Sarah Olney MP: written questions
4 Jul 2024–3 Jul 2025
How these years work
Our reporting years run from 4 July to 3 July, starting with the 2024 general election. They are not official parliamentary sessions. Office costs keep IPSA’s April–March financial years. Records may cover only part of a year; a missing record does not mean no work was done.
Read what this MP said, asked and contributed in Parliament.
135 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Public Houses: Government AssistanceTreasuryTabled 23 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 10753More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support (a) pubs and (b) breweries in (i) Richmond Park constituency and (ii) the United Kingdom.
Answer: Pubs make an enormous contribution to our economy and society, and this is recognised in the tax system. At the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor cut alcohol duty on qualifying draught products – approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. Thi...
Answered 1 Nov 2024
Original Parliament recordDepartment of Health and Social Care: Written QuestionsDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 23 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 10752More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to answer Question 6369 tabled by the hon. Member for Richmond Park on 4 October 2024.
Answer: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 24 October 2024 to Question 6369.
Answered 28 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordDepartment of Health and Social Care: Written QuestionsDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 23 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 10751More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to answer Question 6368 tabled by the hon. Member for Richmond Park on 4 October 2024.
Answer: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 24 October 2024 to Question 6368.
Answered 30 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPension Credit: ApplicationsDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 16 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 9518More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the average number of pension credit applications processed within 50 working days dropped between (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2022-23.
Answer: The department supports customers to claim Pension Credit through a range of take up campaigns. In June 2019, the BBC announced its intention to limit free TV licenses to people 75+ and in receipt of Pension Credit from June 2020. The subsequent mass mail...
Answered 24 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 16 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 9517More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many pension credit applications made between 29 July and 9 August 2024 are waiting to be processed.
Answer: Data on how many pension credit applications have been made between 29 July and 9 August 2024 was recently published on gov.uk, Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Because of how we capture ou...
Answered 24 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordDisability Living AllowanceDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 16 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 9516More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children are waiting for over the 50 working day target for their disability living allowance claim to be processed in the latest period for which data is available.
Answer: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) does not have a target timeframe, but we aim to process Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claims for children within 40 working days, not 50. As published in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024, which...
Answered 24 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordDisability Living Allowance: StandardsDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 16 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 9515More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the rate of disability living allowance claims processed dropped between (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2023-24.
Answer: DWP has seen a substantial increase in claims for Disability Living Allowance (Children) since Covid-19, and this upward trajectory continues. This has resulted in increased pressures on early years services for children with additional needs and neurodiv...
Answered 24 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordRiver Thames: ReservoirsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 14 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8844More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the Environment Agency’s modelling of the average (a) daily and (b) monthly percentage of (i) usable and (ii) deployable capacity in each of the (A) Lower Lee Group
Answer: The Environment Agency (EA) does not model how resilient water company owned supply systems are to drought. It is the responsibility of the water companies to ensure that their systems can deliver secure water supplies for customers whilst ensuring they m...
Answered 22 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordRiver Thames: ReadingDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 14 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8843More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the Environment Agency’s modelling of average (a) daily and (b) monthly volumetric river flow rates for each gauging station on the Thames from Reading to Kingston f
Answer: The Environment Agency (EA) does not model flow at gauging stations using drought event return periods. The modelling of flow under a range of climate scenarios is carried out as part of planning by water companies to assess how resilient their supply sys...
Answered 22 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8188More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average wait for a pension credit application to be approved was in each year since 2015.
Answer: The Department does not hold information on the annual average waiting time for Pension Credit and cannot provide the figures requested. The Department does publish our annual performance against a 50 working day clearance rate for Pension Credit in the D...
Answered 16 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8187More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the average waiting time between a pension credit application and a decision by the Department.
Answer: The most recent information on processing times for Pension Credit was published in the DWP Annual Report and Accounts on 22nd July 2024 (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024/dwp-annual-report-and-accounts...
Answered 16 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8186More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the oral contribution of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 29 July 2024 on Public Spending: Inheritance, Official Report, column 1033, how many people have applied for pension credit
Answer: We have recently published Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) which provides the number of Pension Credit claims received by the department.
Answered 16 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPension CreditDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8185More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are waiting to be assessed for pension credit.
Answer: The total outstanding Pension Credit claims as at the end of week commencing 30th September 2024 is 77,703. This includes 8,245 advanced claims where the application can be started up to 4 months before reaching State Pension age. The Department is signif...
Answered 28 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordParliamentary Estate: SecurityHouse of Commons CommissionTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8184More
Question: To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will publish a list of (a) civil servants and (b) special advisers who have a parliamentary pass.
Answer: We are unable to provide this information, as the pass issuing system does not categorise passholders in this way. Special advisers are not a specific category of passholder, and therefore this information could not easily be obtained from the pass data s...
