Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate her Department has made of the number of open public spaces in new housing developments that are owned by private companies.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government does not hold comprehensive information on the number of open public spaces in new housing developments that are owned by private companies.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, published on 3 March 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of incorporating (a) economic, (b) social and (c) cultural rights into domestic law.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have made no such assessment. United Nations human rights treaties do not require States to incorporate them into domestic law, and we are confident that we comply fully with our UN treaty obligations.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the (a) Plan 5 student loan repayment threshold and (b) annual pay for someone on the minimum wage in a full-time job from 1 April 2025 on the net income of graduates with student loans.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 2022, the department conducted a government consultation to assess the impact of policy reforms on higher education funding and finance, including changes to repayment thresholds from Plan 2 to Plan 5. More details on the consultation can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62223cfb8fa8f549071fc82c/Higher_education_policy_statement_reform_consultation_-_Equality_analysis.pdf.
Comparing the previous threshold of £28,470 under Plan 2 with the new threshold of £25,000 under Plan 5, the monthly repayments under the new repayment plan would result in an individual who was previously earning £28,470 and not repaying their loan, to now repaying approximately £26 per month.
From 1 April 2025, the National Minimum Wage has increased to £12.21 for workers aged 21 and over. If working a standard 37.5 hours per week, a minimum wage worker will earn £23,809.50, which is below the annual threshold for both Plans 2 and 5. This calculation is based on the average actual weekly hours of work for full-time workers.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of facilitating the recycling of blister packs.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Through making producers responsible for the costs of managing the packaging they use; packaging extended producer responsibility incentivises producers to use less packaging and transition to re-usable or easy-to-recycle packaging.
Defra has previously considered the merits of facilitating the recycling of harder to recycle packaging such as blister packs. This resulted in some currently difficult to recycle packaging, such as plastic films, being subject to kerbside collection and recycling requirements.
For others, such as blister packs, we concluded that where they are separately collected by producers, via takeback schemes, and are then recycled at the producer’s cost, then producers would not need to pay pEPR fees on the tonnage which is recycled. In addition, for future years, a producer’s modulated fees may be reduced if the packaging they are using, such as blister packs, is part of an easy to access, UK wide takeback scheme, as it will improve their recyclability assessment outcome.