Written questions by Roome.

What plans the Department have to provide additional funding to support the delivery of the dental hygienist apprenticeship where the cost of clinical training exceeds the apprenticeship funding band.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the freeze on Local Housing Allowance on levels of poverty among older private renters.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions reviewed LHA rates and confirmed in his written ministerial statement on 26 November 2025 that rates would be maintained at their current levels for 2026/27.Renters facing a shortfall in meeting their housing costs can apply for discretionary support through the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF) Housing Payments from local authorities in England.

How many complaints the Department has received in the last 12 months regarding the Access to Work scheme.

From April 2025 to March 2026, a total of 1,769 complaints has been received. April 2025 - 155 receivedMay 2025 - 154 receivedJune 2025 - 149 receivedJuly 2025 - 166 receivedAugust 2025 - 98 receivedSeptember 2025 - 125 receivedOctober 2025 - 149 receivedNovember 2025 - 142 receivedDecember 2025 - 119 receivedJanuary 2026 - 171 receivedFebruary 2026 - 154 receivedMarch 2026 - 187 received Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics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.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of reductions in Access to Work awards following a change of circumstances on the risk of disabled people falling out of employment; and whether his Department monitors employment outcomes in such cases.

The support that a customer will receive from Access to Work is dependent upon their needs and circumstances at the time they make an application or award renewal. Case managers will use the current guidance to ensure Access to Work principles are considered when making a decision on support.

What steps his Department is taking to improve the enforcement of child maintenance obligations in cases where non-resident parents repeatedly change employment or sources of income in order to evade their child maintenance liabilities.

Where a paying parent changes jobs, The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) uses real-time information from HMRC where available, to quickly identify new employment and adjust maintenance calculations accordingly.People who are self-employed are required to keep accurate records of their business income and expenses for tax purposes. HMRC can charge penalties for inaccurate reporting where it results in tax being unpaid.Where the information available from HMRC does not give rise to a liability which accurately reflects what a customer believes a paying parent should be paying, the parent can seek a Variation. Variations allow the CMS to look at some circumstances which are not covered by the basic maintenance calculation. A variation can be requested on grounds of diversion of income. This is when the paying parent may be able to control the amount of income they receive. This includes diverting income to another person or for another purpose (including excessive pension contributions).Cases involving complex income can be investigated by the Financial Investigation Unit (FIU). This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions to check the accuracy of information the Child Maintenance Service is given.If paying parents fail to meet their financial obligation to their children, the CMS has a range of strong enforcement powers including deduction from earnings orders and bank accounts, removing a parent’s passport or driving license and commitment to prison. These require time to be deployed effectively; this is obviously frustrating for parents, but is necessary to ensure that, as far as possible, the right person pays the right amount without imposing an excessive burden on employers, the banks, or the court system.The government is working to introduce administrative liability orders which will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order. Introducing a simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and will get money to children more quickly.Once the system is in place, wee expect the new liability order process in the majority of cases to take around 6 weeks. Changes will mean the CMS can use its strong enforcement powers more quickly to go after those who wilfully avoid their financial obligations to their children.

Whether her Department plans to (a) adopt a list of hazardous medicinal products and (b) require safety data sheets for finished medicines.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2025 to Question UIN 84436.

If he will require NHS employers to provide ongoing (a) education, (b) training and (c) health surveillance for staff who (i) handle and (ii) may be exposed to hazardous medicinal products.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 30 October 2025 to Question UIN 84444.

If his Department will review the adequacy of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations to ensure that hazardous medicinal products with reprotoxic effects are controlled to the same standard as (a) carcinogens and (b) mutagens.

I refer the Honourable Member to the previous answer 84440.

What steps his Department is taking to promote the use of (a) biological safety cabinets, (b) closed‑system drug‑transfer devices and (c) other engineering controls during (i) preparation and (ii) administration of hazardous medicinal products; and whether he plans to provide funding for NHS trusts to implement these controls.

I refer the Honourable Member to the previous answer 84144.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of claiming both Universal Credit and Housing Benefit on working young people in supported accommodation; and what steps she is taking to ensure that young people in supported accommodation are financially incentivised to work.

It remains the department’s priority to ensure that those who can work are supported to enter the labour market and to sustain employment. The Department acknowledges there is a challenge presented by the interaction between Universal Credit and Housing Benefit for those living in Supported Housing and Temporary Accommodation and receiving their housing support through Housing Benefit. The department will consider the issue carefully in partnership with stakeholders.Like Universal Credit, Housing Benefit has an income taper. As Housing Benefit may be claimed by those both in work and out of work, there are no rules around the number of hours that someone may work; instead, there are income tapers which apply. The income taper in Housing Benefit ensures people in work are better off than someone wholly reliant on benefits. In addition to any financial advantage, there are important non-financial benefits of working. These benefits include learning new skills, improved confidence and independence as well as a positive effect on an individual's mental and physical health. However, the treatment of earnings in Housing Benefit is less generous than that of Universal Credit. Therefore, although customers living in Supported Housing are better off working than doing no work at all, they can be financially better off limiting the hours they work to ensure they retain a small amount of Universal Credit entitlement.Changing the current rules would require a fiscal event and funding at a Budget. As funding is required to allow a change, any future decisions will take account of the current fiscal context.

