Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether the East West Rail will be designated as an England and Wales project.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
East West Rail is set to cover the route from Oxford to Cambridge and is therefore part of the RNEP portfolio which covers funding for projects in England and Wales. The RNEP portfolio can be distributed to any scheme across England and Wales.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she will consider proposals to support parents of chronically ill children from day 1 of that child's diagnosis.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government understands the difficulties and distress that children with serious health conditions or critical illnesses face. Children and their families who are living with a medical condition will be facing a difficult time in their lives which is why the department provides a wide range of financial support for both individuals and their carers.
Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is open to new claims for children aged under 16 if a child’s condition or illness is both of a long-term nature and gives rise to care or mobility needs.
The earliest that entitlement to DLA can start is when a three-month qualifying period condition has been met. This qualifying period helps establish that the disability and resulting care, supervision or mobility needs are of a long-standing nature and ensures that disability benefits are targeted to support those with long-term health conditions or disabilities. The qualifying period starts from the point that care, or mobility needs commence rather than the date the condition is diagnosed.
Children claiming DLA under the special rules for end of life do not have to satisfy the three-month qualifying period. In these cases, the claim is fast tracked, and the higher-rate care component is awarded from the date of claim.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to introduce a ban on personal meat imports, in the context of recent confirmed cases of Foot and Mouth in Europe.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 12 April 2025, the Government banned personal imports of meat and dairy products from foot and mouth disease (FMD) susceptible animals from the European single market area, to protect our farmers from FMD. The Government had already banned personal imports of these commodities from Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Austria in response to confirmed outbreaks of FMD in those countries.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will reconsider the maximum cap on the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme which can be claimed by any one church in 2025-26.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department has no plans to reconsider the £25,000 cap in 2025/26. Based on previous scheme data, we expect 94% of claims to be unaffected by the change.
Future Government spending is a matter for the 2026 Spending Review.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Secretary of State for Transport's Oral Statement of 24 March 2025 on Road Maintenance, whether she has made an estimate of the Barnett consequential funding for Wales of the additional £500 million highway maintenance funding.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At Phase 1 of the 2025 Spending Review, an additional £500 million was allocated to the Department for Transport to fund local highways maintenance in 2025-26. The Barnett formula was applied in the usual way to changes in the Department for Transport’s Delegated Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget.
At Spending Reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to changes to each UK Government department’s overall DEL budget, rather than to individual programmes.
The Welsh Government’s Spending Review settlement for 2025-26 is the largest in real terms of any Welsh Government settlement since devolution. The Welsh Government is receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in England. That translates into over £4 billion more in 2025-26 and includes £1.7 billion through the operation of the Barnett formula.
The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. The most recent report was published in July 2023. An update to Block Grant Transparency to include Autumn Budget 2024 changes will be published in due course:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the roll-out of facial recognition surveillance in Cardiff on (a) residents and (b) visitors.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
All police forces must comply with legislation and published guidance when they use facial recognition technology. This includes carrying out their Public Sector Equality Duty. South Wales Police has published equality and data protection impact assessments on live facial recognition technology on their website.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has issued guidance to South Wales Police on the roll-out of facial recognition surveillance in a city-wide CCTV network.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
All police forces are expected comply with existing legislation and published guidance when they use facial recognition technology. In particular, when forces use live facial recognition, they must comply with the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice. Its use must always be justified and pass the tests of necessity, proportionality and use for a policing purpose.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will bring forward proposals for a furlough scheme for parents of chronically ill children.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important role parents and carers play in looking after disabled people and people with health conditions, including chronically ill children. Significant support is available to support disabled people and their families and carers, such as Disability Living Allowance for children worth up to £184.30 per week, and Carer’s Allowance worth up to £81.90 per week.
This Government is going further to give carers greater flexibility to work and increase their financial security by raising the Carer’s Allowance Weekly Earnings Limit to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage from 6th April 2025. This will be the largest increase to the earnings limit since Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.
We are also strengthening the right to request flexible working arrangements through the Employment Rights Bill, enabling parents and carers to better balance work around their caring commitments.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure (a) that the rollout of digital quarterly submissions for tax returns under MTD for ITSA does not lead to penalties for non-compliance and increased stress for vulnerable groups who do not have the digital skills or digital access to meet the new requirements and (b) that measures are in place for people without digital access or digital skills to continue to submit manual books where necessary.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax is designed to make it easier for users to get their tax right and keep on top of their affairs. Taxpayers will use software to keep digital records and send simple quarterly updates to HMRC; in turn, this will help to finalise their Income Tax position after the year end.
A new fairer penalty regime will also be introduced to support taxpayers submitting more frequent updates under MTD. They will not be penalised for occasionally missing a deadline. Instead, they will receive a penalty point towards a points threshold. They will only receive a financial penalty once that threshold is met.
The government recognises that not everyone is able to interact with HMRC digitally. Digitally excluded taxpayers will be able to apply for an exemption from MTD and will continue to file using existing processes. HMRC will set out further information on the exemption process when it opens later in 2025.
Asked by: David Chadwick (Liberal Democrat - Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, how many people in Wales will be impacted by welfare reform.
Answered by Jo Stevens - Secretary of State for Wales
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. These publications can be found here Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper - GOV.UK.
There are currently 347,100 Universal Credit claimants in Wales, with 267,100 claimants of Personal Independence Payments. 89,000 claimants in Wales are receiving both Personal Independence Payments and Universal Credit. Overall, 15% of working age people in Wales receive a disability or incapacity benefit and around a quarter are neither in work nor looking for work.
To raise living standards in every corner of our country, we need to unleash the talents of people across the UK wherever they live. However, the system we inherited has left millions of people trapped on benefits, without the support they need to build a better life.
We know many sick and disabled people want to work, with the right help and support. They deserve the same rights, chances and choices to get good jobs as anybody else. That is why the government is fixing the social security system so that it gives those who could work the help they need, and those who can’t work the dignity and security they deserve.
The Department for Work and Pensions will continue to work with the Welsh government and other devolved governments, which will include looking at Welsh specific impacts to help support people back into work if they are able to, but also protect those who rely on our social security system.