Every parliamentary written question tabled by Chi Onwurah this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 61–80 of 379 · this parliament
If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of State Pension age changes on 1950s-born women living in Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West constituency.
All women born since 6 April 1950 have been affected by changes to State Pension age. Estimates can be made using ONS 2021 Census Data on how many women born in the 1950s resided in each constituency in that year.
With reference to his Statement UIN HCWS1044 on 11 November 2025, what procedures and circumstances led to the 2007 research report not being provided to his predecessor.
The Secretary of State announced in his oral statement of 11 November 2025 that we will retake the decision made in December 2024 as it relates to the communications on State Pension age. This was because findings from a 2007 report had not been drawn to the attention of the previous Secretary of State as its potential relevance to the making of her decision was not evident at the time. The process to retake the decision is underway and it is important that we give this full and proper consideration. Retaking the decision should not be taken as an indication that Government will necessarily decide that it should award financial redress. We will update Parliament on the decision as soon as a conclusion is reached and on 2 December 2025 we committed to re-take the decision within three months.
For what reason the Cabinet committee on Science and Technology has been replaced with a committee on Digital and Technology; and how matters related to science will be considered.
The membership and terms of reference of Cabinet committees is decided by the Prime Minister, as set out on gov.uk and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology is a member of the Digital and Technology Committee. Matters related to science may be considered by a range of committees as relevant to their terms of reference.
What discussions she has had with mobile phone companies on improving anti-theft technology.
The Government is determined to crack down on snatch theft and other crimes which target people's mobile devices. It is working closely with industry and law enforcement to help reduce these crimes.The Government hosted a mobile phone summit on 6 February, at which all participants, including law enforcement, the Mayor of London, mobile manufacturers and other technology companies, agreed to collaborate in tackling this problem. Since the summit, the Government has continued to engage closely with relevant partners as they progress their work to develop solutions to break the business model of mobile phone thieves.The Minister for Policing and Crime and officials continue to hold discussions to monitor progress with relevant partners, including technology companies; most recently this month.
Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December to Question 96656, if she will make an assessment of the a) the proportion of chatbots which use search and b) the characteristics of chatbots which use search.
Chatbots that use search capabilities are designed to generate responses for users by actively searching the live web. This functionality means they would be captured by the Online Safety Act’s duties as a search service.The Secretary of State confirmed in Parliament that the government is considering how AI chatbots interact with the Act and has also urged Ofcom to use its existing powers to ensure that AI chatbots are safe for children.As part of this work, the government continues to assess the prevalence and nature of chatbot services.
Innovation and Technology, what information her Department holds on the proportion of chatbots deployed in the UK that use search-based functionality as part of their responses; and what assessment she has made of the whether AI chatbot users in the UK are adequately protected from harmful content.
Generative AI services, including chatbots, that allow users to share content with one another or that search live websites to provide search results are regulated under the Online Safety Act and must protect users from illegal content and children from harmful and age-inappropriate content.The Secretary of State confirmed in Parliament this week that the government is considering how AI chatbots interact with the Act and also urged Ofcom to use its existing powers to ensure that AI chatbots are safe for children.Where evidence demonstrates that further action is necessary to protect children and the wider public, we will not hesitate to act.
If he will take steps with the Office for Product Safety and Standards to ensure that regulations and repairability indexes for small electrical devices promote not only professional repair services but also end-user self-repair.
The Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information Regulations 2021 require manufacturers of a number of products to provide certain spare parts to end-users as well as professional repairers. The Government continues to review ecodesign and energy labelling regulations for other small electrical devices as part of our ongoing programme of work. We are committed to introducing repairability measures, including those designed to support end-users, where doing so is appropriate.
Whether he plans to bring forward a strategy for dental health research.
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).Whilst there are currently no plans to develop a dental health research strategy, the NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including dental research. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.The Department, through the NIHR, funds clinical academic training for doctors and dentists through the Integrated Academic Training Programme. This includes Academic Clinical Fellowships (ACFs) at the pre-doctoral level and Clinical Lectureships (CLs) at the post-doctoral level. Over the last five years, 91 ACFs and 24 CLs were recruited in dentistry.The Department also funds the NIHR Oral Health Research Incubator, which is a researcher-led initiative aimed at building dental research capacity at the national level.Ongoing research at Newcastle University is investigating the roles and skill utilisation of professionals in dental practice.In addition, investments in NIHR infrastructure support the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities, and the life sciences industry. For example, through the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre’s Oral and Dental Medicine research theme.
Pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2025 to Question 83750 on Health Services: Innovation, what mechanisms are in place to monitor and evaluate the successful adoption and diffusion of health innovations across the NHS; which bodies are responsible for measuring this impact at (a) national and (b) regional levels; and how these findings inform future commissioning and policy decisions.
No organisations hold a statutory responsibility specifically to monitor or evaluate the rates of the successful adoption and spread of health innovation in the National Health Service. However, the NHS Business Services Authority, on behalf of the Office for Life Sciences, publishes the Innovation Scorecard every six months. This is of significant use to the NHS and has been published since January 2013.The Innovation Scorecard reports on the use of medicines and medicine groupings in the NHS in England, which have been positively appraised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). It reveals what NICE-recommended treatments are available at a local level within trusts and integrated care boards, as well as at national and NHS England region levels. Data limitations mean it cannot be used for performance management, but it does allow the NHS to identify variation, which, through discussion, can be explained, challenged, or acted upon.Several organisations organise additional detailed evaluations for specific groups of health innovations. For example, the Health Innovation Network (HIN) oversees numerous national programmes which monitor the uptake and spread of selected health innovations. This helps them, and NHS England, determine how best to improve the uptake of these innovations.Regionally, HINs also undertake monitoring and evaluation for selected innovations that they support. Integrated care boards and providers may also choose to conduct their own evaluations, using local data to understand whether innovations deliver expected improvements in outcomes or efficiency.
