Written questions by Whately.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that the Environment Agency responds to requests from the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent on battery safety at Cleve Hill Solar Park.

The Environment Agency works closely with the department at every level to ensure that the Environment Agency maintains high standards of delivery for stakeholders and the public, including when handling correspondence. Members of Parliament are encouraged to deal directly with the Environment Agency on day-to-day operational matters.

Whether her Department is taking steps to monitor the responsiveness of the Health and Safety Executive to inquiries from hon. Members.

The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence and keeps this under constant review. The Cabinet Office publishes statistics on Departmental performance which can be found on the gov.uk website and can be viewed here.

Whether her Department’s investigators can apply to police to have individuals suspected of committing fraud against the Department arrested.

Where appropriate, DWP can apply to the Police to undertake an arrest as part of a criminal investigation into suspected fraud.

How many times the Public Sector Fraud Authority has applied to the county court for a recovery order for the assets of people found to have committed fraud in each of the last five years.

The Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) works with government departments and public bodies to understand and reduce the impact of fraud and error against the public sector. The PSFA is expected to surpass its 2024-25 target of recovering and preventing £250m of fraud - ensuring public money is out of the hands of fraudsters. Since the Authority’s launch in 2022, the PSFA has started the pilot of the new Enforcement Unit for government, which began fraud investigations in May 2024.The Enforcement Unit is actively investigating cases of fraud, and will seek to use relevant civil powers to recover funds stolen by fraudsters. To date, the PSFA has not applied to any county court for a recovery order regarding the assets of people found to have committed fraud. This government is taking tough action to reduce public sector fraud. In January, we introduced the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill, giving us more tools to combat fraud, allowing government to investigate fraud, recover public money and sending fraudsters a clear message: you won’t get away with stealing public money.

How many times her Department has used (a) section 71 and (b) section 71ZE of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 to recover assets from people found to have committed fraud in each of the last five years.

The Department has not recovered assets from the debtor, such as through a writ of possession or charging order, under either section 71 or section 71ZE of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 in the last five years. Debts under section 71 are currently recovered by deduction from benefit or a Direct Earnings Attachment. However, the Department does use The Proceeds Of Crime Act to recover assets following criminal prosecutions.

When her Department plans to respond to e-petition 701064.

A response was sent to the Petitions Committee (Commons Select Committee) on 3 April 2025 for consideration for publication.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the additional funding for employment, health and skills support on the number of people who will return to work.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information already published alongside the Spring Statement. 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, which organisations will be responsible for spending the additional funding for employment, health and skills support.

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, with which organisations she has held discussions on her proposed reforms to the Personal Independence Payment.

We have set out proposals to reform the health and disability benefits system in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published on 18 March 2025. A full 12-week consultation will begin from the point all accessible versions are published on GOV.UK. We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new PIP eligibility requirement, and we will consider improvements to the PIP assessment. We would like to hear views from a wide group of people, in particular disabled people and people with health conditions and disability organisations, and encourage responses to the consultation through the online form, email and post. We also intend to run a number of accessible virtual and face-to-face events on the Green Paper to hear from stakeholders, including disabled people and their representative organisations, directly. More information on these events and registration will be advertised on the consultation pages on GOV.UK in due course. We also announced plans to launch a review of the PIP assessment which I will lead and we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, how much and what proportion of the additional funding for employment, health and skills support will be allocated to each region.

As the Pathways to Work Green Paper sets out, we are keen to engage widely on the design of our proposals for new employment support for disabled people and those with health conditions. 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. Therefore, at this stage no decisions have been taken or estimates made of how spending may vary across regions.

With reference to the Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what measures her Department will use to assess the effectiveness of the additional funding for employment, health and skills support.

We anticipate that we will assess effectiveness of Pathways to Work measures in the usual way, including through evaluation of their implementation and the impacts that they have on employment, incomes, benefit receipt and other indicators. We will publish more information on our evaluation strategy 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, with which organisations she has held discussions on the proposed changes in rate of Universal Credit components.

