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1052463

	registered interest
	date	01/02/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Post Office Card Account: Rural Areas
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on elderly people in rural areas of the planned discontinuation of the Post Office card system.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Stephen Kerr
	uin	215600
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/02/2019 answer text <p>The Government’s contract for the Post Office card account comes to an end on 30 November 2021. For those claimants and pensioners who are unable to open a mainstream account ahead of this date, the DWP will implement an alternative payment service that allows users to obtain cash payments in their local area (including suburban and rural locations) before the end of the contract. When commissioning this alternative payment service, it will be our priority to ensure that elderly vulnerable people are protected and catered for.</p><p> </p><p>Our communications with Post Office card account users will highlight that 99% of a banks’ personal customers, are able to withdraw cash, deposit cash and cheques, and make balance enquiries at a Post Office counter via its network of 11,600 branches. Therefore, those receiving benefit and pension payments into a bank account can continue to collect their money from the Post Office so there should be minimal effect on elderly people in rural areas. We have already introduced a phased conversion process ahead of 2021 and we will be writing to all Post Office card account users to ensure they are provided with an alternative payment service.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 11/02/2019 13:01:55 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4604 label Biography information for Stephen Kerr

1194420

	registered interest
	date	11/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Department for Work and Pensions: ICT
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps have been taken to increase the server capacity for her Department during the covid-19 oubreak.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	45447
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/05/2020 answer text <p>We regularly monitor capacity of servers and storage and have not had any issues provisioning additional capacity due to COVID-19.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 20/05/2020 14:17:04 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies previous answer version 22279 answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1197185

	registered interest
	date	19/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Health and Safety: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what additional support her Department is providing to the Heath and Safety Executive to ensure effective regulation of SARS-CoV-2 in workplaces throughout the UK.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	49119
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2020 answer text <p>The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is playing a crucial role in the Government’s response to covid-19, including its continued work with trade unions, employers and stakeholders to help ensure workplaces are safe environments.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has already announced it has made up to £14 million additional funding available to HSE for extra call centre employees, inspectors and equipment to support their work. HSE working with the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy published guidance on 11th May 2020 on working safely during the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p> </p><p>HSE is funded to deliver its wide-ranging regulatory functions and has also redirected resource to this activity as a priority. In addition, HSE continues to address reported workplace concerns with employers, including those relating to employees with a heighted risk from Covid-19.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 04/06/2020 12:07:01 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies previous answer version 25092 answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1197187

	registered interest
	date	19/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Health and Safety: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many reports relating to covid-19 the Heath and Safety Executive has received in each of the last three months.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	49120
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/07/2020 answer text <p>RIDDOR places duties on employers, the self-employed and people in control of work premises (the Responsible Person) to report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences (near misses). Reports relate to incidents occurring within Great Britain.</p><p>Under RIDDOR, duty-holders are obliged to report cases of Covid-19 when:</p><ul><li>an unintended incident at work has led to someone’s possible or actual exposure to Covid-19 (reportable as a ‘biological agent’ dangerous occurrence under Regulation 7, Schedule 2 – Section 10);</li><li>a worker has been diagnosed as having Covid-19 and there is reasonable evidence that it was caused by exposure at work (reportable as an ‘exposure to a biological agent’ case of disease under Regulation 9(b));</li><li>a worker dies as a result of occupational exposure to Covid-19 and this is confirmed as the likely cause of death by a registered medical practitioner (reportable as a ‘death due to exposure to a biological agent’ case of disease under Regulation 6(2)).</li></ul><p> </p><p>The attached Tables 1 and 2 provide numbers of all Covid-19 related reports i.e. reports of incidents under the RIDDORs (Reporting of Injuries Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) which fall to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Local Authorities (LA) as enforcing authorities. Table 3 shows the number of Covid-19 workplace concerns reported to HSE.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 02/07/2020 14:07:22 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies attachment 1 file name 49120 HSE Attachment.docx title HSE Tables previous answer version 25094 answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1197422

