diff --git a/.flake8 b/.flake8
index 8f8f09b4..25743729 100644
--- a/.flake8
+++ b/.flake8
@@ -9,5 +9,6 @@ ignore =
     # break after binary operator - allow either style
 exclude=
     .git,
+    build,
     dev-requirements,
     venv,
diff --git a/chaste_codegen/_rdf.py b/chaste_codegen/_rdf.py
index 25c99844..1c57b093 100644
--- a/chaste_codegen/_rdf.py
+++ b/chaste_codegen/_rdf.py
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ class given by ``term``, i.e. are connected to it by a path of ``rdf:type`` pred
     assert isinstance(term, tuple), "Expecting term to be a namespace tuple"
     assert isinstance(model, Model), "Expecting model to be a cellmlmanip Model"
 
-    global _ONTOLOGY
     _load_ontoloty()
 
     term = create_rdf_node(term)
@@ -81,7 +80,6 @@ class given by ``term``, i.e. are connected to it by a path of ``rdf:type`` pred
 def get_MultipleUsesAllowed_tags():
     global _MULTI_USES_ALLOWED_TAGS
     if _MULTI_USES_ALLOWED_TAGS is None:
-        global _ONTOLOGY
         _load_ontoloty()
         _MULTI_USES_ALLOWED_TAGS = set(str(term).replace(OXMETA, '')
                                        for term in _ONTOLOGY.subjects(rdflib.RDF.type,
diff --git a/dev-requirements/dev.txt b/dev-requirements/dev.txt
index 28c78d5d..2939b1b5 100644
--- a/dev-requirements/dev.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements/dev.txt
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ pyparsing==3.2.1
 pytest==8.3.4
 pytest-cov==6.0.0
 rdflib==7.1.3
-requests==2.32.3
+requests==2.32.4
 six==1.17.0
 snowballstemmer==2.2.0
 Sphinx==7.4.7