The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides guidance to employers on measures they can take to protect workers during periods of extreme heat. This includes considering changes to working arrangements and relaxing formal dress codes, including staff uniform policies, where appropriate. However, employers must ensure that any personal protective equipment required for the work activity continues to be worn.

HSE will be launching a public consultation on proposed changes to the Approved Code of Practice for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, including those relating to workplace temperature and there will be an opportunity to respond in due course.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides guidance to employers on measures they can take to protect workers during periods of extreme heat. This includes considering changes to working arrangements and relaxing formal dress codes, including staff uniform policies, where appropriate. However, employers must ensure that any personal protective equipment required for the work activity continues to be worn.

HSE will be launching a public consultation on proposed changes to the Approved Code of Practice for the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, including those relating to workplace temperature and there will be an opportunity to respond in due course.

AI has potentially transformative benefits for the economy and wider society, and the Government is doing all it can to ensure that the United Kingdom is at the forefront of this technological transition.

As part of that, teams across DWP, for instance working in policy, operational and digital, are considering how AI could impact the social security and welfare system to ensure the Department continues to deliver effectively for citizens in the future.

Currently 93.88 full time equivalents work for the Independent Case Examiner’s Office.

The overall costs for the 25/26 financial year were £4.8m.

The department is taking a number of steps to support the training and upskilling of staff involved in Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments, while ensuring that all clinical training materials are of the highest quality, evidence-based, and free from bias.

Since September 2024, following the commencement of the Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS) contracts, the DWP Clinical Team has taken ownership of all clinical core training and guidance materials (CTGM). These materials are now developed and assured independently of charities and other stakeholder organisations to ensure consistency, impartiality and alignment with best clinical practice. The CTGM is aligned with national guidance, including that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which draws on the best available evidence and incorporates input from clinical experts, people with lived experience, carers and the public.

Senior clinicians from charities and stakeholder groups are invited to contribute to a monthly education programme delivered to DWP-employed clinicians. All contributions are subject to prior review to ensure they are evidence-based, clinically focused and free from bias.

In addition, the department facilitates ongoing engagement through quarterly stakeholder information sessions. These provide an opportunity for charities and other organisations to raise questions, offer feedback, and highlight concerns regarding clinical training materials. Feedback can also be submitted in advance of these sessions for discussion.

Through this approach, the department ensures that training remains robust, evidence-based and informed by wider expertise, while maintaining appropriate independence and clinical integrity in the development of guidance for PIP assessments.

On 9 September 2024, DWP assumed responsibility for the Core Training and Guidance Materials (CTGM) used within the Health Assessment Advisory Service (HAAS), provided by DWP to the HAAS assessment suppliers. Following the transfer of responsibilities to DWP, all training and guidance materials are currently being comprehensively reviewed and updated. A newly established team is leading this work, ensuring that all materials are aligned with national best practice standards. To support this, independent clinical experts are being engaged to provide external quality assurance, helping to ensure the accuracy, relevance, and consistency of the content. Once the review and update is complete, external organisations, including charities representing people with specific health conditions such as Parkinson’s, will be invited to comment.

Based on current demand assumptions, the Office for Nuclear Regulation's (ONR) assessment for financial years 2026/27 and 2027/28 is that delivery of its strategy can be achieved broadly within existing workforce capacity levels.

ONR keeps its workforce requirements under regular review through established workforce planning and performance monitoring arrangements and will respond appropriately should future circumstances indicate a need for additional capacity.

The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require employers to provide such equipment and facilities as are adequate and appropriate to enable first aid to be rendered to employees who are injured or become ill at work. A needs assessment will determine the first-aid requirements that are appropriate for that business. However, these regulations do not apply to non-employees such as customers.

Where work includes the provision of a service to others ie non-employees in a restaurant or pub, guidance from the Health and Safety Executive strongly recommends that their needs are included in this assessment.

Where a need for a first aider is identified, it should be noted that responding to choking emergencies is a core competency of the Emergency First Aid at Work or First Aid at Work qualifications.