	registered interest
	date	20/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Health and Safety Executive
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many workplace spot checks the Heath and Safety Executive has carried out in each of the last six months.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	49843
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/06/2020 answer text <p>The numbers of workplace spot checks the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has carried out in each of the last six months is in the table below:</p><p /><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Month</p></td><td><p>No. of Proactive Inspections</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><em>2019</em></p></td><td><p>Dec</p></td><td><p>624</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>Jan</p></td><td><p>898</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>Feb</p></td><td><p>1041</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>Mar</p></td><td><p>587</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>Apr</p></td><td><p>78</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>1<sup>st</sup> – 20<sup>th</sup> May</p></td><td><p>62</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong> </strong></p><p> </p><p>The above data was extracted from HSE’s operational database on 21<sup>st </sup>May 2020 and is subject to change e.g. the administrative process of recording the information in the database can take up to 10 days.</p><p> </p><p>In March, HSE temporarily suspended proactive visits to sites to allow social distancing measures to be put in place to protect visiting staff. It has since developed plans for resuming proactive site inspections.</p><p> </p><p>The above data excludes investigations of workplace concerns including those relating to COVID-19, where checks have been made to ensure that measures have been put in place to comply with the law.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 02/06/2020 14:18:00 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1247406

	registered interest
	date	30/10/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	National Insurance: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress the Government has made on implementing a digital solution to the process of issuing National Insurance numbers.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	109656
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/11/2020 answer text <p>We started testing a partial digital solution, on a small scale, in mid-October, to support the issuing of National Insurance Numbers, which is still ongoing. This solution enables collection of the applicant’s data, but not the online verification of their identity.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 04/11/2020 17:36:51 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1259753

	registered interest
	date	09/12/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	National Insurance: EEA Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department may issue National Insurance numbers for (a) EU (b) EEA or (c) Swiss nationals who already have settled or pre-settled status.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	127650
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/12/2020 answer text <p>The department continues to allocate National Insurance Numbers, however, at present this service is currently limited to specific customer groups.</p><p>DWP started testing a partial digital solution, on a small scale, in mid-October, to support the issuing of National Insurance Numbers, which is still ongoing. This solution enables collection of the applicant’s data, but not the online verification of their identity.</p><p>For those customer groups, where a face to face identity check is required, we are developing and testing alternative identity verification solutions. We recently included EU/EAA and Swiss nationals, who have been granted settled or pre-settled status as part of their EU Settlement Scheme, into the test, as their identity will have been verified, through this process, by the Home Office.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 14/12/2020 13:01:48 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1342311

	registered interest
	date	30/06/2021
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Child Maintenance Service
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will provide a definition of the term temporary as used by the Child Maintenance Service.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	25157
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 07/07/2021 answer text <p>The Child Maintenance Service uses the term temporary as a definition of a measure which lasts for a limited time. This is opposed to something which is permanent.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 07/07/2021 12:22:42 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1346356

	registered interest
	date	13/07/2021
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Child Maintenance Service
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2021 to Question 25157, for what reason a change in earnings for a period of two months is deemed a permanent change and a change in contact arrangements for 14 months is deemed a temporary change by the Child Maintenance Service; and what her Department’s policy is on the length of time that constitutes a (a) temporary and (b) permanent change for the purposes of the Child Maintenance Service.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	32514
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/07/2021 answer text <p>There are multiple factors considered when taking into account a Paying Parent’s income for a Child Maintenance assessment. The scheme is designed so that liabilities remain consistent over the year, with limited changes to the assessment allowing both parents to budget. Time frames will vary depending on what is being assessed and legislation requires that factors which affect income should be expected to last for the “foreseeable future”.</p><p>The Child Maintenance Service follows guidance on when changes should be considered temporary or permanent. These decisions are discretionary and considered on a case by case basis. If a customer is unhappy with the outcome of the decision, they may appeal through a mandatory reconsideration.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman question first answered 19/07/2021 13:59:55 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith

1645752

	registered interest
	date	19/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Pensions: Regulation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of legislation on private pension schemes for (a) support for pensioners during the cost-of-living crisis and (b) introducing an ethics code in the decision of payments.
	tabling member constituency	Stirling
	tabling member printed	Alyn Smith
	uin	190219
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/06/2023 answer text <p>Employers have legal obligations to provide minimum levels of pension provision for certain groups of employees. As long as they comply with those obligations it is up to the individual employer to decide on the nature of the scheme and the exact benefits which are provided.</p> answering member constituency Sevenoaks answering member printed Laura Trott question first answered 27/06/2023 12:48:33 answering member 4780 label Biography information for Laura Trott
	tabling member	4738 label Biography information for Alyn Smith