Written questions by Lamb.

Whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on cross-government support for people whose ability to work is affected by migraine.

Awaiting answer.

Whether he plans to (a) collect and (b) publish data on the number of people whose work capability is affected by (i) migraine and (ii) related headache disorders.

Awaiting answer.

What steps his Department is taking to encourage employers to provide reasonable workplace support for employees affected by migraine.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of migraine on employment, absenteeism and economic inactivity.

Awaiting answer.

What steps he is taking to support and identify Universal Credit recipients with dual or multiple exceptionalities.

Awaiting answer.

What steps he is taking to introduce an apprenticeship guarantee for 16-24 years old.

Awaiting answer.

Within Crawley constituency in the most recent 12 months for which data is available, what is the total amount resulting from (a) deductions and (b) sanctions applied to Universal Credit claims.

a) Universal Credit deductions statistics are published quarterly with the latest figures available in table 6, row 365 in Universal Credit deductions statistics, September 2024 to August 2025, supplementary data tables, at Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 9 October 2025 - GOV.UK b) The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. The Deductions policy in Universal Credit is to support customers by providing a repayment method for arrears of essential services, such as, housing, electricity, and gas and enable customers with a child maintenance liability meet their obligation to make child maintenance payments. The deductions policy also enables obligations, such as, paying Court Fines and Council Tax arrears to be enforced when other repayment methods have failed, or are not cost effective, and ensures that benefit debt is recovered in a cost-effective manner. From April 2025 the Government introduced the Fair Repayment Rate which reduced the level of deduction taken from Universal Credit from 25% to 15%, and meant that 1.2m households retained on average £420 per year enabling these UC households to have more of their award to meet their day-to-day needs.

Following the announcement made on 16 October 2025 regarding the extension of funding to Trailblazer areas under the Get Britain Working programme, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Trailblazer schemes to date on a) employment outcomes b) levels of economic inactivity, and c) associated health and wellbeing indicators.

The Department developed a Strategic Outline Business Case for the Get Britain Working Trailblazers in March 2025, which followed HM Treasury’s Green Book framework. Within this, an assessment was made of the potential impact of the programme upon employment and associated health outcomes, as well as increasing participation in education and training. An update to the Business Case is being conducted, which will take account of relevant information following the programme launch earlier this year. The Department will be commissioning an evaluation, starting in December 2025, which is expected to build evidence on the effectiveness of the programme at achieving employment outcomes, reducing levels of economic inactivity, associated health and well-being indicators, increasing participation in education and training, and effectiveness of systems integration. We expect to publish interim findings during the next two years and will develop the value for money assessment once longer term impacts have developed.

For what reason the Housing Benefit subsidy for temporary housing has not increased since 2011.

DWP pays local authorities a Housing Benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation cases. There are restrictions on the amount paid, including a subsidy cap which is £500 per week in certain areas of London or £375 elsewhere. We recognise the financial pressures which local authorities are experiencing. MHCLG are increasing funding for homelessness services this year by an extra £233 million compared to last year (2024/25).We continue to keep the rates used for Housing Benefit subsidy under review and are working closely with MHCLG and the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to explore the impacts of subsidy rates on local authorities.Any future decisions on subsidy rates will be taken in the context of the Government’s missions, goals on housing and the current challenging financial environment at the appropriate fiscal event.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of levels of Housing Benefit subsidy on the capacity of local authorities to meet their statutory homelessness duties.

We recognise the financial pressures which local authorities are experiencing. MHCLG are increasing funding for homelessness services from next year by £233 million compared to this year (2024/25). Levels of Housing Benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation are kept under review and future decisions will be taken in the context of the government’s missions, goals on housing and the current fiscal context.