We urgently need reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and promote the interests of disabled people. Therefore, there are some measures announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper on the 18 March 2025 that we will not be consulting on. The Pathways to Work Green Paper sets out our wider plan to reform the system by rebalancing the levels of the UC standard allowance and the UC health element. Our objective is a social security system which is pro-work but provides adequate financial support for people when they are not working, regardless of the reason. The changes to UC payment rates will be introduced in primary legislation, and so will be fully debated in Parliament, and are not subject to consultation. No additional engagement on the changes to UC payment rates was sought before the publication of the Green Paper. We are, however, consulting on a number of other measures in the Paper. We would like to hear views from disabled people and representative organisations, and encourage responses to the consultation through the online form, email and post.

Which organisations have presented to the Child Poverty Taskforce ministerial advisory sessions; and on what topics.

The Taskforce has consulted external experts seven times on the four pillars of the strategy: increasing incomes, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience, and better local support, especially in the early years. Experts have come from a range of organisations, including local and regional government, charities, think tanks, businesses, and the public sector. More details will be set out in the strategy publication.

Whether it is her Department’s policy to stop (a) Universal Credit, (b) New Style Jobseeker's Allowance and (c) income-based Jobseeker's Allowance claims of people who refuse to (i) engage with a Jobcentre and (ii) accept a job offer.

Apart from those with exceptions, all customers must accept a Claimant Commitment as a condition of entitlement. The requirements any customer is asked to meet will be clearly set out in their Claimant Commitment, including attending appointments and undertaking work-related activities.Where the Department has evidence that a customer has failed to undertake their agreed work-related requirements without good reason, we will look into whether a sanction – which is a reduction in the amount of benefit paid – is applicable.Where a customer in receipt of income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance fails to attend their Work Search Review and fails to make contact within 5 working days, their entitlement to benefit will also cease.

With reference to the press notice entitled Government bolsters employment support to unlock work for sick and disabled people, published on 6 March 2025, how this policy will relate to the Additional Work Coach Time programme.

DWP announced on the 6th March that we will deploy 1000 work coaches to help people with health conditions and disabled people towards and into work. This will build and expand on existing measures like additional work coach support that delivers personalised support for some customers on the health journey.

Whether it is her Department’s policy for claimants eligible only for basic Universal Credit who have not found employment after 18 months to undertake mandatory work experience placements.

Decisions about the future direction of the work, health and skills agenda will be set out at the multi-year spending review in 2025, building on the ambitions set out in the Get Britain Working white paper.

With reference to paragraph 3.26 of the Autumn Statement 2023, CP 977, what progress her Department has made on rolling out mandatory work placements for Universal Credit claimants who were unable to find employment at the end of the Restart programme.

Decisions about the future direction of the work, health and skills agenda will be set out at the multi-year spending review in 2025, building on the ambitions set out in the Get Britain Working white paper.

What funding her Department plans to provide for road improvements at the capital roads project Brenley Corner; and when work will begin on it.

Proposals to improve Brenley Corner on the A2 are being developed as part of the pipeline of projects to be considered for possible delivery in a future Road Investment Strategy. Funding has been allocated for the development stages of the proposals only. If taken forward, the project would enter construction beyond 2031.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2025 to Question 31062 on Death Certificates, what the median time taken was to register a death at the most localised level for which data is available.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly data showing the median time to register a death by certification type in England and Wales. The latest data, for deaths registered in the week ending 21 February 2025, shows that the median time to register all deaths was nine days, and the median time to register deaths certified by a doctor was eight days. The ONS is planning to extend this data to include the median time taken to register a death by region, and expect this to be available in Spring 2025.

What steps she is taking to help tackle (a) organised crime, (b) theft and (c) antisocial behaviour in rural areas.

Rural crime can have devastating consequences for countryside communities. The Government is joint with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to deliver a new Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy, ensuring our Safer Streets Mission benefits every community no matter where they live.Rural communities will benefit from more local visible policing through the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which will put 13,000 more neighbourhood officers and PCSOs in communities across the country, helping to tackle crimes like anti-social behaviour (ASB), fly tipping and county lines which can have a devastating impact on rural life. In addition, the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit – specialist policing units supported by the Home Office - play key roles in helping police across the UK tackle organised theft and disrupt serious and organised crime.To tackle the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting, we are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023. Additionally, the Crime and Policing Bill will introduce a new power for the police to enter and search premises to which items have been electronically tracked, where the items are reasonably believed to have been stolen and are on those premises, and it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant from a court.I recently have met with the NPCC lead for rural crime and the Head of the National Rural Crime Unit, on how we can better work together to tackle the scourge of rural crime in our countryside communities.