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1507191

	registered interest
	date	21/09/2022
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter sent on 15 July 2022 by the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to the Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, if she will take steps to publish the evaluation of benefit sanctions referred to in that letter.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	53458
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/09/2022 answer text <p>“I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question UIN <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions?SearchTerm=49219&amp;DateFrom=01/01/2022&amp;DateTo=28/04/2023&amp;AnsweredFrom=&amp;AnsweredTo=&amp;House=Commons&amp;Answered=Any&amp;Expanded=True" target="_blank">PQ W 49219</a>”</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 28/09/2022 17:15:32 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1505906

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2022
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's letter to the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee dated 15 July 2022, for what reason her Department was unable to assess the deterrent effect of benefit sanctions using the evaluation of benefit sanctions previously commissioned by her Department.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	49219
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>We no longer plan to publish a report on the sanctions evaluation. This is because a sanction acts not only through its imposition on a claimant but importantly also through its effect as a deterrent. We were unable to assess the deterrent effect and therefore this research does not present a comprehensive picture of sanctions. The reason this analysis is unable to assess the deterrent effect is that all claimants in UC intensive regime are subject to mandatory conditions. Given this, it was not possible to assess the current system relative to a non-mandatory system.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 27/09/2022 10:10:44 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1505908

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2022
	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	Social Security Benefits: Greater London
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants have had their benefits suspended by the Risk Review Team in (a) Enfield (b) Edmonton (c) Greater London in each year since the establishment of that team in May 2020.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	49221
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/09/2022 answer text <p>This data is not available as we do not capture the number of customers by geographical location.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 22/09/2022 16:36:49 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1192180

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept id	13
	answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
	hansard heading	Agriculture: Coronavirus
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to introduce an additional grant scheme for people working in the agricultural sector that are facing market disruption as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	42137
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/05/2020 answer text <p>The Government is aware that coronavirus represents a very significant challenge, affecting daily life and every part of the economy. The agricultural sector plays a vital role in maintaining the UK’s food security. We are working closely alongside the agricultural industry to ensure that we understand and manage the impacts to the industry.</p><p> </p><p>The department has been in close discussion with banks to ensure the farming sector has access to financial support to ease cashflow problems during this period, including through the HMG backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL), and the Bounce Back Loan scheme, which was announced on 27 April, and is the latest step in a package of support measures announced by the Chancellor. The Government will provide lenders with a 100% guarantee on each loan, to give lenders the confidence they need to support small businesses. These loans will be from £2,000 up to £50,000, capped at 25% of firms’ turnover, and the Government will cover the first 12 months of interest payments and fees charged to the business by the lender. Almost all UK businesses will be eligible to apply for a loan under the scheme.</p><p> </p><p>In March, Defra worked with BEIS to introduce new measures to support businesses in the food sector keep food supply flowing on to shelves and into homes. These included a temporary relaxation of competition rules to allow supermarkets to work together. The legislation to bring in this change was introduced on 27 March and has a retrospective effect from 1 March.</p><p> </p><p>In April, we temporarily relaxed further elements of competition law to support the dairy sector during this period. Legislation was laid before Parliament on 1 May to enable collaboration between dairy farmers and producers, supporting them to adapt to changes in the supply chain including decreased demand from the hospitality sector. The legislation will apply retrospectively from 1 April 2020.</p><p> </p><p>On 6 May, Defra announced a new fund to support English dairy farmers who have seen decreased demand due to the loss of the food service sector. Dairy farmers access this funding for those qualifying months, with no cap set on the number of farmers who can receive this support or on the total funding available. Eligible dairy farmers who have lost more than 25% of their income over April and May due to coronavirus disruptions will be eligible for funding of up to £10,000 each, to cover around 70% of their lost income during the qualifying months to ensure they can continue to operate and sustain production capacity without impacts on animal welfare. The Welsh Government announced the opening of a similar scheme on 12 May.</p><p> </p><p>The availability of this funding followed the launch on 5 May of a joint Government and Devolved Administrations backed £1 million campaign aiming to boost milk consumption and help producers use their surplus stock. This 12-week campaign is being led by Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and Dairy UK. This follows a similar on-going campaign led by AHDB and retailers to promote the consumption of beef products.</p><p> </p><p>While the Government has made a wide-ranging package of measures available to businesses to support them through this difficult period, we continue to keep the situation in each sector under review. Legal powers were included in the COVID-19 Bill enabling us to offer further financial support if we believe it is necessary.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 12/05/2020 14:49:45 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1506850

