Written questions by Downie.

What assessment she has made of the impact of the Disability Confident Scheme on the ability of disabled people to find work.

In 2022, the department commissioned a survey to understand from members’ perspectives the impact that signing up to the scheme has had on their recruitment and retention attitudes and practices towards disabled people. The survey can be accessed on gov.uk using the following link: Disability Confident: survey of participating employers, May 2022 - GOV.UK There are currently over 19,000 employers signed up to the Disability Confident scheme. Collectively, these employers estimate over 12 million employees work in their organisations. It is not known how many of these employees are disabled, have a health condition, or are direct users of the scheme. No assessment has been made of the impact of the scheme on the ability of disabled people to find work. I have been discussing with stakeholders in Disability Confident ideas for making the scheme criteria more robust, and plan to bring forward proposals for this in due course.

How many people in (a) Dunfermline and Dollar constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK receive the health rate top-up for Universal Credit.

Quarterly statistics for the number of People on Universal Credit with a health condition or disability restricting their ability to work in Great Britain are published on Stat-Xplore. The latest release provides figures up to December 2024 which can be broken down by country, Westminster Parliamentary Constituency and Local Authority. Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required. Universal Credit statistics for Northern Ireland are published by the Department for Communities. Note: the Universal Credit health element is paid at a household level, not to individuals, and Households on Universal Credit statistics can be broken down similarly, by the numbers receiving the Limited Capability for Work Entitlement and by geography.

When she last met with Motability; and what she had discussions on.

The Motability Scheme is open to claimants who are in receipt of an eligible benefit. If a claimant elects to join the Scheme, the Department directly transfers the mobility allowance to Motability Operations on behalf of the eligible claimant. The Motability Scheme does not receive any direct funding from the Department for Work and Pensions. A range of external bodies scrutinised the Scheme between 2018 and 2020, and the Government responded to each of the reports. The Motability Foundation is independent of government, and regulated by the Charity Commission, so is wholly responsible for the terms and the administration of the Scheme. The department does however work closely with Motability and is responsible for the disability benefits that provide a passport to the Motability Scheme. Department officials have regular meetings with Motability and will continue to do so.As the Minister for Social Security and Disability, I met with Motability Foundation in November 2024 to discuss the Scheme and its strategic objectives.

What steps she is taking to ensure work coaches are able to assist people with (a) ADHD and (b) autism in (i) Scotland and (ii) the UK.

In January this year, the Government launched an independent academic panel to advise on boosting awareness and inclusion at work for those with neurodiversity. Many panel members are neurodivergent or have familial experience, alongside their professional expertise. The panel is exploring why neurodivergent individuals often have poor workplace experiences and a low employment rate. Building on the Buckland Review, the panel will recommend employer actions to support neurodivergent inclusion, including in recruitment and daily workplace practices. This government is committed to improving the outcomes for neurodiverse people. All DWP Work Coaches undergo comprehensive training, equipping them with the skills to provide support tailored to each customer’s individual circumstances. Work Coaches have access to a learning product specific to Autism. It covers:adapt how you communicateadapt your body languageshow empathyadapt your environment Work coaches receive specialist advice from Disability Employment Advisers on customising their support for disabled customers, who also offer direct support to customers where additional bespoke assistance is beneficial. Work coaches can also use Additional Work Coach Support to provide personalised assistance to disabled people, helping them move toward and into employment and to access employment and wider services.

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department's work with Motability.

The Motability Scheme is open to claimants who are in receipt of an eligible benefit. If a claimant elects to join the Scheme, the Department directly transfers the mobility allowance to Motability Operations on behalf of the eligible claimant. The Motability Scheme does not receive any direct funding from the Department for Work and Pensions. A range of external bodies scrutinised the Scheme between 2018 and 2020, and the Government responded to each of the reports. The Motability Foundation is independent of government, and regulated by the Charity Commission, so is wholly responsible for the terms and the administration of the Scheme. The department does however work closely with Motability and is responsible for the disability benefits that provide a passport to the Motability Scheme. Department officials have regular meetings with Motability and will continue to do so.As the Minister for Social Security and Disability, I met with Motability Foundation in November 2024 to discuss the Scheme and its strategic objectives.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of those reforms on people with (a) sarcoidosis, (b) ME and (c) other fluctuating health conditions.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of those reforms on people with ADHD.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

Whether she plans to continue her Department's relationship with Motability.

The Motability Scheme is open to claimants who are in receipt of an eligible benefit. If a claimant elects to join the Scheme, the Department directly transfers the mobility allowance to Motability Operations on behalf of the eligible claimant. The Motability Scheme does not receive any direct funding from the Department for Work and Pensions. A range of external bodies scrutinised the Scheme between 2018 and 2020, and the Government responded to each of the reports. The Motability Foundation is independent of government, and regulated by the Charity Commission, so is wholly responsible for the terms and the administration of the Scheme. The department does however work closely with Motability and is responsible for the disability benefits that provide a passport to the Motability Scheme. Department officials have regular meetings with Motability and will continue to do so.As the Minister for Social Security and Disability, I met with Motability Foundation in November 2024 to discuss the Scheme and its strategic objectives.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what support will be available for new claims for Universal Credit health rate.