Whether her Department plans to issue guidance to pension funds on reducing the proportion of their funds invested in the fossil fuel industry.

Pension funds have a duty to manage investments in the best long-term interests of their members, which includes decisions concerning investments in fossil fuels. Occupational pension schemes are required to make climate-related disclosures aligned with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations. Schemes should also set out their stewardship approaches to voting and engagement in the Statement of Investment Principles and Implementation Statement. Schemes voluntarily signed up to the Financial Conduct Authority’s Stewardship Code can also publish an additional Stewardship Report. TCFD reports and information about stewardship increasingly provide evidence of how schemes are managing climate risks and actively engaging with companies to reduce exposure to fossil fuels. Trustees may decide to divest from fossil fuel companies, or funds with high carbon exposure, particularly where sustained engagement efforts do not achieve satisfactory outcomes. My Department has issued statutory guidance for trust-based schemes, which trustees must have regard to. The guidance aims to support trustees in their efforts to meet their climate reporting and governance duties. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) also provides detailed guidance to support trustees address climate-related risks and provides feedback to the industry on areas for improvement. Information from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is available to support FCA-regulated pension providers.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the rate of clawback on Universal Credit on people employed with (a) irregular and (b) low incomes.

The government is committed to a sustainable, long-term approach to drive up opportunity and drive down poverty across the UK. As announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn Budget, a new Fair Repayment Rate has now been introduced from 30 April 2025, reducing the Universal Credit (UC) overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s UC standard allowance. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.The Department has also committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.A key part of UC’s core design is that it supports customers with their finances. As part of our work to review UC, we are working with expert stakeholders to understand the impacts and causes as well as considering the ways in which we can better support customers who experience irregular or fluctuating household income.

When her Department plans to (a) report on the consultation entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18th March 2025, and (b) publish recommendations on changes to the Access to Work Scheme.

Once the Pathways to Work Green Paper Consultation closes on 30 June 2025, a White Paper will follow later this year with final proposals ahead of future, further legislation required. The consultation and subsequent White Paper will also inform the chosen future direction of Access to Work. Once this is established, we will consider implementation timelines and work closely with stakeholders to ensure an appropriate transition.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure (a) people in farming and (b) other people who are unable to demonstrate consistent monthly income figures are able to apply for Universal Credit.

Universal Credit is available to eligible people who are out of work or on a low income. This includes people who are self-employed. We recognise that some self-employed customers, including those in the farming industry, are likely to report large monthly fluctuations in their earnings. Steps have been taken to account for this, such as allowing self-employed losses to be carried forward into future assessment periods. Wherever possible, employed earnings are received through the Real Time Information (RTI) system used by employers to report Pay As You Earn (PAYE) data to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). RTI enables a customer’s Universal Credit award to be automatically adjusted to reflect their fluctuating earnings, which eases the reporting burden on customers. If earnings are not reported through RTI for any reason, the customer will need to self-report their earnings and provide evidence of these. We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. The review will include consideration of the support in Universal Credit for customers with fluctuating incomes.

What assessment her Department has made of the impact of ownership of illiquid assets on Universal Credit eligibility.

No assessment has been made. Universal Credit broadly follows the capital rules from legacy means-tested benefits, e.g. income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance. The treatment of capital in any benefit that assists with living expenses is not a straightforward matter. Whilst it is important to encourage saving, it has never been thought right for substantial amounts of capital to be ignored. Departmental guidance is available to assist our decision makers to determine the value of capital assets at the point of review. Disregards are in place for some illiquid assets that customers hold, such as personal possessions and their main home.

What changes her Department plans to make to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) reassessments for claimants suffering from longer-term degenerative conditions.

Award reviews are an important feature of Personal Independence Payment to ensure people receive the correct level of benefit, both for those whose needs will increase and those whose needs may decrease. People who receive the highest level of PIP and whose needs will not improve, receive a PIP award for a continuous period with a light touch review at the 10-year point. In the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March we outline plans to consider changes to improve the experience for people who receive these ongoing awards in PIP. These include improving the information we provide when we write to people about ongoing PIP award decisions, what support is offered between ‘light touch’ reviews and reviewing the length of time between ‘light touch’ reviews.

What her planned timetable is for restarting mandatory reassessments of incapacity benefits.

We will turn on WCA reassessments at scale as we build up capacity to do so. We will initially prioritise reassessments for people who are most likely to have had a change in their circumstances including those who have short-term prognoses, for which we can reasonably anticipate a change in health condition has occurred (e.g., those with risks from pregnancy complications or those who have recovered following cancer treatment). Over time, we will then prioritise available reassessment capacity for other cohorts who are likely to change award.