Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made, using the same static microsimulation model as in the Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit impact assessment, of the number of additional (a) people and (b) children who will be in (i) relative and (ii) absolute poverty after housing costs in Wales in 2029-30 as a result of modelled changes to social security, compared to baseline projections.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government's impact assessment regarding Health and Disability Reform is available at Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts
These estimates have been made at Great Britain level. It is not possible to provide figures for Wales because the static microsimulation model uses survey data and sample sizes are not large enough to provide robust estimates.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she has had discussions with the Welsh Government on the potential merits of opening a new railway station in St. Clears in Carmarthenshire.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Future provision of a station at St Clears is subject to ongoing discussion by the UK and Welsh governments within the Wales Rail Board as part of its consideration of future rail investment priorities for Wales.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the supply of Creon.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is in regular discussion with the supplier of Creon on the latest stock availability and the actions that are being taken to mitigate the supply issue that is affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes of Creon for 2025 for the UK. We continue to work with all suppliers of pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) to understand what more can be done to add further resilience to the market. The Department has also worked with specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market.
In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers; if authorised these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) number of PIP recipients and (b) average PIP award amount received each month is in each (i) local authority area and (ii) constituency in Wales for the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on Personal Independence Payment (PIP) can be found on Stat Xplore. The requested data can be found in the ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement from 2019’ dataset. You can use the ‘Month’ filter to select the latest data available. You can filter by Local Authority and Constituency in Wales by using the ‘Geography’ filter to select either ‘National – Regional – LA – OAs’ or ‘Westminister Parliamentary Constituency 2024’ and to select Wales you will need to filter by ‘DWP policy ownership’ and then select ‘England and Wales’ and then ‘Wales’.
To look at the average award amounts, you can use the ‘Measures’ filter to select ‘Financial Award’ to get the award amount received.
You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of PIP recipients in (a) Wales, (b) England and (c) the UK live in post-industrial areas.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Data on the proportion of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) recipients in each region broken down by areas can be found on Stat-Xplore. There is no official definition of post-industrial areas for use in official statistics. This recent article published by the House of Lords Library references academic research which has produced a working definition of former industrial areas, which may be of use.
The PIP recipients in (a) Wales and (b) England can be found in the ‘PIP Cases with Entitlement from 2019’ dataset. Figures for England and Wales can be broken down by Census Output Area 2011 to the Local Authority level using the categories under ‘DWP policy ownership’ within the ‘National - Regional - LA – OAs' variable.
You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user, and if needed, you can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
The Department for Work and Pensions only administers PIP in England and Wales and is therefore unable to provide figures for (c) the UK. In Scotland, Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has replaced PIP from summer 2022 and in Northern Ireland, PIP is administered by the Department for Communities.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of the population of (a) Wales, (b) England and (c) the UK received (i) PIP, (ii) Disability Living Allowance, (iii) Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity and (iv) attendance allowance in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Table 1 below contains the proportion of the population of England and Wales receiving Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) and Attendance Allowance (AA).
Table 1: The percentage of the population of England and Wales receiving the different disability benefits
| England | Wales |
PIP | 5% | 8% |
DLA | 2% | 2% |
LCWRA | 2% | 3% |
AA | 2% | 3% |
The Department for Work and Pensions only administers PIP in England and Wales and is therefore unable to provide figures for the UK. In Scotland, Adult Disability Payment (ADP) has replaced PIP from summer 2022 and in Northern Ireland, PIP is administered by the Department for Communities.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on (a) the future availability of (i) international rugby tournaments and (b) Six Nations on free-to-air television in Wales and (b) including the Six Nations in Group A of listed sporting events.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
I intend to visit Wales in the near future and discuss sporting and other issues with the Welsh Government and other Welsh stakeholders.
It is right that the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Six Nations Rugby take a considered and balanced approach: recognising the need to achieve reach with existing and new fans, the importance that the Six Nations has for the cultural pride of each of the Home Nations, whilst maximising broadcast revenue.
BBC and ITV have now agreed a new four-year deal for the rights to the Six Nations, which will ensure that the Six Nations will remain on free to air television for people to enjoy for the foreseeable future.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment on the potential merits of reviewing Universal Credit rates to provide a protected minimum amount of support based on the cost of essentials.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are currently no plans to make such an assessment.
The Government recognises the critical role Universal Credit has to play in tackling poverty and making work pay and has already taken steps to help those in need.
The Fair Repayment Rate, to be introduced from April, will reduce Universal Credit overall cap on deductions from 25% to 15%. This measure will help approximately 1.2 million of the poorest households benefit by an average of £420 a year.
Benefit rates are reviewed each year, increasing by 6.7% in April 2024 and by a further 1.7% from April 2025, in line with inflation. Around 5.7 million Universal Credit families are forecast to benefit from uprating in financial year 2025 to 2026, with an average annual gain for a family estimated to be £150.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a similar scheme to the former Young Audiences Content Fund.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has no plans to re-introduce a similar scheme to the Young Audiences Content Fund, which concluded on 31 March 2022. However, the Government is committed to the success of our world-leading TV production sector. UK-wide television and film tax reliefs, including for children’s television programming, continue to play a vital role in driving production, with over £5.6 billion of expenditure supported in 2024.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the press notice entitled Major investment to boost growth and cement Britain’s place as cultural powerhouse, published on 20 February 2025, what consequential funding through the Barnett formula will be provided to Wales.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Barnett formula is applied when departmental budgets change – not when departments announce how they are spending their budgets. The Barnett formula was applied in the usual way, as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy, when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s budget changed at Phase 1 of the Spending Review 2025.
The Welsh Government’s Phase 1 Spending Review 2025 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.
The published Block Grant Transparency document provides a detailed breakdown of how the block grants are calculated and the next iteration will be published in due course.