Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Animal Welfare Strategy for England, published on 22 December 2025, what her Department's planned timetable is for conducting an assessment of cat breeding.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In the Animal Welfare Strategy, we have committed to improve our understanding of the size, scale and current management practices related to cat breeding, drawing on expertise from the sector, and consider any further steps which may improve welfare practices in the cat breeding sector.
Defra officials are already engaging with key animal welfare stakeholders to help address some of the evidence gaps related to the cat breeding sector and will consider the information provided to determine next steps.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Animal Welfare Strategy for England, published on 22 December 2025, what her Department's planned timetable is for launching the consultation on dog breeding.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to ending puppy farming and the low welfare breeding of dogs. As part of the Animal Welfare Strategy, this Government has committed to launch a consultation on dog breeding reform. Next steps will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government considered the potential merits of a cost capping order in the latest legal action brought by the WASPI campaign.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 29 January 2026, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced the Government’s new response to the Ombudsman’s investigation, he apologised for the delay in sending out letters and committed to learning lessons from this.
However, he concluded it would not be appropriate to pay compensation, we have set out in our detailed response the reasons for this which can be found in the House Library.
WASPI Ltd have now commenced Judicial Review proceedings and indicated that they will seek a Cost Capping Order. As with any request received for a Cost Capping Order, the Government will review the terms of the request and will respond when it has fully considered the matter.
The Courts decide on cost capping orders if they give permission to allow a judicial review to proceed to a substantive hearing. The Court has not yet made its permission decision.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent progress he has made through the parental leave and pay review in assessing the potential merits of introducing a statutory entitlement to paid leave for kinship carers comparable to entitlements available to other working families.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government’s Parental Leave and Pay Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings which outline next steps for implementing any reforms.
In addition to considering all current parental leave and pay entitlements, the Review is considering the needs of working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.
The Government is also supporting kinship carers through other mechanisms and has recently launched a kinship pilot to support up to 5,000 children by paying eligible carers an allowance equivalent to the Fostering National Minimum Allowance.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking as part of the Parental Leave and Pay Review to enable kinship carers to access leave and pay entitlements.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government’s Parental Leave and Pay Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings which outline next steps for implementing any reforms.
In addition to considering all current parental leave and pay entitlements, the Review is considering the needs of working families who do not qualify for existing leave and pay entitlements, such as kinship carers.
The Government is also supporting kinship carers through other mechanisms and has recently launched a kinship pilot to support up to 5,000 children by paying eligible carers an allowance equivalent to the Fostering National Minimum Allowance.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will consider the potential merits of extending the period of validity of a declaration of "No License Needed" to TV Licensing, when a person wants to declare that they do not need a TV license, before TV Licensing asks them to renew their declaration.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The BBC is responsible for the collection and enforcement of the licence fee. The Government is therefore not involved in TV Licensing operations including decisions regarding the period of validity of a ‘No Licence Needed’ declaration. However, the Government expects the BBC to collect the licence fee in an efficient and proportionate manner.
Through the Charter Review, the government is considering options for fairer licence fee collection and enforcement more broadly.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to mandate remote electronic monitoring on fishing boats in UK waters.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is committed to expanding the use of remote electronic monitoring in English waters. We are taking a targeted approach and have said that we will implement remote electronic monitoring in priority fisheries, working first with volunteers before moving to mandatory requirements.
In December 2025 Defra successfully completed a first volunteer project with a vessel from the pelagic trawl fishery. We are now working towards making remote electronic monitoring mandatory in this fishery and will make an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take legislative steps before the school summer holidays 2026 to increase protections for children against dangerous dogs.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
From 1 November 2026, it will be an offence to leave a child under the age of 12 in close proximity with a banned breed dog, in a home or garden without adult supervision. This measure is intended to strengthen safeguards for children, where evidence indicates they are at greater risk of serious injury from dog attacks, particularly in domestic settings. It sets a clear expectation around supervision in higher‑risk situations.
It comes into force on 1 November to give owners sufficient time to prepare and take the necessary steps to comply. Guidance will be made available ahead of the summer holidays to help owners understand the new measure and take the necessary steps to comply.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to publish Bycatch Action Plans for seabirds, cetaceans, seals, elasmobranches and protected fish species.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra are developing a Seabird Bycatch Action Plan for England in collaboration with stakeholders including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the fishing industry and academic researchers. The plan will set out steps to address seabird bycatch, along with assessing the evidence available and what further evidence is needed.
Plans are complex and require significant time and investment to ensure they are evidence-based and deliverable. The Seabird Bycatch Action Plan will provide a valuable template for the approach to further action plans.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which (a) external stakeholders and (b) disabled people’s organisations, have been consulted on the Transform Decision Making programme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP is running a small-scale trial of a transformed decision-making approach within the Health Transformation Programme's new Health Assessment Service. The Health Transformation Programme regularly engages with a wide range of external stakeholders. The Programme has engaged with its national stakeholder forum and with the Timms Review to inform them about the testing of a transformed decision making approach.
We have provided a list of the members of the Health Transformation Programme’s national stakeholder group.