some disabled students who might prefer paid-for spelling and grammar software is mitigated by the availability of free versions of spelling and grammar software that provide equivalent functionality for the types of support that are in scope of the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA). The DSA will still fund spelling and grammar software in exceptional circumstances where there is specific need and a robust disability-related justification is provided.
The department conducted a detailed review of the spelling and grammar functionality available in Microsoft Office, computer operating systems, free software products and paid-for software products. This review concluded that the spelling and grammar functionality available in products that students can access for free was similar to that available in paid-for products. While some of the paid-for products had additional features such as plagiarism checkers, these are not in scope for DSA funding, given they are of potential benefit to all students.
Assistive technology training and aftercare support for any non-specialist basic spelling and grammar software agreed in a student’s needs assessment report will continue to be funded through DSA.