The department regularly reviews its estate to ensure it meets the needs of customers and colleagues, supports service delivery and represents value for money for the taxpayer. The Workplace Transformation Programme began in 2021 to ensure the department has an estate that is the right size and shape to meet current and future business needs. It is aligned to the department and wider government’s ambition of creating a smaller, better and greener public estate.

While we do not undertake ‘regional occupancy modelling’, we seek to maintain a broad geographic distribution of offices across Great Britain. However, to ensure offices remain viable and the estate is aligned to operational requirements, the size and distribution of the DWP estate may change over time. Decisions on individual offices are not taken in isolation. When making decisions about the estate, the programme assesses the impact of proposed changes on:

• customer service delivery and operational resilience – working with business leaders to ensure no disruption to customers as a result of estate changes
• value for money – ensuring the department is only paying for the estate it needs
• office capacity and utilisation – our office capacity across the network is larger than our headcount by about a third
• building quality, sustainability and size – the programme seeks to move away from low quality, inefficient, smaller sites to fewer, better, larger and more sustainable buildings
• workforce requirements – ensuring the location and design of our buildings meets the needs of our workforce
• staffing levels – estate rationalisation activity is not delivered with the aim of reducing the department’s headcount, and our first priority is to retain, retrain or redeploy impacted colleagues.
• lease events

The programme recently announced consolidation activity impacting nine of our office buildings:

• Blackpool Peel Park
• Derby Holborn House
• Glasgow Northgate
• Halifax Dean Clough Mills
• Hyde Beech House
• Liverpool Belle Vale
• Motherwell Johnstone House
• Sunderland Wear View House
• Torquay Cotswold House

The department continually reviews our entire estate to ensure it is aligned to local requirements. Whenever the department makes decisions about our estate, our priority is to communicate with our colleagues first, followed by impacted MPs and members of the devolved administrations where applicable.

Further information will continue to be published through these established processes and in accordance with commercial and operational considerations.

The programme’s business case is regularly scrutinised to assess whether it measures up to the standards set out in Managing Public Money. A recent summary of the key points from the Accounting Officer’s Assessment of the Workplace Transformation Programme was made available to Parliament in April 2026 and can be found on GOV.UK. The Department does not routinely publish information where doing so could prejudice its commercial position, ongoing estate planning activity or the delivery of value for money for the taxpayer.

Apprenticeships are a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

This Government is investing in young people’s futures and reversing the sharp decline in apprenticeship starts amongst young people – which have fallen by 40% over the last decade.

As communicated in the Written Statement of 2 June 2025, the government no longer funds level 7 apprenticeships, equivalent to master’s degree level, except for young apprentices under the age of 22, and those under 25 who are care leavers or have an Education, Health and Care Plan. This will create more opportunities for those entering the labour market and help apprenticeships opportunities to be rebalanced towards young people.

Employers and apprenticeship training providers were also notified of the changes to Level 7 apprenticeship funding in June 2025.

This decision was informed by a range of evidence, including Skills England’s analysis of official apprenticeship statistics and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. Skills England’s evidence suggested there was unlikely to be a significant or unavoidable fall in the supply of these skills in the long term, post-defunding. Skills England has published a report on their findings: Skills England: evidence on defunding of level 7 apprenticeships - GOV.UK

We are encouraging more employers to invest in upskilling their staff aged over 22 to level 7 where it delivers a benefit to the business and the individual. It will be for employers to determine the most appropriate training. There are alternative training options available to employers at level 7 including non-apprenticeship routes. The department has published guidance on privately funded apprenticeships, which will enable employers to privately fund level 7 apprenticeships for staff aged over 22: Privately funded apprenticeships: rules and guidance - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab).

The Department for Health and Social Care has confirmed that it will fund the ongoing provision of level 7 apprenticeships in five professions including Specialist Community Public Health Nurse, District Nurse and Advanced Clinical Practitioner.

Apprenticeship starts for the Level 7 Accountancy or Taxation Professional standard are published in the Apprenticeships Accredited Official Statistics publication.

To ensure customers with complex barriers receive the right support from Jobcentres, our Disability Employment Advisers offer direct support (1-2-1) to customers on top of the help provided by their work coach or Pathways to Work Adviser. Using their knowledge of the local community, Disability Employment Advisers also collaborate with local organisations (e.g. GPs, NHS, charities) to facilitate support that meets customer needs.

