Written questions by McDonald.

What assessment he has made of the impact of The Misuse of Drugs (England, Wales, and Scotland) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulation 2023 on patient care.

The Department remains committed to exploring the extension of medicine responsibilities for non-medical professionals, where it is safe and appropriate to do so. This will support the aim that patients are cared for, and treated by, the most appropriate healthcare professional to meet their needs.Many regulated healthcare professionals have already received extended medicine responsibilities and prescribing rights, and the Department is committed to assessing the impact that these changes have had on patient care. No specific assessment of the impact of the Misuse of Drugs (England, Wales, and Scotland) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulation 2023 has been made so far. The Department is progressing with work to better understand the uptake of current medicine responsibilities, including prescribing responsibilities, for professions such as paramedics.There is a process in place for making changes to prescribing responsibilities to ensure proposals are safe and beneficial for patients. The Department is carefully considering proposals for the extension of such responsibilities to a range of healthcare professionals, and will review outstanding requests as quickly as possible.

With reference to the policy paper entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published in March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of additional people there will be in relative poverty in each Parliamentary constituency.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Whether she had discussions with disabled people's groups on the introduction of the requirement that claimants must score a minimum of four points in at least one daily living activity to be eligible for the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment.

We urgently need reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. This means we need to take decisive action to tackle a situation in which PIP claims are set to double from 2 million to over 4.3 million this decade. We are consulting on how best to support those affected by the changes. We will also consider improvements to the PIP assessment. We will launch a wider review of the PIP indicators, which I shall lead, and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress. We will be bringing forward changes in a Bill so Parliament can fully debate and vote on them.

What estimate she has made of the number of people who will no longer qualify for Carer's Allowance following the proposed changes to entitlements to the Personal Independent Payment in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to the policy paper entitled Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms - Impacts, published in March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number and proportion of additional people there will be in relative poverty in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to her Department's publication entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025. what estimate she has made of the number of current recipients of Universal Credit health element affected by changes in Universal Credit health rates in (a) Middlesbrough & Thornaby East parliamentary constituency, (b) Middlesbrough local authority, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East; and if she will make an estimate of future recipients of Universal Credit health element affected by changes in Universal Credit health rates in those areas.

Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. However, the OBR does not publish impacts of policies at a more localised level. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the proposed changes to Universal Credit health rates for people in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. However, the OBR does not publish impacts of policies at a more localised level. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to her Department's publication entitled Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what estimate she has made of the number of recipients of PIP who will lose that entitlement in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough local authority area, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 March to Question 39845 on Personal Independence Payments: Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, if she will publish that programme of analysis before bringing forward legislation.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 39851 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, whether the collaboration committees will discuss new PIP qualification criteria.

We will establish ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop our reforms and we are currently working through which areas the committees will discuss. We particularly want to work with disabled people on how our additional investment in employment support, rising to £1 billion per year by 2029-30, should be deployed. It will not be possible to have a collaboration committee for every work area in the Green Paper due to the nature of policy development. Where this is the case, we will still ensure that we draw on a wide range of evidence, including the experience of people who have used our services as we develop policy.

What estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the loss of entitlement to Carer's Allowance following proposed changes to entitlement to the Personal Independent Payment for people in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

No assessment has yet been made. Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

If she will make it her policy to provide hon. Members with an economic and fiscal outlook assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility of the measures in the Pathways to Work Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, before bringing forward legislative proposals on the measures.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published their latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 26 March 2025 alongside Spring Statement 2025. This included an assessment of some of the changes in the Pathways to Work Green Paper which the Government is legislating on, with the relevant legislation being introduced in due course. In their March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the OBR stated they “plan to work with the Treasury and DWP to further scrutinise both the direct and indirect effects of these welfare and employment support policies ahead of our next forecast, alongside the effects of any further measures from the Green Paper that have been sufficiently developed”.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2025 to Question 39848 on Universal Credit: Disability, if she will publish the wider review of the PIP assessment before bringing forward legislation.

The review of the PIP assessment will be a major undertaking which will take time and require extensive engagement. To make sure we get this right, we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress. Any changes to the PIP assessment would only be introduced following the reforms set out in the Green Paper. In the meantime, the changes to PIP eligibility will be introduced via a Bill so that Parliament can fully debate and vote on these changes.

What estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the proposed changes to Universal Credit Health rates for people in each Parliamentary constituency.

Information on the impacts of the “Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper” will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. However, the OBR does not publish impacts of policies at a more localised level. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the proposed reduced entitlements to the Personal Independent Payment for people in (a) Middlesbrough and Thornaby East constituency, (b) Middlesbrough Council, (c) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (d) the North East.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

What estimate she has made of the aggregate financial value of the proposed reduced entitlements to the Personal Independent Payment for people in each Parliamentary constituency.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Whether his Department has received interim findings from OFGEM’s investigation into British Gas on the forced installation of prepayment meters.

Ofgem’s investigation into the involuntary installation of prepayment meters (PPMs) by British Gas is ongoing. This is a matter for Ofgem as the independent regulator, and it would not be appropriate for the government to comment on an ongoing investigation.

When he expects OFGEM will publish findings of its investigation into British Gas and the forced installation of prepayment meters.

Ofgem’s investigation into the involuntary installation of prepayment meters (PPMs) by British Gas is ongoing. This is a matter for Ofgem as the independent regulator, and it would not be appropriate for the government to comment on an ongoing investigation.

What data his Department holds on (a) the number of prepayment meters forcibly installed by British Gas between 1 January 2022 and 31 January 2023 and (b) the number of those subject to forced installation that have since received compensation.

In March 2023, British Gas previously confirmed that it installed 25,000 PPMs under warrant in 2022. If any of these installations were completed wrongfully then it is vital that affected customers are appropriately compensated.

Whether his Department has set a deadline for OFGEM to publish findings of its investigation into British Gas and the forced installation of prepayment meters.

Ofgem’s investigation into the involuntary installation of prepayment meters (PPMs) by British Gas is ongoing. This is a matter for Ofgem as the independent regulator, and it would not be appropriate for the government to comment on an ongoing investigation.