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 have discussions with representatives of the horticultural industry on an alternative to the Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government’s commitment to our horticulture sector and its vital role in strengthening food security remains steadfast. Our proposed approach to future funding for horticulture will be considered alongside Defra’s work to simplify and rationalise agricultural grant funding, ensuring that grants deliver the most benefit for food security and nature. This includes developing a 25-year Farming Roadmap, which will involve government and the industry working together to identify solutions to challenges to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come.
We recognise the specific needs of the horticulture sector, and Defra ministers and officials meet regularly with a variety of growers from across the sector, (including a number of Producer Organisation members), to discuss a wide range of issues to help us understand how best to support sector.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working, published on 18 March 2025, what criteria she plans to use to identify claimants with serious and lifelong health conditions to ensure they will never face reassessment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The assessment process is an important part of claiming PIP and WCA to ensure that people receive the right level of support.
However, for some people with very severe health conditions and disabilities, by the time they come to make a claim, they have already undergone intensive assessments and provided detailed evidence about their condition to receive support from other services. That is why in PIP, we are also exploring ways in which we could use evidence from eligibility for other services to reduce the need for some people with very severe health conditions to undergo a full PIP functional assessment. For example, for young people with very severe long-term conditions who have already been assessed for and awarded support from Disability Living Allowance for children before claiming PIP for the first time.
For those on UC with the most severe, life-long, conditions who we know will never be able to work, we will aim to exempt them from ever needing to be reassessed.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the technical differences between co-operatives and credit unions which justify excluding credit unions from the exemption from audit requirements available to smaller co-operatives under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014; and whether the Government plans to review this distinction in light of forthcoming recommendations from the Law Commission’s review of the Act.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important contribution of co-operatives and mutuals to the economy, serving local communities around the country and ensuring the UK has a diverse business sector with their model of shared ownership. The Government is committed to unlocking the full potential of the mutual and co-operative sector to support inclusive growth.
Co-operatives are diverse organisations that span a variety of different sectors. Credit unions are financial co-operatives which offer savings and loans to their members. As deposit-takers, credit unions are subject to specific regulatory requirements.
The Government is funding the Law Commission’s independent review of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 to help ensure that co-operatives legislation is meeting the needs of this sector. This review will consider ways to update and modernise the Act. The Government will carefully consider the findings of this review to understand whether reform of the legislation is needed to ensure these businesses are supported to grow and succeed into the future.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 12 March 2025 to Question 36460 on Litter, what steps he plans to take to support local authorities to tackle littering.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Littering is a crime that blights communities and the environment. Local councils are usually best placed to respond to littering and related problems, in a way tailored to the community in which they occur. They have a range of enforcement tools at their disposal including fixed penalty notices and prosecution.
This Government is considering what further steps are needed to help local authorities reduce litter and keep their streets clean. Any new announcements will be made in the usual manner.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress the Competition and Markets Authority has made on its investigation into misleading environmental claims, announced on 26 January 2023.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Following the closure of the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) investigation into certain claims made by Unilever in relation to some of its fast-moving consumer goods, which include everyday items such as toiletries and cleaning products, the CMA does not currently have any open investigations into misleading environmental claims.
The CMA remains interested in the issue and may take further enforcement action where this is warranted and appropriate, based on intelligence and its published prioritisation criteria.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many products have been investigated in detail by the Competition and Markets Authority as part of its fast-moving consumer goods investigation announced in January 2023.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In January 2023 the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) announced a compliance review into the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector – these include essential everyday items such as toiletries and cleaning products. Over the period following that announcement, the CMA carried out an initial review of hundreds of products.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help ensure the adequacy of support for children in kinship care.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is taking a number of steps to ensure that children in kinship care get the support that they need to thrive. This includes promoting their educational and mental health needs and supporting the people who care for them.
From September 2024, the department expanded the role of virtual school heads on a non-statutory basis to include championing the education, attendance and attainment of children in kinship care, ensuring that more children in kinship care receive the help they need to thrive at school. The department is now mandating this through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
In addition, the department is providing over £3 billion of pupil premium funding to improve the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils in England, including looked after and previously looked after children. Schools can direct pupil premium spending where the need is greatest, including to pupils with other identified needs, such as children in kinship care. Schools can also use pupil premium on whole class approaches that will benefit all pupils, such as on high quality teaching.
Some children in kinship care will be able to access the adoption and special guardianship support fund, which helps adoptive and special guardianship order children and their families access therapeutic interventions related to trauma and attachment.
Children in kinship care will also benefit from this government’s commitment to improving mental health support for all children and young people. The government will deliver on this commitment through providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school, so every young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. We will also recruit an additional 8,500 new mental health staff to treat children and adults, and open new Young Futures hubs with access to mental health support workers.
The steps the government is taking to improve support for kinship carers will also improve the support children living in kinship care receive. In October, the department announced £40 million to trial a new kinship allowance in up to ten local authorities. This pilot will test whether paying an allowance will help support more children to live and thrive with a kinship carer.
In addition, the government has provided over 140 peer support groups and a package of training and support for all kinship carers to access across England. The increased financial support, emotional support and training kinship carers receive should help them in their role as carers and enhance the support they give the children in their care.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has made on their investigation into misleading environmental claims made in relation to fast moving consumer goods announced in January 2023; and when he expects the CMA to report publicly on any findings.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Following its compliance review into environmental claims, in December 2023 the Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) opened an investigation into certain claims made by Unilever in relation to some of its fast-moving consumer goods, which include everyday items such as toiletries and cleaning products.
In November 2024 the CMA announced its decision to close the investigation. In making this decision, the CMA took into account a range of factors, including changes Unilever had made to claims on some of its products and the wider impact of the CMA’s programme of work tackling misleading green claims.