Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of exemptions permitting the use of birds of prey in fox hunting activities; and whether it plans to review those provisions.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department has made no assessment of the effectiveness of exemptions permitting the use of birds of prey in fox hunting activities and has no plans to review those provisions.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help increase access to arts and culture.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to making arts and culture accessible to everyone. We invest £600 million annually through Arts Council England to support access to arts and culture across the country. Our £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere investment will save over 1,000 local cultural venues, restoring pride in place and national renewal. This government’s Curriculum Review will ensure every child receives a rich arts education.
We will soon respond to the Hodge Review, which offered recommendations to ensure that creativity is accessible to all.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Statement of 29 January 2026, what assessment he has made of the reasons why the findings of the 2007 research report did not lead to a targeted public communications campaign to affected women.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Secretary of State reviewed the 2007 Report on Automatic Pension Forecasts before coming to his decision on the Ombudsman’s investigation.
The 2007 Report concluded that “overall…the evidence suggests negligible influence of the APF on pensions knowledge and retirement planning behaviour”, and around this time the Department stopped sending Automatic Pension Forecasts.
We have placed the 2007 report in the House library, where it can be read in full. The report is also available here: Evaluation of Automatic State Pension Forecasts.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure adequate security provision for the Palestinian Embassy in London.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government takes the protective security of diplomatic missions extremely seriously.
The UK’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate, but it would not be appropriate to comment in detail on those arrangements.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of lengthening the qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years for young adults and children under Appendix Private Life to the Immigration Rules.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The earned settlement model, proposed in A Fairer Pathway to Settlement, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.
The consultation directly seeks views on retaining the current arrangement, whereby children and young adults who grew up in the UK without immigration status my settle five years after regularising that status.
Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following that consultation. The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessment, which we have committed to publish in due course.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how he plans to reduce disability benefits by up to £580 million a year.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are reducing the frequency of Personal Independence award reviews to deliver more WCA re-assessments after they were stopped during Covid-19. We will also significantly increase the share of face-to-face assessments, enabling assessors to better understand the impact of conditions upon claimants. The combined impact of all these measures is expected to see a reduction in spending across the UK of £1.9b between 2026/27 and 2030/31.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish details of his Department new private finance model for building neighbourhood health centres and the business case completed for it.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will continue to work with the market to further develop the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for neighbourhood health centres (NHCs) with further engagement next year. The final design and development of this new PPP model for NHCs will be led by NISTA and co-designed by the Department.
The Department has no plans to publish the NHC PPP Feasibility Programme Business Case. Publication is not standard practice for business cases outside of the Government Major Projects Portfolio.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that mandatory digital ID would not put the population’s personal data at risk of data breaches by hackers and foreign adversaries.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Security is a core principle of the new national digital credential that government is building, and will follow National Cyber Security Centre advice and international best practice.
Data will be federated, not centralised, minimising risks by keeping information securely stored where it already is. Advanced encryption and regular penetration testing will be part of a wider infrastructure to help protect against cyber threats, fraud, and hacking.
The system will comply with GDPR, operate strict legal firewalls, and empower individuals to have more control over what data is shared. All of these elements will help ensure there are robust safeguards to protect personal data from hostile actors.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Digital ID scheme will cost.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I refer the honourable Member to my answer to PQ93098.
Asked by: Steve Witherden (Labour - Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he has taken to make sure that digital ID can not be made a requirement for accessing a wide range of public and private services.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Digital ID will only be mandatory for a person who is going through a right to work check. There will be no other mandatory requirement to have the ID.
The Government is not mandating the use of digital ID to access other public or private services. People can still prove their identity using physical documents and non-digital alternatives outside of right-to-work checks if they prefer.