Throughout the customer health journey, Disability Employment Advisers assist work coaches and Pathways to Work Advisers with tailoring their support to help disabled customers and those with long-term health conditions move closer to and into the labour market. This includes ensuring that the customer’s support needs are noted in the additional support record on the Universal Credit live service operating system.

As the hon. Member knows, we are working through the cases of those who were required to repay an overpayment over recent years. I am receiving an update every week on the number of cases that have been gone through and the number of people who have had an overpayment reduced or cancelled, and I would be happy to give the hon. Member further information about the progress of that work.

I welcome the Government’s acceptance of a finding from the Liz Sayce review of carer’s allowance overpayments in respect of the underuse of waivers, given that the households concerned are often the most vulnerable in society. Has a review of the use of waivers been undertaken, and what changes have been made for frontline staff?

The Department for Work and Pensions expects staff to use relevant information held on DWP systems when preparing for and conducting Universal Credit appointments.

This includes reviewing claimant circumstances, work search activity, agreed requirements and any evidence or updates provided through the claimant’s Universal Credit account.

Line Managers also case review with Work Coaches during coaching sessions, one-to-one meetings and training. Work Coaches may seek additional support and advice from specialist Work Coaches such as Disability Employment Advisers and Domestic Abuse Champions.

During appointments, Work Coaches use this information to discuss progress, tailor support and ensure claimants understand what is required of them. Staff then update the claimant’s account in readiness to review next time.

Staff are also expected to consider individual circumstances, including health conditions, vulnerabilities or barriers to work, and adapt their approach where appropriate.

DWP recognises the importance of providing learning to enable all Jobcentre staff in customer contact roles to meet the needs of all our claimants, including those with hidden disabilities.

Jobcentre staff receive role specific learning, which:

• provides a definition of hidden disability and explains the impacts this may have on claimants
• gives examples of hidden disabilities and health conditions
• provides awareness of undiagnosed hidden disability
• ensures learners understand both their Public Sector Equality Duty responsibilities, and how to support claimants’ additional needs

• enables staff to signpost claimants to appropriate external specialist support.

As at 19 May 2026, there were 658 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff engaged in delivering the Access to Work scheme. This represents an increase of 32.29 FTE compared with 625.71 FTE staff at the end of May 2025.

The Department keeps staffing levels under review and recognises that resourcing levels can affect processing times. To address this, recruitment is underway to increase capacity, which will support the clearance of outstanding applications, and improve processing times.

Huge recruitment boost to tackle backlog in vital disability work scheme - GOV.UK.

The latest data held (as of 31st May 2026) shows there are 15,429 work coaches currently employed in Jobcentre Plus offices across Great Britain.

DWP has established processes to identify, record and share relevant information about claimants’ circumstances, including vulnerabilities, so staff can provide appropriate support.

Colleagues carry out vulnerability checks and record outcomes on DWP systems, considering health conditions, disabilities, life events and personal circumstances.

Where additional needs are identified, information is recorded on relevant systems, including the Customer Information System and Universal Credit, covering complex needs, reasonable adjustments and support arrangements. Managers also assure themselves that processes are operating correctly.

Claimants can advise us verbally of any health conditions and vulnerability needs, or they can update digitally via their Journal on their Universal Credit. This helps staff tailor appointments and contact.

Frontline Jobcentre staff are trained to identify and support vulnerable customers, including through mental health awareness and reasonable adjustments guidance. More complex cases can be escalated where needed.

Together, these measures help ensure relevant information is captured and accessible, enabling personalised support.

Skills England engaged with a total of 23 aviation bodies (which includes aviation sector employers, representative bodies and training providers) between 5 June 2025 and 10 June 2026.

The focus of these engagements was to support the development, reform and delivery of high-quality apprenticeships and technical training. This included ensuring standards reflect employer needs, responding to sector-specific issues (e.g. pilot training pipeline), and aligning skills provision with major infrastructure expansion and workforce demand across the aviation sector.