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1172919

	registered interest
	date	23/01/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Poverty: Children
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the two-child limit on child poverty in (a) each Welsh local authority and (b) each Welsh parliamentary constituency.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	7120
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>National Statistics on the percentage of children in low income households are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication and the latest year for which information is available is 2017/18. As the two-child limit policy was introduced in April 2017 there is insufficient data to assess any impacts of the policy on low income. Also estimates for the percentage of children in low income households are not available at local authority or parliamentary constituency level in this publication because the survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography. For these two reasons it is not possible to evaluate the impacts of specific policies on poverty for these areas.</p><p> </p><p>Data relating to the operation of the policy in Wales can be found in the latest annual statistics release which was published on 31 July 2019 and covers the period up to 2 April 2019. This data can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-tax-credit-and-universal-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-tax-credit-and-universal-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2019</a></p><p> </p><p>We have committed to further annual releases.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 28/01/2020 17:37:15 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1172920

	registered interest
	date	23/01/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the effect of the two-child limit on BAME communities.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	7121
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>The Government’s view is that providing support for a maximum of two children or qualifying young persons in Universal Credit and Child Tax Credits, ensures fairness between claimants on the one hand and, on the other, those taxpayers who support themselves solely through work.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that some claimants are not able to make the same choices about the number of children in their family, which is why exceptions have been put in place to protect certain groups. On migration to Universal Credit, families’ existing entitlement will be protected.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has published an Impact Assessment which noted ethnic minority households may be more affected by the policy. This is because on average, they are more likely to have larger families and be in receipt of Child Tax Credits and Universal Credit. However, the Department does not collect sufficiently robust data on our claimants’ ethnic or religious backgrounds to facilitate a more detailed assessment of the policy’s impact on specific ethnic or religious groups.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government has assessed the impact of the policy from an equality and human rights perspective, meeting our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, and ensuring compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 and the UN Convention on the rights of children.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 7122 question first answered 28/01/2020 17:37:37 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1172921

	registered interest
	date	23/01/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Wales
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to undertake an impact assessment of the two-child limit on faith groups in Wales.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	7122
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/01/2020 answer text <p>The Government’s view is that providing support for a maximum of two children or qualifying young persons in Universal Credit and Child Tax Credits, ensures fairness between claimants on the one hand and, on the other, those taxpayers who support themselves solely through work.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that some claimants are not able to make the same choices about the number of children in their family, which is why exceptions have been put in place to protect certain groups. On migration to Universal Credit, families’ existing entitlement will be protected.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has published an Impact Assessment which noted ethnic minority households may be more affected by the policy. This is because on average, they are more likely to have larger families and be in receipt of Child Tax Credits and Universal Credit. However, the Department does not collect sufficiently robust data on our claimants’ ethnic or religious backgrounds to facilitate a more detailed assessment of the policy’s impact on specific ethnic or religious groups.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Government has assessed the impact of the policy from an equality and human rights perspective, meeting our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, and ensuring compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 and the UN Convention on the rights of children.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 7121 question first answered 28/01/2020 17:37:37 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1174907

	registered interest
	date	30/01/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit and Welfare Tax Credits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to make prospective parents aware of the two child limit on tax credits and universal credit in the last 12 months.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	10318
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/02/2020 answer text <p>Information about this policy is available on GOV.UK and Jobcentre staff are able to advise on how the policy operates. The Government continues to look to identify effective ways of making prospective parents aware of the policy.</p><p> </p><p>Claimants were alerted to this policy when it was announced by the Government as part of the Summer Budget 2015. HMRC, who currently have the majority of claims from those with more than two children, also provide information about this change in leaflets which are sent to all claimants renewing their Child Tax Credit claim.</p><p> </p><p>DWP and HMRC also produce annual joint reports with statistics relating to the implementation of the policy. The most recent of these was published 31 July 2019 and can be found online at:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-tax-credit-and-universal-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2019" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-tax-credit-and-universal-credit-claimants-statistics-related-to-the-policy-to-provide-support-for-a-maximum-of-2-children-april-2019 </a></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 04/02/2020 17:30:29 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1174909

	registered interest
	date	30/01/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Social Security Benefits
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 18 January to Questions 7121 and 7122, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the gaps in the data relating to the two-child limit policy.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	10319
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/02/2020 answer text <p>The Department has published an Impact Assessment of the two-child policy based on survey data which was of suitable quality to assess the impact of the policy from an equality and human rights perspective, meeting our obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty, and ensuring compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 and the UN Convention on the rights of children.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 04/02/2020 17:15:37 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1182804

