Ellie Chowns MP: written questions 2025
289 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Foster Care: Council TaxDepartment for EducationTabled 17 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 68866More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to implement a national exemption from council tax for foster carers; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of such a policy on the recruitment and retention of foster car
Answer: Councils already have the power to offer council tax discounts and exemptions in their area where appropriate. Some councils use these powers to provide council tax reductions and exemptions for foster carers.All fostering providers should have a clear po...
Answered 28 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordNational Lottery Heritage FundDepartment for Culture, Media and SportTabled 14 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 67707More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of National Lottery Heritage Fund funding has been allocated to support (a) areas, buildings and monuments, (b) cultures and memories, (c) industrial, maritime and transport, (d)
Answer: In the 2020/2021 financial year, £62,088,694 was allocated to support areas, buildings and monuments, £22,044,536 to cultures and memories, £34,917,985 to industrial, maritime and transport, £41,776,356 to landscapes, nature and parks, and £31,483,385 to ...
Answered 21 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordNational Lottery Heritage Fund: Environment ProtectionDepartment for Culture, Media and SportTabled 14 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 67706More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department plans to take to support (a) landscapes, (b) nature and (c) parks to contribute to the achievement of Environmental Improvement Plan targets through the National Lottery
Answer: Saving natural heritage and protecting the environment are key elements of two of the Heritage Fund's four investment principles included in their current ten-year strategy.Since 1994, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded over £2.2billion of Nat...
Answered 23 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordBoston Consulting Group: Civil ServantsCabinet OfficeTabled 10 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 66784More
Question: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to review (a) government contracts with and (b) the Business Appointments Rules for Former Crown Servants in relation to the Boston Consulting Group.
Answer: Government contracts are awarded in line with procurement regulations as set out in the Procurement Act 2023. Each contracting authority is responsible for monitoring supplier performance in accordance with the contract. Contracting authorities may exclud...
Answered 23 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordEqual Pay: WomenWomen and EqualitiesTabled 9 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 66415More
Question: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to tackle the gender pay gap for young women.
Answer: The landmark Employment Rights Bill is set to have a transformative impact, ensuring workplace rights are fit for a modern economy and empowering working people, including young women. As part of the Bill we are increasing the time limit within which empl...
Answered 17 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordConditions of Employment: WomenWomen and EqualitiesTabled 9 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 66414More
Question: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to ensure the effective enforcement of young women’s rights at work.
Answer: The landmark Employment Rights Bill is set to have a transformative impact, ensuring workplace rights are fit for a modern economy and empowering working people, including young women. As part of the Bill we are increasing the time limit within which empl...
Answered 17 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordConditions of Employment: WomenDepartment for Business and TradeTabled 9 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 66413More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the the Fair Work Agency is taking with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ensure the effective enforcement of young women’s rights at work.
Answer: The Fair Work Agency will deliver a much-needed upgrade to the enforcement of workers’ rights. It will ensure better enforcement of rights at work for all workers, including young women. The Agency will work closely with the Equality and Human Rights Comm...
Answered 16 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordPoultry: Disease ControlDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 9 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 66412More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring intensive poultry units to hold private insurance to cover losses in excess of DEFRA’s statutory compensation for pou
Answer: We would like to refer the honourable member for North Herefordshire to the response UIN 63221 published on 3 July 2025.
Answered 17 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordIsrael: Arms TradeForeign, Commonwealth and Development OfficeTabled 4 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 65128More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to paragraph 145 of the skeleton argument of the Secretary of State in Al-Haq v Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Claim No: AC-2023-LON-003634, if he
Answer: We currently do not have plans to publish these assessments. Information on these assessments has been provided to the relevant Parliamentary committees and more detailed information on this assessment can be found in the judgement the High Court handed d...
Answered 29 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordElectoral Register: Young PeopleMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentTabled 2 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64625More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of time required to ensure adequate levels of (a) awareness and (b) voter registration ahead of a General Election in which 16 year olds vote.
Answer: The government believes that enabling 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in all UK elections will foster early and sustained participation in civic life and enhance engagement in our democratic processes. We want young people to find their voice and exercise th...
Answered 8 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: FinanceTreasuryTabled 1 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64198More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on conditions attached to the spending of the farming budget to ensure (a) value for money, (b) increased food
Answer: The Chancellor and I have regular discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on a range of matters. Defra’s settlement will invest more than £2.7 billion a year in sustainable farming and nature recovery from 2026-27 u...
Answered 9 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordEnvironment ProtectionDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 1 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64197More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for publication of the revised Environmental Improvement Plan.
Answer: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Tamworth on 17 March 2025, UIN 37341.