Answered 17 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordParliamentary Estate: SecurityHouse of Commons CommissionTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8183More
Question: To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will publish a list of special advisers who have had a parliamentary pass in each of the last five financial years.
Answer: We are unable to provide this information, as the pass issuing system does not categorise passholders in this way. Special advisers are not a specific category of passholder, and therefore this information could not easily be obtained from the pass data s...
Answered 17 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordParliamentary Estate: SecurityHouse of Commons CommissionTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8182More
Question: To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many parliamentary passes were (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the last five financial years.
Answer: The database is a live pass issuing system and does not retain full historical information as data is only retained for three years or less depending on the pass category, so is continually being deleted in line with our records retention policy. The foll...
Answered 17 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordParliamentary Estate: SecurityHouse of Commons CommissionTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8181More
Question: To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many parliamentary passes were not returned following the conclusion of the holder's employment in each of the last five financial years.
Answer: The database is a live pass issuing system and does not retain full historical information as data is only retained for three years or less depending on the pass category, so is continually being deleted in line with our records retention policy.The vast ...
Answered 17 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordParliamentary Estate: SecurityHouse of Commons CommissionTabled 9 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 8180More
Question: To ask the hon. Member representing the House of Commons Commission, representing the House of Commons Commission, how many holders of each pass type have access to the parliamentary estate.
Answer: The number of passes on issue changes constantly, so the following represents a snapshot of data recorded on 10 October 2024:MPs: 648Peers: 832MPs’ staff: 1,589Peers’ staff: 333Staff of the Administrations - House of Commons, House of Lords, and Parliamen...
Answered 17 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPharmacy: Health ServicesDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 4 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 6369More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much and what proportion of the funding for pharmacy services under the Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care was spent on administration fees since May 2023.
Answer: The Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care, announced in May 2023, announced an allocation up to £645 million up until March 2024. This supported the launch of Pharmacy First as well as the expansion of the Blood Pressure Checking service and...
Answered 24 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordPharmacy: Health ServicesDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 4 Oct 2024AnsweredUIN 6368More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding has been allocated to pharmacy services as part of the Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care since May 2023.
Answer: The Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care, announced in May 2023, announced an allocation up to £645 million up until March 2024. This supported the launch of Pharmacy First as well as the expansion of the Blood Pressure Checking service and...
Answered 24 Oct 2024
Original Parliament recordRiver Thames: ReservoirsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 10 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 5077More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the expected reservoir levels for each Lower Thames reservoir for drought events (a) 1:100 years, (b) 1:200 years and (c) 1:500 years.
Answer: Public water supply reservoirs are the responsibility of the water companies. The Government has not made such estimates; however we are committed to improving water resilience and we are closely monitoring the delivery of their water resources management...
Answered 20 Sept 2024
Original Parliament recordRiver Thames: ReadingDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 10 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 5076More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of volumetric river flow rates corresponding to the locations of each gauging station on the Thames from Reading to Kingston.
Answer: The Environment Agency operates six river flow gauging stations on the River Thames between Reading and Kingston. These are located at Reading, Maidenhead, Windsor, Staines, Walton and Kingston. The recent daily mean flow at these sites on 11 September 20...
Answered 17 Sept 2024
Original Parliament recordHammersmith Bridge: Repairs and MaintenanceDepartment for TransportTabled 9 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 4754More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will publish the memorandum of understanding between (a) her Department, (b) Transport for London and (c) the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham on the cost of the Hammersmith Bridge repairs.
Answer: A Memorandum of Understanding on the split of responsibilities for the repair of Hammersmith Bridge was drafted but not agreed in 2021. However, the Department has continued to work productively with both LBHF and TfL and has contributed almost £13m towar...
Answered 17 Sept 2024
Original Parliament recordHammersmith BridgeDepartment for TransportTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 4012More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has made an estimate of the potential cost to the public purse of replacing Hammersmith Bridge with a new structure.
Answer: Hammersmith Bridge is protected by Historic England. It is a Grade II Listed heritage asset, as it is a 'particularly important' national structure of 'more than special interest'. The Department has not made any estimates of the cost of replacing the str...
Answered 11 Sept 2024
Original Parliament recordHammersmith Bridge: Repairs and MaintenanceDepartment for TransportTabled 3 Sept 2024AnsweredUIN 4011More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department plans to fund one third of the cost of the Hammersmith Bridge strengthening works.
Answer: The Department will be exploring funding options for a suite of transport related projects at the Spring Spending Review, including the Hammersmith Bridge strengthening works.
Answered 11 Sept 2024
Original Parliament record
Explore activity by topic or department
Written questions by answering department
4 Jul 2024–3 Jul 2025. One record per UIN and tabled date; the named department is not a measure of answer quality.
View as listWhat this shows and doesn't show
Published records only — not a full account of an MP’s work. How we work →