Oral Answers to Questions

Hywel Williams Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew]

We have been taking time to roll out universal credit and have responded to some of the needs and suggestions put forward, which is why people now get two weeks’ extra housing benefit, but I would add that not every council has used its discretionary payments for housing.

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

If universal credit is such a good thing, why is the Minister’s Government denying some Welsh-speaking people the right to apply for it?

[Stuart Andrew]

I have already written to my colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions about this because I recognise the importance of claimants being able to access the service in the Welsh language. That is exactly why the roll-out has been delayed in areas with a high proportion of people who speak Welsh. In addition, Welsh speakers can access some services via a freephone line.

--- Later in debate ---

[Hywel Williams (Arfon) (PC)]

Q4. The Prime Minister has said many, many times that she will have no hard border between Dublin and Belfast. Can she tell this House, just once, what sort of a border she would like to see between Dublin and Holyhead?

[The Prime Minister]

We have been very clear that we will not see a border down the Irish sea. We have been clear about that in the joint report that was issued by us and the European Commission and adopted by the European Council in December. When the European Commission made a proposal for dealing with the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland that would have meant a border down the Irish sea, I was clear that neither I nor any British Prime Minister could accept that.