Written questions by Hayes.

How many agency staff were employed by his Department in each of the last five years.

Awaiting answer.

Other than special advisers if his Department has appointed anyone from outside the civil service since July 2024.

Awaiting answer.

Whether his Department uses numerical reasoning tests as part of the recruitment process for its graduate recruitment scheme.

Awaiting answer.

How many political appointees have been made by his Department since July 2024.

We have taken ‘political appointees’ to mean special advisers. A list of special advisers by department is published each year in the Annual Report on Special Advisers which is laid in parliament. The Annual Report on Special Advisers 2026 will be publish...

Whether his Department has hired external public relations consultants since July 2024.

Data on spend relating to PR consultancy hire is not held by the department. The Government Communication Service encourages the prioritisation of low and no cost public relations activities wherever possible.

What steps his Department is taking to help increase the take-up of Pension Credit amongst eligible pensioners in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all pensioners receive the support to which they are entitled. That is why we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign across the whole of Great Britain, promoting Pension Credit to el...

Whether his Department permits civil servants employed in the UK to work from overseas on a regular basis.

DWP policy does not allow civil servants employed in the UK to work from overseas on a regular basis. Civil servants can be authorised to travel from the UK to conduct official business if necessary, returning to the UK after the conclusion of that busine...

Whether his Department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.

DWP is committed to harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence to improve both the productivity of our workforce, and the quality of the services we deliver to the millions of people who rely on us. The Department’s principal AI tool for official ...

How much his Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.

This information is not held in the requested format. Gathering this information will be at disproportionate cost.

Whether his Department has undertaken a comparative assessment of previous Government compensation schemes when assessing options for financial redress for women affected by changes to the State Pension

We have taken the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report seriously and given the findings the close examination that they deserved. We have set out the detailed reasons for our decision in our new response, on the 29 January, which has been p...

What steps he is taking to tackle pensioner poverty in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

The Government is committed to supporting pensioners, ensuring they have financial security and dignity in retirement. From 6 April, both the basic and new State Pensions increased by 4.8%, benefitting over 12 million pensioners by up to £575.Pension Cred...

What steps his department is taking to support increased participation in higher apprenticeships among young people in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

This Government is transforming the Apprenticeships Levy into a new Growth and Skills Levy in England, backed by £1 billion of additional investment, which will support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships and give employers, including in South H...

What assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of trends in the number of young people not in employment, education or training on economic growth in Lincolnshire.

This government will not leave an entire generation of young people, including in Lincolnshire, behind. We have committed a further £1 billion investment in young people, taking total additional investment into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skill...

If he will publish a list of training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2020.

The information is not held in a central, reportable format. To provide it would require multiple teams to manually search and compile records from across the department, resulting in disproportionate cost.

What recent steps he has taken to help reduce the number of agricultural fatalities in Lincolnshire.

In line with its published Strategy 2022 to 2032, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) focuses on the most effective and efficient ways to improve the health and safety performance of all industries in Great Britain, this includes reducing fatalities in ...

If he will take steps with the Health and Safety Executive to reinstate proactive inspections in the agriculture industry.

As an independent regulator, it is for Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to determine how to use its resources when considering how best to meet the objectives outlined in its ten year strategy Protecting people and places: HSE strategy 2022 to 2032. For ...

What recent steps he has taken to reduce agricultural fatalities in Lincolnshire.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

If he will work with the HSE to reinstate proactive inspections in the agriculture industry.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

If he will publish a list of training programmes used by civil servants in his Department since 2020.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

What assessment he has made of the constitutional implications of rejecting the recommendations of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on changes to women's state pension age, published 21 March 2024.

We have taken the PHSO’s report seriously and given the findings the close examination that they deserved. We have set out the detailed reasons for our decision in our new response, on the 29 January, which has been placed in the Libraries of the House.