	registered interest
	date	20/09/2022
	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	Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, what steps her Department has taken to improve the performance of Personal Independence Payment assessments by assessment providers since 2015.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	51879
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) manages the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) contracts robustly, and has a full set of service level agreements setting out our expectations for service delivery. We ensure a high standard is maintained, having an independent audit function that continually monitors performance, and provides feedback to assessment providers. Quality performance is also regularly reviewed through DWP and provider senior governance meetings at a national level, and in each of the provider areas.</p><p>The contracts allow us to recover any financial loss caused by poor performance, and we have the right to terminate the contract if there is sustained underperformance.</p><p>We are committed to continuously improving the assessment service and have reiterated this in the Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper. During the Green Paper consultation period, we explored ways in which we could improve the current system of assessments, including by:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Introducing different ways to conduct assessments, such as introducing telephone and video assessments</li><li>Reducing unnecessary assessments</li><li>Improving our decisions, for example, by making sure that evidence is available earlier in the decision-making process</li><li>Improving support for people with serious health conditions, including people nearing the end of their lives.</li></ul><p> </p><p>We are considering all the responses to the Green Paper proposals as we consider what future policy changes might look like, which we will set out in the White Paper later this year.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s Health Transformation Programme (HTP) will deliver improvements to the health and disability benefits system, including proposals that stem from the Green Paper. Our ambition is to make the assessment process simpler, more user-friendly, easier to navigate and more joined-up for claimants, whilst delivering better value for money for taxpayers.</p><p> </p><p>Providers also work continuously to drive improvements in assessment services. They have introduced new management processes to drive performance across their services, including new or enhanced systems of assessment report quality checks, to improve the quality of advice the department receives. In addition, PIP assessment reports have been redesigned to have clearer justifications which support improved benefit decision making.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis grouped question UIN 51877 51878 question first answered 27/09/2022 10:13:57 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1506848

	registered interest
	date	20/09/2022
	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	Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, what contract management processes are in place for assessment providers.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	51877
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) manages the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) contracts robustly, and has a full set of service level agreements setting out our expectations for service delivery. We ensure a high standard is maintained, having an independent audit function that continually monitors performance, and provides feedback to assessment providers. Quality performance is also regularly reviewed through DWP and provider senior governance meetings at a national level, and in each of the provider areas.</p><p>The contracts allow us to recover any financial loss caused by poor performance, and we have the right to terminate the contract if there is sustained underperformance.</p><p>We are committed to continuously improving the assessment service and have reiterated this in the Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper. During the Green Paper consultation period, we explored ways in which we could improve the current system of assessments, including by:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Introducing different ways to conduct assessments, such as introducing telephone and video assessments</li><li>Reducing unnecessary assessments</li><li>Improving our decisions, for example, by making sure that evidence is available earlier in the decision-making process</li><li>Improving support for people with serious health conditions, including people nearing the end of their lives.</li></ul><p> </p><p>We are considering all the responses to the Green Paper proposals as we consider what future policy changes might look like, which we will set out in the White Paper later this year.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s Health Transformation Programme (HTP) will deliver improvements to the health and disability benefits system, including proposals that stem from the Green Paper. Our ambition is to make the assessment process simpler, more user-friendly, easier to navigate and more joined-up for claimants, whilst delivering better value for money for taxpayers.</p><p> </p><p>Providers also work continuously to drive improvements in assessment services. They have introduced new management processes to drive performance across their services, including new or enhanced systems of assessment report quality checks, to improve the quality of advice the department receives. In addition, PIP assessment reports have been redesigned to have clearer justifications which support improved benefit decision making.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis grouped question UIN 51878 51879 question first answered 27/09/2022 10:13:57 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1506849

