Charlie Dewhirst
Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds
3,125 (7.3%) majority - 2024 General ElectionFirst elected: 4th July 2024
5 APPG memberships (as of 12 Feb 2025)
Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage, Child of the North, Fisheries, Science and Technology in Agriculture, UK Food SecurityDivision Voting information
Debates during the 2024 Parliament
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
Sparring Partners
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
(8 debate interactions)
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
(4 debate interactions)
Department Debates
(11 debate contributions)
(9 debate contributions)
(5 debate contributions)
(5 debate contributions)
Legislation Debates
(740 words contributed)
(722 words contributed)
(425 words contributed)
(59 words contributed)
Bridlington and The Wolds Petitions
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
of 153,088 signatures (0.32%)
of 61,007 signatures (0.27%)
of 160,494 signatures (0.27%)
of 44,277 signatures (0.24%)
of 50,239 signatures (0.24%)
of 223,572 signatures (0.23%)
of 153,088 signatures (0.32%)
of 218,853 signatures (0.21%)
of 160,494 signatures (0.27%)
c. 1,058 added daily
154,247
(Estimated)
Don't change inheritance tax relief for working farms
Sign this petition Gov Responded - 5 Dec 2024 Debated on - 10 Feb 2025 View Charlie Dewhirst's petition debate contributionscloses in 1 month, 2 weeks
We think that changing inheritance tax relief for agricultural land will devastate farms nationwide, forcing families to sell land and assets just to stay on their property. We urge the government to keep the current exemptions for working farms.
Latest EDMs signed by Charlie Dewhirst
Yorkshire Cancer Research's 100th anniversary
Tabled by: Tom Gordon (Liberal Democrat - Harrogate and Knaresborough)That this House congratulates Yorkshire Cancer Research, based in Harrogate, on reaching its 100th anniversary this year; recognises the charity’s work across the region since it was founded in 1925; recognises and celebrates its role in funding research into cancer care and treatment and in pioneering new cancer prevention and …
(Most recent: 3 Mar 2025)
Signatures by party:
Labour: 8
Liberal Democrat: 5
Conservative: 2
Democratic Unionist Party: 1
Coroner’s finding on SAS soldiers
Tabled by: Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice - North Antrim)That this House notes the coroner’s ruling in the case involving the death of four fully armed IRA terrorists who had launched a murderous attack on a police station; thanks the SAS for their courageous service in tackling terrorism in Northern Ireland; further notes the utilisation of the coronial service …
(Most recent: 6 Mar 2025)
Signatures by party:
Conservative: 4
Democratic Unionist Party: 2
Traditional Unionist Voice: 1
Ulster Unionist Party: 1
Independent: 1
Commons initiatives
These initiatives were driven by Charlie Dewhirst, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Charlie Dewhirst has not been granted any Urgent Questions
1 Adjournment Debate led by Charlie Dewhirst
Charlie Dewhirst has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
1 Bill co-sponsored by Charlie Dewhirst
Food Products (Market Regulation and Public Procurement) Bill 2024-26
Sponsor - Alistair Carmichael (LD)
Latest 50 Written Questions
(View all written questions)1 Other Department Questions
In April 2023, the previous government issued guidance on positive action in the workplace (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/positive-action-in-the-workplace-guidance-for-employers/positive-action-in-the-workplace). This sets out the differences between positive action and positive discrimination and what is permitted under the Equality Act 2010.
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
For security reasons specific details of allocations including make and model of vehicles are not issued.
The arrangements relating to the usage of vehicles in the Government Car Service are set out in the Civil Service Management Code.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
For security reasons specific details of allocations including make and model of vehicles are not issued.
The arrangements relating to the usage of vehicles in the Government Car Service are set out in the Civil Service Management Code.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Details of ministers’ and senior officials’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
Data for the period of July to September 2024 will be published in due course.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government Car Service (GCS) offers vehicles to government departments as a shared resource. Each department independently determines the allocation of these vehicles to its ministerial cadre/officials, as under previous administrations.
The Attorney General’s Office is currently allocated two vehicles including allocated and shared vehicles.
For security reasons specific details of allocations including make and model of vehicles are not issued.
The average cost to a department for a single DPC (Department Pool Car) in 2024/25 financial years is £108K per annum.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government Car Service (GCS) offers vehicles to government departments as a shared resource. Each department independently determines the allocation of these vehicles.
The arrangements relating to the using of vehicles in the Government Car Service is set out in the Civil Service Management Code.
There has been no change in this policy since the general election.
Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service is an approving member of the Cabinet Office Commercial Spend Control Panel, which oversees spend controls for the whole of the HM Government, including non-ministerial departments, executive agencies, and other arms-length, non-commercial bodies that are majority controlled and/or financed by departments (Non-Departmental Public Bodies). This includes the Cabinet Office. Cabinet Office Commercial Spend Controls apply to all commercial activity with a value of £20m or more, excluding VAT. ).
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Permanent Secretary members of the Permanent Secretary Remuneration Committee have no influence on their own salaries. Proposals on the performance and pay of these members are made by the non-civil servant members of the Committee, and agreed by the Prime Minister.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information related to this programme is exempt from publication, as it meets one or more of the seven reasons for exemption listed in the Freedom of Information Act.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to Question 1208, answered on the 31st July 2024.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The consolidated Framework Document for the Independent Offices (covering the Civil Service Commission, Advisory Committee on Business Appointments and the Commissioner for Public Appointments) was published on 18 February 2025.
There is not currently a Framework Document between HOLAC and the Cabinet Office. As with all independent advisory bodies, the Government keeps its arrangements with HOLAC under review.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Any associated costs relevant to the Cabinet Office would be detailed in its next Annual Report and Accounts.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on gov.uk as part of the government’s transparency agenda.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees - including mission boards - including how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government uses a range of channels to reach and engage the public. Any use of these platforms is assessed against the high standards for digital safety set out in the Government Communication Service (GCS) SAFE framework.
Individual departments make their own decisions on the best platforms to communicate with the public within the GCS SAFE framework.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As was the case under the previous Government, where over 9,000 such exceptions were used in the year ending March 2023, exceptions are a long-established part of bringing talent and expertise into the Civil Service. Since 4 July 2024, there have been 3 appointments made via exception.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I have nothing to add to my answer to question 14099 on 26 November 2024.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Of reviews planned for 2024/25, the following reviews have completed:
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Care Quality Commission, Regulator of Social Housing, Defence Equipment and Support, Submarine Delivery Agency, Nuclear Research Advisory Council, Legal Aid Agency.
It is each department’s responsibility to publish its reviews once finalised.
The following reviews are in progress:
Valuation Tribunal Service, Science Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons, Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, Intellectual Property Office.
In some cases, departments have paused their reviews to give capacity to deliver more ambitious work on improving delivery and value for money , in line with government’s wider commitment to reform arm’s length bodies. This wider reform includes the closure of NHS England as announced by the Prime Minister on 13 March.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Ahead of launching a significant appointment (which are agreed between the Commissioner for Public Appointments and HM Government Ministers and Welsh Government Ministers) departments must correspond with the Office for the Commissioner for Public Appointments to agree the Senior Independent Panel Member.
Personal data relating to potential Senior Independent Panel Members is shared with the Commissioner for Public Appointments for the purpose of assessing their suitability and experience for the role, as per the requirement in the Governance Code for Public Appointments.
I am unable to publish this correspondence as it would involve disclosing personal information protected under data protection laws in line with practice under previous administration.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ14093. The Government published the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers 6 November 2024.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office has not commissioned consultants to assist the EU Relations Secretariat or work on resetting the relationship with the European Union.
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As was the case under the previous administration (a) summary data that includes £5k salary band headcounts and median and mean salary measures by department and grade are published here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics and
(b) Salary data reported within 5k salary bands for individual SCS at paybands 2 and 3 are published reguarly by departments on data.gov.uk as part of departmental transparency organograms. These data also include the salary pay scales for junior staff. The Cabinet Office organograms can be found here https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/ff76be1f-4f37-4bef-beb7-32b259413be1/organogram-cabinet-office
There are no current plans to publish further data.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The £100 million Public Service Reform and Innovation Fund will be deploying Test, Learn and Grow teams around the country over the next three years to design and test innovative solutions to our biggest public service challenges in partnership with local places – ensuring that local learning informs national policy decisions.
The Cabinet Office will be working across government and with local partners to codesign the detailed approach to the allocation of the Innovation Fund.
As part of this co-design, we will formalise our resourcing requirements to provide support on the ground with multi-disciplinary teams helping local places respond to the public service challenges in their areas.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Trade Unions PCS and Prospect are currently taking industrial action short of a strike with the Office for National Statistics.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This Government is fully committed to transparency and ensuring information published is as useful as possible. For example, the Government introduced a central register of ministers’ gifts and hospitality on a monthly basis. These registers are published by the Cabinet Office and are available at:
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th March is attached.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The membership of the Mission Boards - as outlined on gov.uk - is the lead Secretary of State as the chair of their respective Mission Board and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster as Deputy Chair; other Ministers will be invited according to the agenda.
Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to reforming the state to deliver better public services. The work underway includes the £100 million Public Service Reform and Innovation Fund, which will be deploying Test and Learns teams around the country over the next three years to design and test innovative solutions to our biggest public service challenges in partnership with local places – and ensuring that local learning informs national policy decisions.
The Cabinet Office will be working across government and with local partners to codesign the detailed approach to the allocation of the Innovation Fund.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government Communication Service has published guidance on propriety in digital and social media. It states that official social media accounts managed by departments must not be used for the further dissemination of messages from party political or otherwise partisan accounts.
The guidance can be found at https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/professional-standards/propriety/propriety-in-digital-and-social-media/.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All appointments are announced on the Honours Committee page of GOV.UK, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/honours-committees.
All appointments to the honours committees are made following a fair and open competition. This includes utilising reserve lists where appropriate.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the hon. member to the answer of PQ 25452, given on 29 January 2025.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government remains committed to the 2016 Protocol and the need to avoid compulsory redundancies as far as possible.
Separately to redundancies, the Government has set out plans to introduce mutually agreed exits to allow Civil Service employers to come to a sensible and pragmatic agreement with an employee regarding their future when it is clear that things aren’t working.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As of 17 March 2025, there are 43 FTE Civil Servants in the overall communications team, covering a range of disciplines including digital, planning, press and private office. 15 FTE Civil Servants work on digital communications covering a number of responsibilities, as part of the wider communications team.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) is a public corporation and is therefore not administratively classified as an arm’s-length body. The guidance entitled ‘The Approvals Process for the Creation of New Arm’s-Length Bodies’ did not apply to NESO for this reason.
The NESO will support the UK’s energy security, help to keep bills down in the long term, and accelerate the government’s clean power mission.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. All freedom of Information requests are considered on their individual merits and in accordance with the legislation in all circumstances. Section 9 of the Ministerial Code sets the standard of conduct expected of ministers in relation to Parliament and how they discharge their duties, including for government responses to written parliamentary questions.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government Car Service (GCS) does not determine the allocation of vehicles to senior officials - this is carried out by individual Departmental Private Offices. The arrangements relating to the use of vehicles from the Government Car Service are set out in the Civil Service Management Code. There has been no change in this policy since 2023.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This Government is committed to freedom of information and to listening to its users. The Government will set out its plans for the Information Rights User Group, which last met in April 2024, in due course.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As has been the policy of successive governments, the government does not comment on matters relating to the intelligence agencies. The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament scrutinises the policies, expenditure, administration and operations of the intelligence agencies on behalf of Parliament.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It has been the practice that official Prime Ministerial flights are carbon offset where that is possible.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Ministerial travel is undertaken using efficient and cost-effective travel arrangements. Security considerations are also taken into account. It has been the practice that official Prime Ministerial flights are carbon offset and use Sustainable Aviation Fuel where either are possible.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government has ended the routine use of helicopter travel, unless operationally required. It has been the practice of successive administrations not to publish granular information relating to the official movements of protected individuals and those accompanying them within the United Kingdom. Information about official overseas ministerial travel is published as part of the Cabinet Office transparency returns and made available on the GOV.UK website.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
All freedom of Information requests are considered on their individual merits and in accordance with the legislation in all circumstances. Section 9 of the Ministerial Code sets the standard of conduct expected of ministers in relation to Parliament and how they discharge their duties, including for government responses to written parliamentary questions.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on gov.uk as part of the government’s transparency agenda.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Commissioner for Public Appointments has not issued guidance on the publication of declarations of political activity. As set out in previous answers, rules on political activity by prospective or existing public appointees are already clearly set out within both the Governance Code on Public Appointments and the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies, and the process for declaring interests, including how they should be published by departments, is also set out in detail on Gov.uk.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Under the Commercial Air Transport Contract, CTM provides a service to source various Air Charter solutions when required. The Prime Minister and other senior ministers have access to this contract when required.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The guidance on the publication of Ministers’ Gifts and Hospitality states that ministers should declare details of all hospitality received “in a ministerial capacity”. Hospitality received in a political or social context is not generally considered to be ministerial business and therefore does not need to be declared on the hospitality register.
However, the guidance further states that, in the course of any exempted hospitality (such as hospitality provided in a social context), “if…a minister entered into substantive discussions with a senior media figure, this should be considered under the guidance for meetings”. The guidance for meetings is available on GOV.uk at the following link:
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The cost of these works will be published in due course in Cabinet Office transparency returns.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As has been the case under successive administrations, it is a long-standing principle that Civil Service advice is given and treated in confidence. This includes detailing whether or not advice has been given and by whom.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to publishing details of all special advisers' gifts, hospitality and meetings with senior media figures on a quarterly basis. As has been the case under successive administrations, this information does not contain the value of hospitality.
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)