Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring think tanks that seek to influence public policy to disclose their sources of private funding.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

Electoral law already requires transparency where think tanks make political donations, campaign during elections, or work with political parties on regulated activity, and there are further restrictions on think tanks which have charitable status.

The Government also takes seriously the risk of improper or foreign financial influence on UK democracy. Philip Rycroft’s independent review is examining the wider framework for countering these risks across the political system and will inform the Government’s next steps.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is planning to take to ensure that practices around River Friendly Farming are included under the new Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

SFI includes a number of actions to support rivers, such as BFS6 (“6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourses”).

The Government is also supporting river restoration through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), Landscape Recovery (LR), and ELM Capital Grants:

• CSHT provides a number of grants which support farmers/land managers to enhance their environmental habitats, including watercourses, such as CSW25, which directly supports the management of riparian and water edge habitats.
• Round 1 of LR includes a core aim of restoring England’s streams and rivers: this Round is taking forward 22 projects and providing funding for them to develop their proposals for the long-term restoration of nature within their respective landscapes.
• Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million, 50% more than in 2025, available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of including incentives for river friendly farming in the new Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

SFI includes a number of actions to support rivers, such as BFS6 (“6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourses”).

The Government is also supporting river restoration through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), Landscape Recovery (LR), and ELM Capital Grants:

• CSHT provides a number of grants which support farmers/land managers to enhance their environmental habitats, including watercourses, such as CSW25, which directly supports the management of riparian and water edge habitats.
• Round 1 of LR includes a core aim of restoring England’s streams and rivers: this Round is taking forward 22 projects and providing funding for them to develop their proposals for the long-term restoration of nature within their respective landscapes.
• Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million, 50% more than in 2025, available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with small farmers on improving the new Sustainable Farming Incentive.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra has engaged over 30 stakeholder organisations on the policy design of the SFI26 offer.

This engagement included farmer representatives such as the National Farmers Union and the Tenant Farmers Association, ensuring the views of smaller farm businesses were fully considered.

Defra has utilised the insight gathered from this engagement to develop options and proposals for the new iteration of the scheme.

Later this year Defra will open the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer in two windows: the first from June 2026 for small farms and also farms without existing Environmental Land Management revenue agreements; the second from September for all farms.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to increase funding for River Friendly Farming practices under the new Sustainable Funding Incentive.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

SFI includes a number of actions to support rivers, such as BFS6 (“6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourses”).

The Government is also supporting river restoration through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT), Landscape Recovery (LR), and ELM Capital Grants:

• CSHT provides a number of grants which support farmers/land managers to enhance their environmental habitats, including watercourses, such as CSW25, which directly supports the management of riparian and water edge habitats.
• Round 1 of LR includes a core aim of restoring England’s streams and rivers: this Round is taking forward 22 projects and providing funding for them to develop their proposals for the long-term restoration of nature within their respective landscapes.
• Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million, 50% more than in 2025, available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the current Sustainable Farming Incentive break clause on farmers’ ability to effectively plan environmental improvements.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) does not include a break clause.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has been made of the risk of UK-made weapons components being used to inflict civilian casualties in Iran.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

We are appalled by all reports of civilian deaths – in both Iran and the region. Innocent civilians should never be caught in the crossfire.

The Business and Trade Secretary is responsible for licensing the export of military goods. In his decisions he draws on advice from the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary. All licences are assessed in line with the robust Strategic Export Licensing Criteria and are kept under careful and continual review as standard.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any components manufactured in the UK have been supplied for use in the Tomahawk missiles used in US military operations against Iran since 28 February 2026.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The UK works closely with the US on many defence priorities, and our supply chains are of course both complex and intertwined. As part of longstanding convention, we do not comment on military operational details.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has been made of whether UK-made components used in the Tomahawk missile systems may have been involved in the strike on the Shajareh Tayyerbeh girls’s school in Minab on 28 February 2026.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

We are appalled by all reports of civilian deaths – in both Iran and the region. Innocent civilians should never be caught in the crossfire.

The UK works closely with the US on many defence priorities, and our supply chains are of course both complex and intertwined. As part of longstanding convention, we do not comment on military operational details.

The Business and Trade Secretary is responsible for licensing the export of military goods. In his decisions he draws on advice from the Foreign Secretary and the Defence Secretary. All licences are assessed in line with the robust Strategic Export Licensing Criteria and are kept under careful and continual review as standard.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a introducing an expedited process for frontline healthcare organisations requiring Certificates of Sponsorship to support visa renewals.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Working alongside the DHSC-funded Regional Partnerships, UKVI have already established a process for expediting the processing of applications for the social care sector.

This supports visa renewals and those care workers who have been impacted by their employer's licence being revoked. This involves a letter of support from the relevant Director for Adult Social Services (DASS) being issued to a specific UKVI mailbox which receives preferential consideration over other priority services.

Future Homes Standard

Nature restoration and flood risk

Decoupling the price of gas from electricity

Higher education funding (No. 2)

Redundancies of skilled rail workers at Balfour Beatty

Anniversary of the Tel al-Sultan aid worker massacre

Online abuse and exploitation of Ukrainian refugees

Restructuring at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Workers Memorial Day

Escalating settler violence in the West Bank

Funding for rural Britain

Conflict in Lebanon

LGBTQ+ veterans

Transition of rail workers into Great British Railways

World Social Work Day 2026

Strike action by UCU at Scottish universities

Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence law

Energy price cap

Found: Unionist Party, East Antrim) (added 24 Feb 2025) 30 of 38 (78.9%) Former members Attendance Dr Ellie Chowns