Written questions by Hayes.

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 age.

Awaiting answer.

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

Awaiting answer.

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

Awaiting answer.

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.

Awaiting answer.

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.

Awaiting answer.

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

Awaiting answer.

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.

Whether his Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the last 12 months.

Officials within the Department for Work and Pensions have access to artificial intelligence tools that may be used to support efficiency in their day‑to‑day work. However, responsibility for developing policy and legislative proposals remains with officials and all final decisions on substantive policy or legal issues continue to be taken by Ministers.

What proportion of the Crisis and Resilience Fund for off-gas grid households using heating oil will be allocated to Lincolnshire.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 April 2026 to Question UIN 122640.

What steps she is taking to tackle online content encouraging people to pursue fraudulent benefits claims.

The unscrupulous people who actively try to promote, encourage, or assist in fraud must not be tolerated and these people must face consequences. Offences under the Fraud Act 2006 can carry a maximum sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment. This includes offences such as making or supplying articles for use in fraud, including electronic materials where the person knows or intends that the information will be used to commit fraud – for example, the deliberate sale or distribution of fraud instruction manuals online. We already work with partners, including Action Fraud, the City of London Police and the National Cyber Security Centre to prevent fraudulent activity online and DWP monitor social media platforms regularly. Additionally, Ofcom’s first Online Safety Codes of Practice sets out an expectation that large services at medium or high risk of fraud provide DWP with access to a dedicated channel for reporting fraud. Under the Online Safety Act 2023, social media companies now have a legal duty to remove illegal content, including fraudulent material.

How much and what proportion of funding for low-income oil heating households through the Crisis and Resilience Fund will be allocated to (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.

In England, £27 million of funding will be delivered via the Crisis and Resilience Fund to support low-income households reliant on oil for heating. This is in addition to £842 million a year that has already been committed through the Crisis and Resilience Fund at Spending Review 2025, which all unitary and upper tier authorities in England will receive to support vulnerable and low-income households facing financial shocks, including rising essential costs such as energy.Lincolnshire has been allocated £1,825,511 to distribute to households the local authority considers most in need. This represents 7% of the £27 million of funding available in England. Allocations have been published on gov.uk (Crisis and Resilience fund to support low-income heating oil households).Local authorities have flexibility to apply their own discretion when determining eligibility for their Crisis Payment schemes, including how to best target support towards households in most need of help to pay for heating oil. The amount of funding that will be spent in the South Holland and the Deepings constituency is therefore at the discretion of the local authority.

How many women in South Holland and the Deepings constituency are in receipt of Pension Credit.

The latest Pension Credit caseload statistics show that as of August 2025, there were 1,698 female recipients of Pension Credit in South Holland and the Deepings. This data is available via: DWP Stat-Xplore.

Whether any civil servants hired by his Department were recruited over another person on the basis of a protected characteristic in each of the last three years.

Civil Service recruitment must follow the rules set out in legislation within the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaGA) 2010, which outlines the requirements to ensure that civil servants are recruited on merit, via fair and open competition. Compliance with CRaGA is overseen by the independent Civil Service Commission, which publishes Recruitment Principles setting out the detailed rules departments must follow. For departments who use Civil Service Jobs to manage their recruitment, applicants are asked to provide diversity data on a voluntary basis only and no details are shared with hiring managers. The positive action measures in the Equality Act 2010 allows employers to take proportionate action that aims to reduce disadvantage, meet different needs and increase participation. More information on this can be found on gov.uk. Employers who choose to use positive action can help people who share a particular protected characteristic to overcome certain barriers under the measures. However, employers need to ensure they do this in a way which does not unfairly disadvantage other groups as this could amount to ‘positive discrimination’, which is unlawful.

How many and what proportion of staff in his Department are reliant on a visa for employment.

The information requested is not held centrally. Gathering this data would therefore incur disproportionate costs.

What steps he is taking to increase (a) skills and (b) employment support for people in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in receipt of sickness benefits.

The Get Britain Working White Paper, published in autumn 2024, and Pathways to Work Green Paper, published in spring 2025, set out the Government’s plan on skills and employment support, including for those in receipt of sickness benefits. Our Pathways to Work guaranteed offer of personalised employment, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits is backed by £1 billion a year of new funding by the end of the decade. Once fully rolled out, we anticipate this will include a support conversation to identify next steps, one-to-one caseworker support, periodic engagement and an offer of specialist long-term work health and skills support. In addition, Connect to Work is being made available across all of England and Wales. This is a voluntary, locally commissioned, Supported Employment programme for individuals that are disabled, have a health condition or experiencing non-health related barriers to work to find and sustain employment. There is no benefit-related requirement for this programme. Lincolnshire County Council is the Lead Authority for the Lincolnshire Delivery Area and we expect them to open their service in spring 2026. WorkWell is a health and employment support service providing integrated holistic early help for health-related barriers to work. WorkWell is delivered in partnership with health systems and has so far supported approximately 25,000 disabled people and people with health conditions to stay in and re-enter work. Following the success of the pilot, it will continue to be delivered in existing sites and expand across all of England including the Lincolnshire ICB. The expansion is backed by up to £259 million investment over three years. Through the Adult Skills Fund in the 2025/26 academic year, we are spending £1.4 billion for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning. In South Holland and the Deepings, the Adult Skills Fund fully funds learners who are unemployed or earn less than £25,750 (annual gross salary).

How many people were unemployed for over 12 months in South Holland and the Deepings constituency in the last 12 months, and what proportion of those people were unemployed for 18 months or more.

The information requested is not available, due to small sample sizes on the survey used to estimate unemployment in constituencies. National level estimates of unemployment of more than 12 months duration are available in ONS Table UNEM01. There is published information on the number of years duration of UC claims by conditionality regime by constituency on Stat-Xplore (Stat-Xplore - Table View), but this does not identify 18 months as a cut-off.