Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
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.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
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.
Asked by: Ellie Chowns (Green Party - North Herefordshire)
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.
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, 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:
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, 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:
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, 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.
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 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:
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, 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.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that UK-made weapons components are not used in violations of international humanitarian law by allied states.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
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, including with regard to compliance with International Humanitarian Law (IHL).
Under the UK’s robust export licensing criteria, the Government will not issue export licences if there is a clear risk that the items might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of IHL. We review all new licence applications on this basis. We also keep all our extant licences (which typically last for two years) under continual review.
Should licences be found to no longer be consistent with the criteria, the Government can amend, suspend or revoke them.
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, what progress she has made on the programme to roll out badger vaccination as part of the strategy to eradicate bovine TB; and when she plans to publish the new bovine TB strategy.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In March, following a successful procurement, the Government awarded a contract to establish a new badger vaccination field force. Vaccination is already being carried out by APHA field teams in several areas and through a community‑led programme in East Sussex, demonstrating that large‑scale vaccination is practical, including in areas previously subject to culling. Further work includes a new NFU‑led project now underway in Cornwall to test scalable, cost‑effective vaccination approaches.
The Government expects the outcome of the co‑designed bovine TB strategy to be presented later in the spring.