We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work, backed up by £1 billion of new funding As the Green Paper notes, we are keen to engage widely on the design of this guarantee and the components needed to deliver it. To get this right, we will be seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders including devolved governments, local health systems, local government and Mayoral Strategic Authorities, private and voluntary sector providers, employers and potential users. We will confirm further details in due course after we have completed our consultation process.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, whether she plans to amend the work allowance for people in receipt of the limited capability for work and work related activity element of Universal Credit.

The work allowance for individuals who are found limited capability for work and work related activity (LCWRA) will remain unchanged to continue to incentivise people to try work. In the reformed system, work allowances will continue to be available to those who receive the UC health element. We want to enable people to take advantage of this strong financial incentive to work, which means they can earn up to £404 a month (or over £673 if they don’t get help with housing costs) without their benefits being affected.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of those reforms on the finances of people in receipt of carers' allowance caring for someone in receipt of PIP.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. The publication ‘Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts’ may be of interest. In particular, Table A1 on page 6 and Table A4 on page 9.A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

How many people in (a) Dunfermline and Dollar constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK receive the maximum award from PIP.

The Department regularly publishes Personal Independence Payment (PIP) statistics. The 'PIP Cases with Entitlement' dataset on Stat-Xplore, which contains the number of people entitled to PIP by geography including Parliamentary constituency and components received, can be used to calculate the number of people receiving PIP at the highest level. Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: Introduction to the Stat-Xplore User Guide. PIP has been devolved to Scotland since April 2020 and existing claims are currently being moved to the Scottish replacement benefit Adult Disability Payment.

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Disability Confident Scheme.

In 2022, the department commissioned a survey to understand from members’ perspectives the impact that signing up to the scheme has had on their recruitment and retention attitudes and practices towards disabled people. The survey can be accessed on gov.uk using the following link: Disability Confident: survey of participating employers, May 2022 - GOV.UK There are currently over 19,000 employers signed up to the Disability Confident scheme. Collectively, these employers estimate over 12 million employees work in their organisations. It is not known how many of these employees are disabled, have a health condition, or are direct users of the scheme. No assessment has been made of the impact of the scheme on the ability of disabled people to find work. I have been discussing with stakeholders in Disability Confident ideas for making the scheme criteria more robust, and plan to bring forward proposals for this in due course.

Whether she has conducted an equality impact assessment on proposals in the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025.

We published an Equality Analysis and Policy Rationale impacts alongside the Spring Statement. Further analysis for the measures in the Green Paper, not included in the Spring Statement, will be published in due course.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the limited capability for work and work related activity element of Universal Credit on families of disabled people aged under 22.

No decision has been made on this policy. The key principle of our focus for 18-21 year olds should be helping them to be earning or learning, because of the long-term scarring effects for young people of a period of unemployment. That is why we are consulting on delaying access to the UC health top up until age 22 with savings reinvested into work support and training opportunities. Universal Credit Health caseload statistics are available on DWP Stat-Xplore and were most recently updated with December 2024 data.In December 2024, 13,650 and 68,350 16- to 21-year-olds in Great Britain were in the Limited Capability for Work (LCW) and Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) groups respectively. Table: 16–21-year-olds in (a) Dunfermline and Dollar, (b) Scotland and (c) Great Britain on the UC Health caseload (December 2024) LCWLCWRATotal(a) Dunfermline and Dollar20110130(b) Scotland1,3807,4608,830(c) Great Britain13,65068,35082,000 Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data and are rounded to the nearest 10.Totals may not sum due to this disclosure control and rounding.Figures are a count of the number of people on Universal Credit health on the second Thursday of the month.Figures are Experimental Official Statistics Guidance on how to use Stat-Xplore can be found here: https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/ (opens in new window). An account is not required to use Stat- Xplore, the ‘Guest Login’ feature gives instant access to the main functions.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to support innovation in the manufacturing of optics equipment.

Growing innovative manufacturing companies will be key to unlocking growth across the economy.Optics has many applications across different sectors and we provide a range of support for firms specialising in it. For example, UKRI is funding over £116,000 to the University of Edinburgh and Optos PLC based in Dunfermline to develop technology for optical medical devices.The National Physical Laboratory provides a comprehensive range of optical calibration and measurement services, supporting industry in the design and production of optical components.

Whether he has had discussions with (a) the RAF and (b) defence suppliers on he future of the RAF fast jet training aircraft.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3 December 2024 to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) to Question 15292.

Whether he has had discussions with (a) the RAF and (b) defence industry suppliers on the replacement of the Hawk training jet.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 3 December 2024 to the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) to Question 15292.

When he last held discussions with the (a) Scottish Government and (b) (i) further and (ii) higher education sector in Scotland to encourage the effective supply of skills for the defence industrial sector from Scotland.

This Government recognises the critical importance of attracting new entrants into the defence sector in order to ensure we have the skilled workforce needed to sustain a vibrant, innovative and competitive defence industrial base. While discussions with the Scottish Government and education establishments in Scotland have not been held by the Secretary of State for Defence, the Ministry of Defence welcomes engagement and consultation with stakeholders across the United Kingdom to ensure our defence sector has the right people and skills to meet the challenges of the future.

What bases in the UK will have capability to hold Dreadnought class submarines for (a) repairs and (b) maintenance by 2035.

There is a strategy in place to upgrade infrastructure and provide suitable docking for the new Dreadnought Class submarines across existing UK naval bases and dockyards. For operational security reasons further details cannot be released as to do so could be used to undermine the security and capability of our Armed Forces.