Answered 8 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordForests: CommoditiesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 1 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64196More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the time taken to introduce the due diligence scheme for forest risk commodities enabled by schedule 17 of the Environment Act 20
Answer: Deforestation linked to UK consumption is estimated to have fallen by 55% since 2005. However, progress has slowed over the last decade and in 2022 UK consumption was still associated with 35.6 thousand hectares of deforestation. The Government recognises...
Answered 8 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordOffice for Environmental Protection: Public AppointmentsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 1 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64195More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to ensure that the process of appointing the new Chair of the Office for Environmental Protection protects its independence.
Answer: The Chair role is appointed by the Secretary of State acting jointly with the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. The appointment will be conducted in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments as regulated...
Answered 9 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordAgriculture: FinanceDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 1 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64194More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to ensure the farming budget is used to meet legally-binding (a) environmental targets under the Environment Act 2021 and (b) emissions reduction ta
Answer: As a result of the spending review and determination of the farming budget for this period: We are prioritising investment that supports the Government’s Plan for Change and builds on the Secretary of State’s work to reform Defra to drive growth while mai...
Answered 8 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordFuneral PaymentsDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 1 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64186More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 57896 on Funeral Payments, how many applicants (a) responsible for funeral costs and (b) in receipt of a qualifying benefit did not receive a social fu
Answer: The information requested is not held centrally and to provide it would incur a disproportionate cost.
Answered 9 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordBusiness: Environment Protection and Human RightsDepartment for Business and TradeTabled 1 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64177More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the petition entitled Introduction of a business, human rights and environment act, submitted to his Department on 19 June
Answer: The Department for Business and Trade has engaged with the Corporate Justice Coalition on the petition entitled Introduction of a business, human rights and environment act, submitted on 19 June 2025. In the Trade Strategy, the Government launched a revie...
Answered 4 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordOccupied Territories: Overseas CompaniesForeign, Commonwealth and Development OfficeTabled 30 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63879More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, published on 30 June 2023, whether (a) he and (b) officials from his Department had dis
Answer: We are aware of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights database but do not comment on individual businesses. The Government does not encourage or offer support to business activity in Israeli settlements. When approached by bu...
Answered 6 Aug 2025
Original Parliament recordOverseas Trade: Occupied TerritoriesDepartment for Business and TradeTabled 30 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63878More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether any guidance has been issued to UK businesses following the ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territor
Answer: The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. There are clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements, and we do not encourage or ...
Answered 8 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordBritish Overseas Territories: CompaniesForeign, Commonwealth and Development OfficeTabled 30 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63875More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the Overseas Territories introduce public registers of beneficial ownership.
Answer: Please refer to my Written Ministerial Statement of 3 July which provides an update and details of next steps.We have made very clear to our partners in the remaining Overseas Territories the importance of delivering on the previously committed to deadlin...
Answered 10 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordWarm Homes Plan: FinanceDepartment for Energy Security and Net ZeroTabled 27 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63367More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to the Spending Review 2025, CP 1336, published on 11 June 2025, how much and what proportion of the £5 billion funding for the Warm Homes Plan identified as financial transact
Answer: The Government has committed £5 billion funding as financial transactions. We will work with the UK’s expert public finance institutions, including the NWF (National Wealth Fund), to agree ways to support the delivery of the Warm Homes Plan through this. ...
Answered 7 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordDisease Control: CompensationDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 26 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63221More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make future disease outbreak compensation payments conditional on (a) evidence of private insurance in place and (b) demonstrable compliance with specified biosecurity stand
Answer: Compensation is paid by Defra for animals culled by the Government for disease control purposes, as set out in the Animal Health Act 1981. In addition to the financial support offered to producers directly affected by outbreaks through compensation, produ...
Answered 3 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordAvian Influenza: CompensationDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 26 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63220More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the detailed criteria his Department uses to calculate avian flu compensation payments for industrial poultry units.
Answer: Compensation paid for birds culled by the Government for disease control purposes is designed to promote prompt reporting of suspicion of disease and is only payable for healthy birds as set out in the Animal Health Act 1981. There is no compensation avai...
Answered 4 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordPreventive Medicine: FinanceDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 26 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63219More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of ringfencing funding for community preventive health initiatives through the forthcoming NHS 10 Year Plan.
Answer: The 10-Year Health Plan has set out how we will reinvent the National Health Service through the radical shifts, namely hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. These are the core components of our new care model. To support...
Answered 10 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordSecondary Education: Children in CareDepartment for EducationTabled 26 Jun 2025AnsweredUIN 63215More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of moving home (a) in the lead up to and (b) during GCSE exams on care-experienced young people’s (i) educational attainment and (ii) future oppor
Answer: The department is committed to ensuring that looked-after children are supported to succeed in education and achieve positive outcomes. We recognise the critical importance of continuity and stability throughout a looked-after child’s life. Under the Care...
Answered 4 Jul 2025
Original Parliament record
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