Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Phoenix House DWP Office: Proposed Closure

Monday 11 July 2022 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 0 Partly answered 2 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Simon Fell asked about the potential impact of the proposed closure of the Department for Work and Pensions office in Phoenix House, Barrow-in-Furness.
  • The Department aims to retain, retrain, and redeploy staff to ensure no reduction in overall services.
  • The Minister acknowledged the significance of the specialist jobs in processing complex industrial disablement benefits.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Simon Fell
Benefits & Welfare Parliamentary Procedure Local Government
Context

The question addresses the potential impact of closing a Department for Work and Pensions office located in Phoenix House, Barrow-in-Furness. The closure would affect specialist services.

Question

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proposed closure of her Department's office based in Phoenix House in Barrow-in-Furness on the ability of her Department to deliver specialist services in that area.

Answer from Guy Opperman

The Department's priority will be to retain, retrain and redeploy colleagues either within the Department for Work and Pensions or within other Government Departments in the area, and with no reduction in the overall services people receive.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not provide a specific assessment of the impact on specialist services as requested.

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Q2 Simon Fell
Employment Benefits & Welfare
Context

The proposed closure of Phoenix House, which houses a team that processes complex industrial disablement benefits for people with mesothelioma across the UK. The questioner has written to the Secretary of State about this matter.

Question

The plan to close Phoenix House in Barrow will result in more than 40 specialist jobs leaving the area. This matters because the people there are the only team in the country able to deal with the really complicated industrial disablement benefits that they process. Only recently, largely due to our industrial heritage in Barrow, we were confirmed as having the highest rate of mesothelioma in the UK. The team at Phoenix House help not just Barrow residents but people across the UK with such complex diseases. I have written at length to the Secretary of State about this, with detailed testimonies from charities, service users, staff members and third-party organisations that want to keep the centre open. Will my hon. Friend meet me to discuss how we can find a way to make this work?

Answer from Guy Opperman

My hon. Friend is a doughty campaigner for his constituency and for the wider area, and the jobs that he is concerned with, and I give him great credit for that. I am not the responsible Minister, and I know that that letter has only recently arrived into the Department, but I will ensure very definitely that the Minister in respect of this particular decision will meet him in the near weeks so that there can be a proper discussion in respect of the situation for impacted staff.

Partly answered

Not addressed: Did not commit to meeting directly and did not address how services would continue without Phoenix House.

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