Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle the sale of unethical fur products.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Fur farming is banned in the UK. Restrictions also apply to imports including fur and fur products from seals, cats and dogs. Other long-established controls include those covering fur from species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
On 26 March the Government published the Opinion on the responsible sourcing of fur by our expert Animal Welfare Committee and will carefully consider its findings. The Government has also published the summary of responses to the call for evidence on the fur trade in Great Britain, which was held under the previous government in 2021 jointly with the Scottish and Welsh Governments.
Building on this, the Government will now bring together a working group on fur, with involvement from both industry experts and those who support restrictions on the trade in fur, to explore concerns and the different ways in which they could be addressed.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what are the qualifying criteria for "most vulnerable households" in the provision of heating oil support.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Local authorities have flexibility to determine eligibility for heating‑oil support under the Crisis and Resilience Fund, applying their own discretion to identify the most vulnerable households facing immediate financial difficulties as a result of rising heating‑oil prices.
Local authorities can use a combination of application‑based routes, referrals and their professional judgement to identify individuals in need. National datasets, such as census data, can help local authorities understand where reliance on heating oil is more prevalent and inform local targeting.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what support his Department providing to people that require access to heating oil in the medium to near term.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK benefits from strong and diverse security of fuel supplies.
We are aware that some customers have been experiencing delays or difficulties in receiving heating oil deliveries. This reflects an increase in demand, rather than issues with supply.
We are in regular contact with industry to ensure our supply chain remains resilient and the sector is working hard to reach customers as quickly as possible.
We have been clear that suppliers must follow the UKIFDA Code of Practice and the Chancellor has recently announced £53m allocated to the Crisis Resilience Fund to ensure low income families across the UK are supported to access heating oil when required.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on changes to women's State Pension age, published on 21 March 2024, if he will make an assessment of the potential (a) economic; and (b) social impact on 1950s-born women in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government carefully considered the findings of the Ombudsman’s report on the communication of changes to women’s State Pension age, and a detailed response including an Equality Analysis has been deposited in the House library.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Statement of 29 January 2026, what assessment he has made of the reasons why the findings of the 2007 research report did not lead to a targeted public communications campaign to affected women.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Secretary of State reviewed the 2007 Report on Automatic Pension Forecasts before coming to his decision on the Ombudsman’s investigation.
The 2007 Report concluded that “overall…the evidence suggests negligible influence of the APF on pensions knowledge and retirement planning behaviour”, and around this time the Department stopped sending Automatic Pension Forecasts.
We have placed the 2007 report in the House library, where it can be read in full. The report is also available here: Evaluation of Automatic State Pension Forecasts.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of exemptions permitting the use of birds of prey in fox hunting activities; and whether it plans to review those provisions.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department has made no assessment of the effectiveness of exemptions permitting the use of birds of prey in fox hunting activities and has no plans to review those provisions.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help increase access to arts and culture.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to making arts and culture accessible to everyone. We invest £600 million annually through Arts Council England to support access to arts and culture across the country. Our £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere investment will save over 1,000 local cultural venues, restoring pride in place and national renewal. This government’s Curriculum Review will ensure every child receives a rich arts education.
We will soon respond to the Hodge Review, which offered recommendations to ensure that creativity is accessible to all.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure adequate security provision for the Palestinian Embassy in London.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government takes the protective security of diplomatic missions extremely seriously.
The UK’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate, but it would not be appropriate to comment in detail on those arrangements.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
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 lengthening the qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years for young adults and children under Appendix Private Life to the Immigration Rules.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.
The consultation directly seeks views on retaining the current arrangement, whereby children and young adults who grew up in the UK without immigration status my settle five years after regularising that status.
Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following that consultation. The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessment, which we have committed to publish in due course.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how he plans to reduce disability benefits by up to £580 million a year.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are reducing the frequency of Personal Independence award reviews to deliver more WCA re-assessments after they were stopped during Covid-19. We will also significantly increase the share of face-to-face assessments, enabling assessors to better understand the impact of conditions upon claimants. The combined impact of all these measures is expected to see a reduction in spending across the UK of £1.9b between 2026/27 and 2030/31.