Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the war in the Middle East on the cost of fertiliser for farmers.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The fertiliser market is a global market, and while there is no immediate risk to UK supply, the market price in the UK is strongly influenced by international prices for fertiliser and by the value of the pound.
The Government is aware of the current price increase for fertiliser due to the conflict in the Gulf. Defra is in close contact with domestic fertiliser suppliers and is monitoring overall supply to the UK. The Government remains ready to support businesses as effectively as possible in these challenging times.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2026 to Question 122806 on the Warm Homes Plan, what value of funding has been reallocated between projects under the Warm Homes: Local Grant and the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund schemes due to identified or anticipated underspend in the 2025–26 financial year.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Warm Homes: Local Grant and Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund will support hundreds of thousands of homes to become warmer and cheaper to run throughout the course of this Parliament, as part of our £15 billion Warm Homes Plan.
We maximise delivery throughout the course of the scheme to ensure that the budget for each year is fully utilised so households across England reap the full benefits of the schemes. This includes through reallocating funding where local authorities and housing associations indicate they won’t be able to spend their full budget for the year.
We reallocated £2.5m within Warm Homes: Local Grant, and £7.59m within Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund projects respectively in the first year of delivery.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the time taken to process Access to Work claims.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have increased the number of staff by 29% from 500 in March 2024 to 648 in March 2026 and streamlined processes to improve the service.
In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we consulted on the future of the scheme and how to improve it, so that it helps more disabled people in work. We are considering all aspects of Access to Work as we develop plans for reform.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Chevening Scholars who have claimed asylum in each year between 2021 and 2025 broken down by home country.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of people claiming asylum where the latest leave held prior to claim was a study visa is published in table Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’. The number of student entry clearance visas issued is published in table Vis_D02 of the 'Entry clearance visas datasets'.
The requested information on asylum claims from Chevening scholars is not available from published statistics.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve outcomes for invasive lobular breast cancer patients.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Lobular breast cancer impacts many lives. According to Cancer Research UK, lobular is the second most common breast cancer in the UK.
We are backing world-leading AI trials to improve diagnostic capacity and early detection. On 4 February 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that nearly 700,000 women across the country will take part in a world-leading Early Detection using Information Technology in Health, or EDITH, trial backed by £11 million of government support via National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NHS in England will also monitor the emerging evidence from the Breast Risk Adaptive Imaging for Density, or BRAID, trial, which aims to determine whether additional imaging with one of several types of scans, is helpful in diagnosing breast cancer in women with dense breast tissue. This will target screening programmes at women who are at greater risk of cancer.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) are committed to continuing to support the development of fundable research proposals and help drive a stronger collective understanding of the biology behind lobular breast cancer, as well as effective treatment and management of this disease. In order to further stimulate research in this area, the NIHR launched a highlight notice in late 2025, encouraging applications across its research programmes and training.
Under our National Cancer Plan for England, we will take action to raise awareness locally, improve pathways and offer better treatments to ensure more patients survive and live well with cancer than ever before, including for lobular breast cancer.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the use of animal testing in sepsis research.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
On 11th November 2025 the government published “Replacing animals in science: A strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods” which outlines the steps we will take to achieve this. (Replacing animals in science strategy - GOV.UK)
Sepsis is a complex and multifaceted condition, and its study presents significant scientific challenges. We will consider sepsis during the development of our areas of research interest list to determine the best path forward for new model development that drives scientific innovation, supports improved therapy development, and reduces reliance on animals.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of reports that recent criminal regulations introduced by the Taliban impose harsher punishments on women and minority groups; and what representations the UK Government has made to international partners regarding the protection of the rights and safety of women and girls.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statement issued by the Foreign Secretary on this matter on 26 February, where she said: "I am appalled by continuing restrictions imposed on women and girls in Afghanistan. The Taliban's new criminal procedure code legitimises domestic violence and targets women and minorities. These oppressive measures must be rescinded. The rights of all Afghans must be protected." The UK is working closely with international partners on the issue, including through our chairmanship of the G7+ group of countries, and engagement through the UN and the Human Rights Council.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate his Department has made of the level of underspend, or projected underspend, in the first year of the Warm Homes Local Grant and Warm Homes Social Fund; how many local authorities have submitted expenditure data to date; and whether the Department has modelled the full-year underspend based on these partial returns.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH:LG) and the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund (WH:SHF) schemes began delivery in April 2025.
Both schemes were oversubscribed demonstrating the high ambition of local authorities and social housing providers. We continue to see strong demand in both schemes.
To maximise delivery, where potential underspend has been identified it has been reallocated to high performing projects to ensure that grant funding is used by the end of the financial year.
Across both schemes, the final in-year spend can only be confirmed following robust financial management assessments. Financial reporting for the schemes will be available as part of DESNZ’s published annual accounts.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 19 March to question 120937, if she will respond to the original question as it relates to the fishing industry.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is actively monitoring the impact of diesel price changes on the fishing sector. The Government has raised industry concerns about red diesel prices, including price transparency, with the Competition and Markets Authority and we are committed to ensuring that this market functions fairly. The fishing sector can continue to access Marine Voyages Relief reducing the cost of their fuel by allowing them to partially claim back fuel duty.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of diesel price levels on the sustainability of the fishing industry.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is actively monitoring the impact of diesel price changes on our fishing sector. The Government has raised industry concerns about red diesel prices, including price transparency, with the Competition and Markets Authority and we are committed to ensuring that this market functions fairly.