Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason PIP claimants can provide their identity through providing foreign national identity cards.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
To be awarded Personal Independence Payment (PIP), claimants must satisfy the Residence and Presence conditions, a person must:
In some circumstances a European Economic Area (EEA) national, or British or Swiss citizen arriving in the UK, from the EEA or Switzerland may satisfy the past presence test from a date earlier than 104 weeks.
DWP follows government identity verification standards, verifying identities before paying benefits, updating systems, or sharing claimant information. These rules apply to all channels and services, including PIP.
A claimant’s identity can be verified in several ways, including by requesting identification documents. Foreign nationals from EU or European Economic Area (EEA) countries may use their national identity cards as part of the DWP’s identity verification (IDV) process for PIP. These cards are accepted as photographic ID when accompanied by two additional forms of identification.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of Departmental answers to written Parliamentary Questions where information is refused because a document is not already in the public domain.
Answered by Alan Campbell - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
As set out in the Ministerial Code, Ministers "should be as open as possible with Parliament and the public, refusing to provide information only when disclosure would not be in the public interest".
I have written to all Members of Cabinet and spoken with Departmental Parliamentary Clerks and Permanent Secretaries to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and helpful responses to Written Parliamentary Questions (WPQs).
In addition, the House of Commons Procedure Committee is currently undertaking an inquiry into WPQs, and I look forward to working with the Committee as this work progresses.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 12 January 2026 to Question 101767 on Jeffery Epstein, what information her Department holds on Lord Mandelson's representations on the disposal of RBS Sempra Commodities to JP Morgan in 2009-10.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is cooperating fully with a Metropolitan Police investigation and is providing any assistance required.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, further to the Summary of the UK Government legal position: The legality of defensive action in respect of Iranian regional attacks, of 1 March 2026, whether it is the policy position of HM Government that UK Government could have given permission to permit the use of the US Diego Garcia military base on the Chagos Islands for the United States to launch its pre-emptive strikes on Iran.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The United States' operational use of Diego Garcia is governed by an Exchange of Notes between the UK and the USA.
The potential use of any UK base or base on UK sovereign territory by foreign military forces for operational purposes is closely considered to ensure that we are content with their proposed activities taking place on/from those bases.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 23 February 2026, to Question 113125, on Erasmus+ programme, if he will publish or provide a relevant hyperlink to the technical amendments made.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The text of the Decision will be published on the GOV.UK, at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/specialised-committee-on-participation-in-union-programmes.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 1.3 of the Budget Information Security Review, published on 9 February 2026, if he will publish the recommendations from his Department's leak inquiry.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The recommendations from the Cabinet Office leak inquiry have been published and are included in the HM Treasury Budget Information Security Review.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether applicants to the Summer Intelligence Internship self-certify their ethnicity; and whether the SIS undertakes an audit.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Applicants for the UKIC Summer Internship state their ethnicity as part of the application process. We do not comment on what checks are conducted by UKIC during the recruitment process.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the material to be disclosed pursuant to Humble Address of 4 February 2026 relating to Lord Mandelson will include internal communications conducted via (a) Signal, (b) Telegraph, (c) Microsoft Teams, including chat messages, group chats, channel conversations, private messages, meeting chat logs and associated message histories.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer you to the Government's response to the Urgent Question tabled on 12th February, and the Written Ministerial Statement, and the Oral Statement on the 23rd February, in the name of the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister that same day, which set out an update on the Government's process. We will set out further details in due course. The Government wishes to ensure that Parliament’s instruction is met with the urgency and transparency that it deserves.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, to which public inquiries his Department has submitted (a) documents and (b) other communications created between June 2007 and May 2010.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This information is not centrally held. Over 40 statutory public inquiries have been announced since 2006. The question potentially brings into scope all public inquiries that have taken place since June 2007. However, there is no centrally held data on documents or other communications created over the period specified and submitted to public inquiries by the Cabinet Office. Unfortunately, the cost to the public purse of accurately determining this information to would significantly exceed the current disproportionate cost threshold for answering written parliamentary questions set out in the Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work).
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, updated 16 January 2026, paragraph 8, what steps are taken if the National Security Vetting raises concerns about an appointee after the individual has been appointed.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments sets out the processes departments should follow when national security vetting is required. The final decision on whether to proceed with an appointment rests with the appointing minister.