Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the procurement of British-made office products and stationery by (a) her Department and (b) its arms-length bodies.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to supporting British businesses and the products they produce, ensuring they have the best opportunities to win UK public contracts and deliver high-quality goods and services.
Cabinet Office are consulting on a package of further reforms to public procurement to support the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
The Government maintains robust standards across a range of categories of spend, these are set out by the Government Buying Standards, including for Paper & paper products. Furthermore, Government has also implemented a Timber Procurement Policy to ensure that only timber and wood-derived products (including paper) originating from an independently verifiable Legal and Sustainable source will be used on the government estate.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, from which countries her Department has sourced (a) pulp and (b) finished paper for (i) official stationery and (ii) other printed materials.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to supporting British businesses and the products they produce, ensuring they have the best opportunities to win UK public contracts and deliver high-quality goods and services.
Cabinet Office are consulting on a package of further reforms to public procurement to support the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
The Government maintains robust standards across a range of categories of spend, these are set out by the Government Buying Standards, including for Paper & paper products. Furthermore, Government has also implemented a Timber Procurement Policy to ensure that only timber and wood-derived products (including paper) originating from an independently verifiable Legal and Sustainable source will be used on the government estate.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of her Department's suppliers for (a) ICT (b) stationery and (c) office furniture are (i) supplied by UK businesses and (ii) manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
how many and what proportion of her Department's suppliers for:
(a) ICT (i) supplied by UK businesses and (ii) manufactured in the UK
The information requested is not collected centrally. Providing an answer to this element of the question would incur disproportionate cost.
(b) stationery (i) supplied by UK businesses and (ii) manufactured in the UK
DWP’s contract for office products has been procured through the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Office Solutions Framework RM6299; further information can be found here: Office Solutions - CCS
DWP has 1 UK based supplier for all our stationery requirements. There is no specific requirement or metric with which we record the country of manufacture for each individual stationery item procured.
(c) office furniture (i) supplied by UK businesses and (ii) manufactured in the UK
We currently have two furniture suppliers in contract, with DWP Senator Group and Bates Office Services. Both are UK based.
Senator Group fully manufacturer all products within their UK site. Bates office services utilise a combined sourcing approach to manufacturing where in products are partially manufactured in the UK and partially sourced from outside the UK.
The furniture is purchased via procurement from CCS frameworks, and all Office furniture meets the Government hub standards and Includes supply, delivery, and installation.
More broadly, the Government is committed to supporting British businesses and the products they produce, ensuring they have the best opportunities to win UK public contracts and deliver high-quality goods and services.
Cabinet Office are consulting on a package of further reforms to public procurement to support the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Katie Lam (Conservative - Weald of Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of (a) households that entered fuel poverty and (b) excess winter deaths in 2024/25 following changes to the eligibility criteria for the Winter Fuel Payment.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
In the latest annual fuel poverty statistics published in March 2025, it is estimated that changes to Winter Fuel Payment eligibility did not affect the rate of fuel poverty in England in 2024, as measured by the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) metric- Annual fuel poverty statistics report: 2025 - GOV.UK. The next annual fuel poverty stats will be published in Spring 2026.
A very wide range of factors impact changes in mortality. Details of excess winter deaths in England and Wales can be found at: Excess mortality in England - GOV.UK