	registered interest
	date	20/09/2022
	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	Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, how her Department monitors the performance of assessment providers.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	51878
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) manages the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) contracts robustly, and has a full set of service level agreements setting out our expectations for service delivery. We ensure a high standard is maintained, having an independent audit function that continually monitors performance, and provides feedback to assessment providers. Quality performance is also regularly reviewed through DWP and provider senior governance meetings at a national level, and in each of the provider areas.</p><p>The contracts allow us to recover any financial loss caused by poor performance, and we have the right to terminate the contract if there is sustained underperformance.</p><p>We are committed to continuously improving the assessment service and have reiterated this in the Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper. During the Green Paper consultation period, we explored ways in which we could improve the current system of assessments, including by:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Introducing different ways to conduct assessments, such as introducing telephone and video assessments</li><li>Reducing unnecessary assessments</li><li>Improving our decisions, for example, by making sure that evidence is available earlier in the decision-making process</li><li>Improving support for people with serious health conditions, including people nearing the end of their lives.</li></ul><p> </p><p>We are considering all the responses to the Green Paper proposals as we consider what future policy changes might look like, which we will set out in the White Paper later this year.</p><p> </p><p>The department’s Health Transformation Programme (HTP) will deliver improvements to the health and disability benefits system, including proposals that stem from the Green Paper. Our ambition is to make the assessment process simpler, more user-friendly, easier to navigate and more joined-up for claimants, whilst delivering better value for money for taxpayers.</p><p> </p><p>Providers also work continuously to drive improvements in assessment services. They have introduced new management processes to drive performance across their services, including new or enhanced systems of assessment report quality checks, to improve the quality of advice the department receives. In addition, PIP assessment reports have been redesigned to have clearer justifications which support improved benefit decision making.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis grouped question UIN 51877 51879 question first answered 27/09/2022 10:13:57 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1505907

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2022
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of benefit sanctions on the behaviour of benefit claimants.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	49220
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>The Department considers all available evidence when making decisions regarding new or existing policies. To ensure sanctions are clear, fair and effective in promoting positive behaviours, we keep the operation of conditionality and sanctions policies under continuous review. We routinely undertake Equality Analyses when developing policies. No recent assessment on the impact of benefit sanctions on the behaviour of benefit claimants has been made.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 27/09/2022 10:09:05 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1505905

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2022
	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	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what work her Department has undertaken to evaluate the use of benefit sanctions.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	49218
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/09/2022 answer text <p>The Department considers all available evidence when making decisions regarding new or existing policies. Conditionality is a long established tool for supporting our claimants into work and we have strong, high-quality UK-specific evidence, gathered through the use of Randomised Control Trials, that conditionality is effective at supporting people into work. It is likely some of the effect might be attributable to the sanctions associated with conditionality, but we cannot be certain on this. We will continue to consider the impact our policies have on our claimants.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 27/09/2022 10:06:42 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor

1505912

	registered interest
	date	07/09/2022
	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	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether any benefit claimants outside of London have been referred to her Department's Risk Review Team.
	tabling member constituency	Edmonton
	tabling member printed	Kate Osamor
	uin	49225
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/09/2022 answer text <p>Referrals are made to the Risk Review Team for customers across the whole country and are not just specific to London.</p> answering member constituency Banbury answering member printed Victoria Prentis question first answered 22/09/2022 16:44:06 answering member 4401 label Biography information for Victoria Prentis
	tabling member	4515 label Biography information for Kate Osamor