Stephen Lloyd: As the Minister knows, one of the challenges with bus passes is that there is a bit of a postcode lottery: they vary between cities and rural areas. In the spirit of positivity that the Minister spoke about, will the Government make any proposals to ensure that people get the same level of bus pass across the piece, so that WASPI women in rural areas will not suffer more than they would if...
Stephen Lloyd: I appreciate all the work that the hon. Gentleman has done on this issue; I have often been with him in the Chamber. He is making a very important point. Does he agree that the cost of providing bus passes would be negligible, but they would make a difference to a lot of WASPI women—Women Against State Pension Inequality? The reality, however, is that the Department for Work and Pensions...
Stephen Lloyd: I pay tribute to the remarkable work of health visitors in my constituency. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that cutting the health visitor service by 30% over the last few years has clearly made it even harder for the profession and for the families and mums that they take care of?
Stephen Lloyd: It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bedford (Mohammad Yasin). One area on which I certainly agree with him is that I think the Queen’s Speech was clearly a party political broadcast for the Conservatives. I was inclined to think, as I read it, that perhaps Her Majesty should bill Conservative central office for services rendered. There are three areas I would like to touch on,...
Stephen Lloyd: Does my hon. Friend share my frustration that so many of the Government’s policy pledges on education in the past few weeks appear to be so much more about electioneering than actual meat on the bone? That is certainly the case for education, but also in many other areas.
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to tackle the disability pay gap in the last 12 months.
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of disabled adults of working age in (i) England, (ii) Wales and (iii) Scotland received support from the Access to Work grant scheme in each of the last three years.
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many employees left employment in her Department due to (a) disability and (b) long-term health conditions in (i) 2016, (ii) 2017 and (iii) 2018.
Stephen Lloyd: I do not know whether the Leader of the House is aware of this, but a few days ago at Treasury questions a number of colleagues on both sides of the House pointed out to Ministers that there had been seven suicides by people affected by the loan user charge. I remind the right hon. Gentleman that in July 2018 I urged Treasury Ministers to install a mental health helpline at Her Majesty’s...
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the disability employment gap in her Department.
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has implemented the voluntary reporting framework on disability, mental health and well-being in the workplace introduced in November 2018.
Stephen Lloyd: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Charles. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Sir Vince Cable) on securing this important debate. In the limited time that I have, I will concentrate on a couple of realities. Every colleague in the room knows that social care is on its knees and has been for a long time. I appreciated the intervention from the...
Stephen Lloyd: Is the Secretary of State aware that scam telephone artists are fanning out across the country phoning people offering a refund if they provide their bank details? People will lose money. Will he publicise the fact that the public should be aware of this?
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department has taken to assess how the Pensions Dashboard could connect into private pension schemes using a federated Digital Identity.
Stephen Lloyd: What progress has been made on the proposed dualling of the A27 east of Lewes to Eastbourne.
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the viability of the Verify scheme; and what role the private sector is planned to play in the future of that scheme.
Stephen Lloyd: I completely concur with the hon. Gentleman. Eastbourne is a town that has been built up over many years. We have a wonderful cycling group called Bespoke, which I and the council very much support. We want to put in more cycling infrastructure, but the challenge is simply lack of funds. Towns such as Eastbourne will need Government funding to do what they really want to do in support of...
Stephen Lloyd: Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of splitting her Department into two separate Departments.
Stephen Lloyd: I thank the Secretary of State for that answer. However, she will be aware that there is a significant difference between the benefits of universal credit, disability benefits and pensions. She will also be aware that certain newspapers are prone, when talking about the allegedly outrageous amounts of money that people on unemployment or disability benefits get, to look only at the...
Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria his Department uses to determine the allocation of legal aid; and how his Department assesses the claims of families of victims of terrorist attacks against that criteria.