Written questions by Mohamed.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of (a) trained line managers on the implementation of the Industrial Strategy and (b) trends in the level of funding for management apprenticeships on the economy.

Over the past decade we’ve seen apprenticeship starts by those aged 16-24, fall by 40%. At the same time, last year, the government spent 100% of its multi-billion pound apprenticeship budget. This Government wants to reverse that decline and support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships. We are therefore reviewing the existing apprenticeship offer, which has grown to more than 700 standards, an outlier by international standards, to ensure it better supports young people starting their careers. From September 2026, we will withdraw funding from 16 existing apprenticeship standards.Three of these are generic leadership and management apprenticeships, which have grown significantly but are predominantly used as continuing professional development for established staff aged 25 and over. In the 2024/2025 academic year, nearly 90% of apprentices on these leadership and management standards are over 25 (compared to 50% across the programme as a whole); and 83% are long-term employees (compared to 43% across the programme as whole – which is a 10-year high). This has happened at a time when we have seen the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) increase to nearly one million. Rebalancing the programme is necessary and proportionate to achieve our legitimate aim of rebalancing funding towards the government’s priorities supporting young people and delivering growth, whilst being aligned to the Youth Guarantee and the Industrial Strategy. We know that apprenticeships offer strong returns, and that is particularly true for young people. The changes to streamline the apprenticeship offer will help to create headroom to invest in more opportunities for young people and new apprenticeship units for adults. Employers who value these apprenticeship standards can continue to use them on a privately funded basis.

With reference to the proposed Growth and Skills Levy, what formal economic impact assessment he has made on the potential impact of defunding Level 3, 5 and 6 management apprenticeships on (a) economic productivity, (b) social mobility and (c) opportunities for young people, including impacts on the NEET population.

Over the past decade we’ve seen apprenticeship starts by those aged 16-24, fall by 40%. At the same time, last year, the government spent 100% of its multi-billion pound apprenticeship budget. This Government wants to reverse that decline and support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships. We are therefore reviewing the existing apprenticeship offer, which has grown to more than 700 standards, an outlier by international standards, to ensure it better supports young people starting their careers. From September 2026, we will withdraw funding from 16 existing apprenticeship standards.Three of these are generic leadership and management apprenticeships, which have grown significantly but are predominantly used as continuing professional development for established staff aged 25 and over. In the 2024/2025 academic year, nearly 90% of apprentices on these leadership and management standards are over 25 (compared to 50% across the programme as a whole); and 83% are long-term employees (compared to 43% across the programme as whole – which is a 10-year high). This has happened at a time when we have seen the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) increase to nearly one million. Rebalancing the programme is necessary and proportionate to achieve our legitimate aim of rebalancing funding towards the government’s priorities supporting young people and delivering growth, whilst being aligned to the Youth Guarantee and the Industrial Strategy. We know that apprenticeships offer strong returns, and that is particularly true for young people. The changes to streamline the apprenticeship offer will help to create headroom to invest in more opportunities for young people and new apprenticeship units for adults. Employers who value these apprenticeship standards can continue to use them on a privately funded basis.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of funding for management apprenticeships on leadership diversity.

Over the past decade we’ve seen apprenticeship starts by those aged 16-24, fall by 40%. At the same time, last year, the government spent 100% of its multi-billion pound apprenticeship budget. This Government wants to reverse that decline and support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships. We are therefore reviewing the existing apprenticeship offer, which has grown to more than 700 standards, an outlier by international standards, to ensure it better supports young people starting their careers. From September 2026, we will withdraw funding from 16 existing apprenticeship standards.Three of these are generic leadership and management apprenticeships, which have grown significantly but are predominantly used as continuing professional development for established staff aged 25 and over. In the 2024/2025 academic year, nearly 90% of apprentices on these leadership and management standards are over 25 (compared to 50% across the programme as a whole); and 83% are long-term employees (compared to 43% across the programme as whole – which is a 10-year high). This has happened at a time when we have seen the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) increase to nearly one million. Rebalancing the programme is necessary and proportionate to achieve our legitimate aim of rebalancing funding towards the government’s priorities supporting young people and delivering growth, whilst being aligned to the Youth Guarantee and the Industrial Strategy. We know that apprenticeships offer strong returns, and that is particularly true for young people. The changes to streamline the apprenticeship offer will help to create headroom to invest in more opportunities for young people and new apprenticeship units for adults. Employers who value these apprenticeship standards can continue to use them on a privately funded basis.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of funding for management apprenticeships on social mobility.

