Official portrait of Melanie Ward

Melanie Ward

Labour MP for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, since 4 July 2024

Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)

Melanie Ward is the Labour MP for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy, and has been an MP continually since 4 July 2024. She currently holds the Government post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office).

Scorecard

75.8% Attendance Turns up more often than most MPs who vote
436 Votes cast out of 575 divisions
139 No vote recorded absent, abstaining, paired or unable to attend
12 Against their own party divisions where they voted the other way to most Labour MPs
6 Interests declared 1 at £5,000 or more
143 Debates spoken in 80 written questions tabled

Ranked 260 of 638 MPs for attendance. The median of MPs who vote is 72.3%. Ministers and front-benchers vote less often than backbenchers for reasons of office rather than absenteeism, and Parliament does not publish reasons for any absence — the ranking is a starting point for a question, not an answer to one.

Voting record

575 divisions since they took their seat, newest first.

DateQuestionTheir voteResult
2 Jul 2025 Draft Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Suitability for Fixed Term Recall) Order 2025 deferred division No vote 333–168
2 Jul 2025 Draft Enterprise Act 2002 (Mergers Involving Newspaper Enterprises and Foreign Powers) Regulations 2025 deferred division No vote 338–79
1 Jul 2025 Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill: Second Reading Aye 335–260
1 Jul 2025 Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill: Reasoned Amendment at Second Reading No 149–328
30 Jun 2025 Draft Marking of Retail Goods Regulations 2025 Aye 315–4
20 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Third Reading against party line No 314–291
20 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Amendment 94 against party line No 274–224
20 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Amendment 77 against party line No 275–209
20 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Amendment 12 against party line Aye 223–269
20 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: Amendment 24 against party line Aye 213–266
20 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: New Clause 16 against party line Aye 208–261
18 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill: Third Reading Aye 312–95
18 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: New Clause 130 No 178–313
18 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: New Clause 121 No 114–310
18 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: New Clause 88 No 178–313
18 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: New Clause 43 No 147–305
18 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: New Clause 7 No 102–390
17 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: New Clause 106 No 117–379
17 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: New Clause 1 Aye 379–137
17 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: Amendment 160 No 89–428
17 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: Amendment 19 No 189–328
17 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: Amendment 175 No 184–336
17 Jun 2025 Crime and Policing Bill Report Stage: Amendment 174 No 194–335
13 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: New Clause 2 against party line Aye 259–216
13 Jun 2025 Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill: New Clause 1 against party line Aye 230–256

Declared financial interests

Quoted in full from the Register of Members' Financial Interests. Entries where the largest figure is £5,000 or more are marked. A declaration is not a wrongdoing — the register exists precisely so that these things are visible.

3. Gifts, benefits and hospitality from UK sources

Name of donor: Great Britain China Centre
Address of donor: Kings Buildings, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HQ
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Costs of a residential course attended by a member of my staff (Great Britain China Centre is a non-departmental body of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), value £1,350
Date received: 22 July 2025 to 25 July 2025
Date accepted: 22 July 2025
Donor status: company, registration 01196043
(Registered 21 August 2025)

On the register since 23 Feb 2026

Name of donor: Great Britain China Centre
Address of donor: Kings Buildings, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HQ
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: Cost of a two-day non-residential course in London attended by a member of staff (Great Britain China Centre is a non-departmental body of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), value £1,100
Date received: 6 November 2025 to 7 November 2025
Date accepted: 6 November 2025
Donor status: company, registration 01196043
(Registered 24 November 2025)

On the register since 2 Dec 2025

4. Visits outside the UK

Name of donor: Syria Britain Business Council
Address of donor: China Works, Black Prince Rd, London SE1 7SJ
Estimate of the probable value (or amount of any donation): Flights (£1481.79), accommodation with meals (£708.48) and travel insurance (£12.00), value £2,202.27
Destination of visit: Syria
Dates of visit: 29 June 2026 to 2 July 2026
Purpose of visit: Attendance at the first conference of the Syria Britain Business Council; meetings with Syrian transitional government ministers, church leaders and NGOs to discuss post-war recovery and reconstruction in Syria.
(Registered 7 July 2026)

On the register since 14 Jul 2026

£5,957

Name of donor: Doha Forum
Address of donor: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Almirqab Tower, West Bay, Doha, Qatar
Estimate of the probable value (or amount of any donation): Flights (£5,555), accommodation and meals (£402), value £5,957
Destination of visit: Qatar
Dates of visit: 5 December 2025 to 8 December 2025
Purpose of visit: To participate in the Doha Forum 2025 on diplomacy, dialogue and diversity, including meetings with fellow cross-party parliamentarians, political representations of other countries and Qatari ministers to discuss Qatar’s role in seeking to resolve current regional conflicts.
(Registered 19 December 2025)

On the register since 6 Jan 2026

Name of donor: Stiftung Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz gGmbH
Address of donor: Karolinenplatz 3, 80333 Munich, Germany
Estimate of the probable value (or amount of any donation): Flights (£1148.85), accommodation (£697.17), meals and transport (estimated value £400), value £2,246.02
Destination of visit: Saudi Arabia (AlUla)
Dates of visit: 30 September 2025 to 3 October 2025
Purpose of visit: Participation in Munich Leaders Meeting on the Middle East, run by the Munich Security Conference Foundation.
(Registered 23 October 2025)

On the register since 4 Nov 2025

Name of donor: Stiftung Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz gGmbH
Address of donor: Karolinenplatz 3, 80333 Munich, Germany
Estimate of the probable value (or amount of any donation): Flights (£1807.22), accommodation (£1141.58), meals (£233.28), additional meals and transport (estimated value £300), value £3,482.08
Destination of visit: United States (New York)
Dates of visit: 17 September 2025 to 21 September 2025
Purpose of visit: Participation in Annual Meeting of Women Parliamentarians Programme run by the Munich Security Conference Foundation.
(Registered 13 October 2025)

On the register since 21 Oct 2025

The same register on parliament.uk →

Debates

143 debates contributed to in total. The ten most recent:

Money declared to them

4 donations accepted personally since 4 Jul 2024, worth £17,640 in total — from the Electoral Commission's register, which is a separate register from the one above. Money given to their party is not counted here; this is money declared to them.

AcceptedRecipientDonorTypeValue
5 Dec 2025 Melanie Ward sitting MP Doha Forum Other Visit £5,957
30 Sep 2025 Melanie Ward sitting MP Stiftung Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz gGm Other Visit £2,246
17 Sep 2025 Melanie Ward sitting MP Stiftung Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz gGm Other Visit £3,482
6 Dec 2024 Melanie Ward sitting MP Doha Forum Other Visit £5,955

Where the public money goes — contracts and donations →


Sources: Commons Votes API, Members API and the Register of Members' Financial Interests, all published by Parliament under the Open Parliament Licence; donations from the Electoral Commission's register. This member's register and debate record were last refreshed 4 Aug 2026. How every figure is worked out →

Machine-readable: JSON for this MP.

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