Written questions by Lewis.

If he will continue to fund the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist Apprenticeship in order to allow (a) the cohort already accepted for the scheme to continue and (b) substantive consultation with the sector to take place.

Over the past decade we’ve seen apprenticeship starts by those aged 16-24 fall by 40% and over half of all apprenticeship starts are now by learners aged 25 and over. At the same time, we have seen the apprenticeship offer increase to over 700 standards, many of which do not support critical skills shortages. Even with record investment of £3.3bn in 2026-27, the Growth and Skills Levy budget is finite. With 100% of our budget spent last year we need to prioritise in order to deliver foundation apprenticeships and short courses alongside the core apprenticeship offer. We are therefore withdrawing funding from 16 apprenticeships from September 2026, including the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist standard. These changes will help to create the headroom to invest in our national skills priorities with more opportunities for more young people, and new apprenticeship units to provide a more flexible offer to businesses. We are continuing to fund the related Level 3 Outdoor Activity Instructor apprenticeship which provides an entry route into this profession. All existing learners on the Level 5 Outdoor Learning Specialist standard will continue to be funded through to completion, and providers have been written to individually to confirm their transition arrangements. Employers who value this apprenticeship standard will also be able to use it on a privately funded basis.

What recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of proposed reforms to Work Capability Assessments on severely immunocompromised people who are recovering from (a) stem cell transplants, (b) CAR-T immunotherapy and (c) other long-term conditions resulting from treatments; and if he make an assessment of the adequacy of (a) statutory sick pay and (B) time taken to access other potential state benefits for those patients.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper outlined our plan to end the link between capacity to work and additional financial support and the binary categorisation of claimants as “can or can’t work” by abolishing the Work Capability Assessment (WCA). Instead, any extra financial support for health conditions in Universal Credit (UC) will be assessed via a single assessment – the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment (in England and Wales) – and be based on the impact of disability on daily living, not on capacity to work. Due to its link with the PIP assessment, WCA abolition will not take place until after the Timms Review into PIP has reported. We are currently considering how the future system will operate and will provide further information in due course. Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is designed to balance support for an individual when they are unable to work due to sickness or ill health, with the costs to employers of providing this support. The Government is strengthening SSP as part of our plan to Make Work Pay, ensuring the safety net of sick pay is available to those who need it most. We are doing this through the Employment Rights Act. From 6 April this year the changes we are making include: Removing the Lower Earnings Limit so more low-paid employees qualify.Removing the waiting period so SSP is paid from the first day of sickness. As a result, up to 1.3 million low-paid employees will become eligible for SSP. The removal of the three-day waiting period will mean that all employees receive at least £60 extra at the start of their sickness absence. According to the Government’s impact assessment, these changes will also increase the total amount of sick pay paid to employees by approximately £420 million per year. For PIP awards, we always aim to make an award decision as quickly as possible, taking into account the need to review all available evidence, including that from the claimant.  In most instances PIP awards can be backdated to the date of claim.  PIP waiting times have decreased since August 2021, with the latest statistics showing that the average end-to-end journey has reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 16 weeks at the end of October 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2025 to Question 92953 on State Retirement Pensions: Women, if he will make an estimate of the number of women born in the 1950s who have died since the publication of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's findings (HC 638) on 21 March 2024.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and National Records Scotland (NRS) publish annual data on deaths by sex and age group on their websites.

What estimate he has made of the number women born in the 1950s who have died since the publication of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's findings (HC 638) on 21 March 2024.

The Department has made no such assessment.

What estimate her Department has made of the number of women to have died since the publication of the Government’s Response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s Investigation into and Reports on the Women’s State Pension age on 17 December 2024; what plans she has for a compensation scheme for women adversely affected by the State Pension age changes; and whether she will make it her policy to enter into alternative dispute resolution.

The decision not to set up a compensation scheme is now subject to live litigation and the High Court has granted permission for a full hearing.

With reference to the Trussell document entitled Guarantee our essentials, published in June 2025, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report's estimates of the total amount needed to afford essentials for adults in a household of (a) £120 for a single adult and (b) £205 for a couple.

No assessment has been made.Subject to Parliamentary approval, the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill legislates for the first sustained above inflation rise in the basic rate of Universal Credit since it was introduced. This increase will be for new and existing customers and will benefit millions of households. This will build on the Fair Repayment Rate for Universal Credit, introduced on 30 April 2025, reducing the overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s standard allowance. This will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households retain more of their benefit award by an average of £420 a year.We also uprated benefit rates for 2025/26 in line with inflation, with 5.7 million Universal Credit households forecast to gain by an average of £150 annually.

With reference to the Fifty-seventh Report of the Committee of Public Accounts of Session 2022-23 on AEA Technology Pension Case, HC 1005, published on 14 June 2023, and to Questions 329 and 330 of the oral evidence given by the Minister for Pensions to the Work and Pensions select committee on 10 January 2024, HC 144, what steps she is taking to implement a redress scheme.

In its response to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the AEA Technology case, the department agreed to consider the PAC recommendation to ‘ensure that people have an adequate route of appeal when considering complaints about their occupational and personal pensions, through a review of the Ombudsman’. Progress on the PAC and subsequent WPC recommendations were paused due to the General Election. The department remains committed to providing the PAC with an update once the Cabinet Office has considered how it would like departments to scope and schedule a new series of reviews for public bodies.

Whether people previously diagnosed with (a) Down Syndrome and (b) other severe learning difficulties will be required to undergo a further assessment when their (i) personal independence payment and (ii) employment support allowance are migrated to universal credit.

People claiming Employment Support Allowance are being migrated to Universal Credit, but anyone on Personal Independence Payment will remain on it. Customers who move to UC following the receipt of a migration notice from ESA have their LCW or LCWRA moved with them to UC.So, for the vast majority of cases there is no need for a new WCA.The Work Capability Assessment is a functional assessment that applies to both UC & Employment and Support Allowance. Receipt of other benefits such as Personal Independence Payment (PIP) do not provide an automatic passport to LCW or LCWRA as the assessment criteria are different. Therefore, customers in receipt of PIP only, may be referred for a WCA if they declare a health condition when making their claim to Universal Credit.