Over the past decade we’ve seen apprenticeship starts by those aged 16-24, fall by 40%. At the same time, last year, the government spent 100% of its multi-billion pound apprenticeship budget. This Government wants to reverse that decline and support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships. We are therefore reviewing the existing apprenticeship offer, which has grown to more than 700 standards, an outlier by international standards, to ensure it better supports young people starting their careers. From September 2026, we will withdraw funding from 16 existing apprenticeship standards.Three of these are generic leadership and management apprenticeships, which have grown significantly but are predominantly used as continuing professional development for established staff aged 25 and over. In the 2024/2025 academic year, nearly 90% of apprentices on these leadership and management standards are over 25 (compared to 50% across the programme as a whole); and 83% are long-term employees (compared to 43% across the programme as whole – which is a 10-year high). This has happened at a time when we have seen the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) increase to nearly one million. Rebalancing the programme is necessary and proportionate to achieve our legitimate aim of rebalancing funding towards the government’s priorities supporting young people and delivering growth, whilst being aligned to the Youth Guarantee and the Industrial Strategy. We know that apprenticeships offer strong returns, and that is particularly true for young people. The changes to streamline the apprenticeship offer will help to create headroom to invest in more opportunities for young people and new apprenticeship units for adults. Employers who value these apprenticeship standards can continue to use them on a privately funded basis.

With reference to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on changes to women's State Pension age, published on 21 March 2024, if he will make an estimate of the cost of providing compensation to impacted women in Dewsbury & Batley; and if he will consider the potential mechanisms for doing so.

The Government has made its decision on this case based on due process and careful consideration of the body of evidence. We have decided it would not be appropriate to pay compensation and the detailed reasons for this decision have been placed in the House library.

If he will meet with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign.

The previous Minister for Pensions met with representatives from the WASPI campaign group.She did so to hear their experiences directly and was the first Minister to do so in eight years.

What steps she is taking to support workers whose roles have been displaced due to offshoring by UK-based firms.

I refer the hon. member to the answer I gave on 10 September to PQ 72893.

To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of artificial intelligence on employment levels in the next (a) five and (b) ten years.

No current assessment has been made by the Department for Work and Pensions on the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on employment. We are starting to witness AI’s impact within the labour market: transforming the workplace, demanding new skills and augmenting old ones. But there is uncertainty over the future scale of AI’s impact on the labour market. Given the recent rapid pace of AI development, government is planning against a range of plausible future outcomes and closely monitoring the data that will help track if we are heading towards any of these outcomes.

To the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that vocational and adult education programmes are aligned with employment opportunities that are less vulnerable to (a) offshoring and (b) becoming replaced by AI.

The government is developing a comprehensive strategy for post‐16 education and skills to break down barriers to opportunity and support the development of a skilled workforce in England. This is backed by additional investment, as announced in the Spending Review, of £1.2 billion per year in skills by 2028-29. This will support the wide range of technical routes available across England in a broad range of sectors. We are also widening the apprenticeships offer into a growth and skills offer, including new foundation apprenticeships, which will give more young people a foot in the door at the start of their working life. We are targeting key growth sectors, including those identified in the Industrial Strategy, with specific skills plans to boost training in areas such as construction, manufacturing, defence and Digital and Technology. All of this will be underpinned by the work of Skills England, which has been established as the national body responsible for identifying skills needs, simplifying the skills system, and aligning training to meet demand.

Whether she plans to publish an assessment of the potential impact of the decision to means test the winter fuel payment on the number of excess deaths in winter 2024-25.

Targeting Winter Fuel Payments was a difficult decision, but the right decision given the challenging public finances. The Government is, however, protecting pensioners on the lowest incomes. Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or other qualifying means-tested benefits or tax credits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone aged 80 or over. A very wide range of factors impact changes in mortality. Details of excess winter deaths in England and Wales can be found at: Winter mortality in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

What estimate she has made of the additional number of benefits recipients who will be subject to eligibility verification notices under the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill as a result of her welfare reforms.

The reforms in the Green Paper are still the subject of consultation and will undergo further development once responses have been considered.

When she plans to publish algorithmic transparency records for (a) the Universal Credit Advances model and (b) other decision making algorithms used by her Department on the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard Hub.

We are working with colleagues in The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to finalise the publication of algorithmic transparency records for existing tools as well as tools being considered for future deployment in the DWP.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to Personal Independence Payments on disabled people in the Dewsbury and Batley constituency.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course with some information published this week alongside the Spring Statement. 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 steps her Department plans to take to support vulnerable claimants through upcoming changes to the Personal Independence Payment assessment process.

There will be no immediate changes. Our intention is that the new eligibility requirement in Personal Independence Payment in which people must score a minimum of four points in one daily living activity in to be eligible for the daily living component, will apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. We recognise that as a department we come into contact with some claimants who have complex needs or are vulnerable. The department already has processes in place to support and safeguard people who use our services, and we will continue to provide this support as changes are taken forward. We want to go further so that there is a clear and transparent process in place to ensure vulnerable individuals are adequately supported. In the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March we have committed to undertaking a thorough review of our current approach to safeguarding, with the aim of developing and implementing a new departmental wide approach.

What the average time is to process a Personal Independence Payment appeal in Dewsbury and Batley constituency.

The average time to process a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeal for all PIP appeals registered in the Dewsbury and Batley constituency since PIP was introduced can be found below. Mean appeal processing time (weeks)Median appeal processing time (weeks)3129 Source: PIP Administrative Data Notes:The appeal processing time is calculated as the time between the date of appeal registration and date of appeal clearance.Figures include appeals related to initial decisions (including new claims and DLA reassessments), award reviews and changes of circumstance.Figures include time taken by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to clear the case.