Innovation and Technology, whether Innovate UK will resume its Smart Grants funding stream to support innovation-led start-ups.
The Smart grants programme has been paused while Innovate UK redesigns its funding programmes to best suit the needs of innovative businesses and align to the objectives of the Government’s Industrial Strategy.However, Innovate UK has launched a new £130 million ‘Growth Catalyst’ Innovate UK scheme focused on scaling innovative businesses in Industrial Strategy growth sectors. This offers grants, aligned private sector investment, and tailored support to companies, and this approach has a track record of driving 10:1 follow-on investment.
Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to align the UK with EU Directives 2024/1781/EU, 2024/1799/EU and 2024/825/EU.
The Government is committed to transitioning to a circular economy and is actively looking for opportunities to learn from and build on international best practices to explore what levers and interventions could work domestically.
What support her Department provides to school trusts to safeguard against cyber attacks and to protect children's personal data.
The department provides guidance to help schools build their cyber resilience in our Cyber Security Standards, which address the core principles of cyber governance, processes and strategy.We have also introduced a free interactive assessment tool, Plan Your Technology, to help schools understand if they meet our Cyber Security Standards and support schools to achieve them. We have incorporated the cyber security standards into Keeping Children Safe in Education and the Academy Trust Handbook. The department also has a small, dedicated sector cyber security team to support schools. This team provides appropriate advice and guidance via regular targeted and broad communications and more specific incident signposting when required.The department’s Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) added cover for cyber incidents from 2022. With over 60% of schools RPA members, in the event of a cyber incident they have access to a 24/7 Incident Response Service.We also work closely with the National Cyber Crime Security Centre (NCSC), who offer cyber security tools and guidance for schools, including free Protective Domain Name Service.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has she made of the implications for UK waste disposal and consumer product policy of the levels of unwanted electrical items discarded annually by households which could be reused or repaired.
We have not undertaken this assessment. The WEEE Regulations 2013 are designed to minimise the amount of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) incinerated or sent to landfill sites. The regulations require producers of electrical equipment to take financial responsibility for products they place on the market when they become waste and to ensure they are properly collected and treated. The Government is committed to move towards a Circular Economy where we keep products in use for longer and waste is designed out. In the new year, we will publish the Circular Economy Growth Plan that sets out how the Government will deliver this transition in sectors right across the economy, including electricals.
Pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2025 to Question 88639, how many eVisa error correction webforms have been completed since 12 December 2024.
The Department publishes a range of data on its digital status programme and will be, in due course, publishing management information on the volumes of eVisa error corrections webforms received.
Pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2025 to Question 85147, what proportion of health research and development has been spent on dentistry in each of the past three years; and how the decision to allocate each sum to dentistry was arrived at.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 6 November 2025 to Question 85147 in which I noted that between 2022/23 and 2024/25 the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the Department’s research delivery arm, directly spent £18.2 million on research projects and programmes on dentistry research.Programme funding allocated to a particular topic area is not calculated as a proportion of total NIHR spend. This is because, in addition to directly investing in research projects and programmes, the NIHR also provides investment for cross-cutting research delivery within the National Health Service and wider health and care system, including research facilities and workforce, known as NIHR infrastructure.The NIHR funds research in response to receiving high-quality applications through regular funding opportunities. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.
Pursuant to the Answer of 3 November 2025 to Question 85760 on Visas: Digital Technology, when the eVisa error form was introduced; and how many of those forms have been received.
Between 1st November 2024 and 12th December 2024 customers could use the former Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) error form to report issues to UKVI on both their eVisa and their BRPs. A standalone eVisa error correction webform was then rolled out by UK Visas and Immigration on 12th December 2024.The Department publishes a range of data on its digital status programme and will be, in due course, publishing management information on the volumes of eVisa error corrections webforms received.
Pursuant to the Answer of 3 November 2025 to Question 85759 on Imports: Israel, how his Department determines whether there are doubts about the declared origin of goods.
HMRC takes a risk-based and intelligence-led approach to customs enforcement but does not provide specific details regarding checks, as it may serve to undermine compliance activity.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment has she made of the implications for her policies of the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner press release entitled “More than a human can bear”: Israel's systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since October 2023, published on 13 March 2025.
Allegations of sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians by Israeli forces are extremely concerning. We unequivocally condemn sexual violence in Palestine, in Israel, and wherever it occurs in the world. The UK has consistently called for all reports, to be fully investigated to ensure justice for victims and survivors. We continue to call on Israel to fully enable the UN and its agencies to deliver their mandate in Palestine, including allowing the UN and partners to implement protection programmes for survivors of gender-based violence and vulnerable groups.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many British nationals are serving in the Israeli Defence Forces.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided to the question 44556 on 23 April 2025.
Pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2025 to Question 83308 on Export Controls: Israel, whether his Department has considered introducing a formal (a) certification and (b) verification mechanism for importers to demonstrate that goods originating from Israel are not produced in illegal settlements.
Israeli settlements in Palestine are illegal under international law. Goods originating from illegal Israeli settlements are not entitled to tariff and trade preferences. Where there are doubts about the declared origin of goods, HMRC undertakes checks to verify the origin and ensure fiscal compliance. Separately, we are conducting a review of Responsible Business Conduct, focusing on the global supply chains of businesses operating in the UK, as outlined in our Trade Strategy.