	registered interest
	date	04/03/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Children
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to ensure that new universal credit claimants with children are made aware of the two child limit.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	25029
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/03/2020 answer text <p>The Department publishes information for claimants on Universal Credit’s support for a maximum of two children on GOV.UK and this can be viewed at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-families-with-more-than-2-children-information-for-claimants" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/universal-credit-and-families-with-more-than-2-children-information-for-claimants</a></p><p>Further advice can be provided to claimants through the freephone Universal Credit helpline and Jobcentres.</p><p>Providing support for a maximum of two children, or qualifying young persons in Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit, ensures fairness between claimants and those taxpayers who support themselves solely through work.</p><p>We recognise that some claimants are not able to make the same choices about the number of children in their family, which is why exceptions have been put in place to protect certain groups. On migration to Universal Credit, families’ existing entitlement will be protected.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 09/03/2020 17:10:40 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1193663

	registered interest
	date	06/05/2020
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Universal Credit: Telephone Services
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the opening times of the universal credit helpline have changed; and if she will ensure that the (a) UK Government and (b) universal credit websites are updated with the new information.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	43840
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2020 answer text <p>Since the start of the pandemic, we have received unprecedented levels of claims for Universal Credit. This was accompanied by a significant increase in call volumes which was impacting our ability to support customers, particularly those making new claims.</p><p>To enable our people to pay customers their benefit, we implemented a temporary pause to the handling of general queries through the telephony service at the beginning and end of the day. The purpose of this change was to allow case managers to focus on progressing claims during these times.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>New claim appointments and new claims by phone remained open as usual.</p><p> </p><p>At the moment, people making new claims for Universal Credit do not in fact need to call the Department as part of the process and we have communicated that widely. Once they have completed their online application we will call them if we need to check any of the information they have given us.</p><p>The Universal Credit helpline returned to our normal operating hours from 11 May (8am-6pm, Monday to Friday).</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 15/05/2020 10:37:59 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince previous answer version 20796 answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1178476

	registered interest
	date	13/02/2020
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	UK Mission to the European Union
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of civil servants based in the UK Mission to the EU in Brussels in each of the last five years.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	1879
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2020 answer text <p>The UK Mission to the European Union (UKMis Brussels) currently employs around 180 people, comprising both permanent civil servants from multiple Government Departments and locally recruited staff. We keep staffing under regular review to ensure it is appropriate to deliver HMG objectives including supporting negotiations on the future UK-EU relationship.</p> answering member constituency Aldridge-Brownhills answering member printed Wendy Morton question first answered 24/02/2020 17:01:17 answering member 4358 label Biography information for Wendy Morton
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1181886

	registered interest
	date	02/03/2020
	answering body	Department for International Development
	answering dept id	20
	answering dept short name	International Development
	answering dept sort name	International Development
	hansard heading	Female Genital Mutilation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much and what proportion of Official Development Assistance was spent on tackling female genital mutilation in each financial year since 2015.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	23440
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2020 answer text <p>The UK leads the world in our support to the Africa-led movement to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In 2018, we announced a further £50 million UK aid package – the biggest single donor investment worldwide to date – to tackle this issue across the most-affected countries in Africa.</p><p>The table below sets out how much DFID spent on specific programmes to end FGM in the years 2015-18. Estimates for 2019 spending will be available in autumn 2020.</p><p>DFID also supports efforts to end FGM through wider programmes and multi-donor funds which address sexual and reproductive health and rights issues, including FGM. It is not possible to disaggregate the FGM-specific spend in these programmes, so the table does not reflect the entirety of DFID spend in this area.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>in £</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2015</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2016</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2017</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2018</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>FGM programme specific ODA Spend</strong></p></td><td><p>£8.1 m</p></td><td><p>£10.0m</p></td><td><p>£9.4m</p></td><td><p>£5.2m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>FGM spend as % of DFID ODA</strong></p></td><td><p>0.083%</p></td><td><p>0.102%</p></td><td><p>0.093%</p></td><td><p>0.048%</p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Aldridge-Brownhills answering member printed Wendy Morton question first answered 06/03/2020 15:01:33 answering member 4358 label Biography information for Wendy Morton
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams

1191122

	registered interest
	date	28/04/2020
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Greece: Asylum
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Greek counterpart on the humanitarian situation of migrants along the Greek-Turkish border.
	tabling member constituency	Arfon
	tabling member printed	Hywel Williams
	uin	40997
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/05/2020 answer text <p>The British Government remains committed to supporting Greek efforts to manage migration effectively. We regularly discuss our concerns with Greek ministers and senior officials, as well as our Turkish counterparts. The Foreign Secretary spoke to the Greek Foreign Minister about the issue of migrants on the Greece/Turkey border on 18 March. On 22 April, the UK Immigration Compliance Minister and Greece's Alternate Migration Minister signed a bilateral migration action plan to reaffirm our commitment to cooperation. The Plan covers joint work to tackle organised immigration crime; sharing of expertise on asylum processing and migrant returns; deployment of a Border Force search and rescue cutter to the Aegean; facilitation of family reunification of unaccompanied asylum seeking children; and establishment of a strategic migration dialogue.</p> answering member constituency Aldridge-Brownhills answering member printed Wendy Morton question first answered 04/05/2020 10:41:37 answering member 4358 label Biography information for Wendy Morton
	tabling member	1397 label Biography information for Hywel Williams