Written questions by McMurdock.

Innovation and Technology, what estimate she has made of the return on investment from UK contributions to the European Space Agency in the past three years.

Independent monitoring and evaluation analysis conducted in 2025 found that for every £1 the UK contributes to ESA programmes leads to £7.49 (approximately €1: €8.49 based on daily exchange rate from European Central bank) directly benefiting the UK economy. These benefits help drive innovation, stimulate job creation, and foster sustained long-term economic growth within the UK's space sector. Between 2022 and 2025, the UK Space Agency secured an additional €122.5 million in contracts for the UK space sectorIn the last quarter of 2024, the UK Space Agency secured €96 million in contracts, the highest single-quarter return ever recorded by an ESA Member State in the current statistical reporting period established in 2015.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to the UK Space Agency's report entitled Size and health of the UK space industry 2024, updated on 20 August 2025, when she will publish data on the contribution of the space industry to (a) GDP and (b) GVA for (i) 2023/24 and (ii) 2024/25.

The ‘Size and Health of the UK Space Industry’ is an annual study published by UK Space Agency. This study includes a measure of GVA (Gross Value-Added) for the sector, as well as an estimate for the percentage share of GDP for activities underpinned by satellite services. Due to the lag in financial reporting, the 2026 report will cover 2023/24 data, and the data for 2024/25 will follow in 2027.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of the skills pipeline to meet projected workforce demand in the space sector during the next ten years.

DSIT and the UK Space Agency (UKSA) routinely contribute to cross-government work to assess future demand and the current pipeline, such as Skills England’s Sector Skills Needs Assessments (June 2025). Further insight into the space sector is provided by UKSA’s Space Sector Skills Survey. The next iteration will be launched in due course with further iterations to follow in 2028 and 2030. This provides essential insight into cross-sector workforce skills needs and challenges, building on insight from previous iterations (most recently in 2023) and informing UKSA’s Education and Future Workforce programme.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of Question 21 October 2025 to Question 84026 on housing prices, what data he uses to inform targeted housing policy.

My Department uses a wide range of data sources to inform the development of policy. Public sources include the English Housing Survey; ONS datasets on house prices, rents and affordability; and Departmental statistics on housing supply, affordable housing, and homelessness and rough sleeping. Local Authority Housing Statistics provide information on waiting lists, allocations, and lettings, while programme delivery data from Homes England and the Greater London Authority track outputs under the Affordable Homes Programme. Planning and housing supply data, including starts, completions and permissions, are published quarterly. Certain proprietary data cannot be published due to contractual restrictions and commercial sensitivities.

Pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2025 to Question 84448 on Timesharing: Regulation, whether his Department plans to (a) review and (b) extend the 14 day exit right in the Timeshare, Holiday Products, Resale and Exchange Contracts Regulations 2010.

Enabling consumers to exit timeshares is a balance between protecting consumers wanting to leave and the interests of the business and those customers who remain and share admin costs. The Timeshare, Holiday Products, Resale and Exchange Contracts Regulations 2010 provide significant protections, including stipulating the information consumers must be aware of prior to purchase and a 14 day right to exit. This exit timeframe is in line with other areas of consumer law, such as The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Purchasers of timeshares are also protected by general consumer law, requiring contract terms be fair and not mis-sold.

Whether his Department plans to review the price of the NHS Health surcharge for visa applications.

The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) is paid as a part of a migrant’s visa application. This was last increased in February 2024, to £1,035 per year. The level of the IHS is continually under internal review, to ensure it best reflects the predicted average cost of migrants’ use of National Health Services.

Whether his Department plans to review the circumstances in which non-UK nationals can use the NHS free of charge.

The Department has no plans at present to review the circumstances in which non-United Kingdom nationals can use the National Health Service free of charge.We continue to work with NHS England to ensure that the system of cost recovery from overseas visitors works as effectively and fairly as possible.

Pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2025 to Question 84448 on Timesharing: Regulation, whether his Department is considering taking steps to (a) require licensing and bonding of management companies, (b) ensure audited accounts are accessible to fractional owners and (c) prohibit the use of perpetual contracts or in-perpetuity clauses.

There are no current plans to consider licencing and bonding of timeshare management businesses. All companies are required to file audited accounts subject to certain exemptions, in particular for micro-sized companies, which may prepare and file simplified accounts, and small companies, which may abridge accounts. Both may also be able to claim audit exemption. Accounts are then made available to the public. Exiting timeshares balances consumer protection, business interests and remaining customers' shared costs. Whilst there are no plans to alter this, purchasers of timeshares are also protected by general consumer law, requiring contract terms be fair and not mis-sold.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 81148 on Leasehold: Ground Rent and to the Answer of 15 September 2025 to Question 74455 on Ground Rent: Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, whether his Department is taking steps to (a) identify developments where mortgage lenders are refusing to lend due to rent escalation clauses and (b) require freeholders to offer deeds of variation where leases are already inhibited by such clauses.

Some of the most problematic ground rent terms involving clauses doubling more quickly than every 20 years have already been subject to enforcement action by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as unfair contractual terms. If leaseholders find developers and freeholders are failing to meet these binding commitments to remove ground increases and repay past ground rent increases, they should contact the CMA directly. The government is committed to addressing unregulated and unaffordable ground rents and we will do this in legislation. We will set out further details in due course.

What information his Department holds on (a) the cost to the public purse of providing NHS services to non-UK nationals and (b) what proportion of this cost the NHS Health surcharge covers.

National Health Service care is provided free at the point of use to people who are ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom, including people who were born abroad, if they are not subject to immigration controls. As free at the point of use access to the NHS is based upon ordinary residence and not nationality, we do not collect or hold information on the nationality of people accessing NHS services.The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) is one of the NHS migrant cost recovery methods and is designed to recover NHS costs attributable to migrants requiring a visa longer than six months. In 2024/25, the IHS generated £2.6 billion in income for the NHS in the UK.For those who are not covered by the IHS or ordinarily resident in the UK, their healthcare costs are covered in one of two ways. The first is through reciprocal healthcare agreements that the UK has with other countries, where costs are recovered from those countries. The second is where individuals are directly charged by NHS trusts providing care. The Department publishes data on this income in its annual reports and accounts.The current IHS fee of £1,035 came into force in February 2024. It was calculated as the value of the healthcare budget for 2023/24 that an “average” IHS payer accounts for and reflects the Department’s most recent analysis of the cost of providing NHS services to IHS payers. The full methodology can be found in Annex A of The Immigration (Health Charge) (Amendment) Order 2024, a copy of which is attached.

Whether she plans to collect regional data on the use of the Lifetime ISA.

While HMRC does collect data on regional breakdown of Lifetime ISA account holders, the data quality is not sufficient to provide accurate regional breakdowns or produce statistics. In HMRC’s response to the recent Treasury Select Committee’s LISA enquiry (link), a regional breakdown was provided of where homes were bought using LISA’s:HMRC LISA enquiry response - Tables 1, 2 and 3.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of financial pressures on universities on their international recruitment practices.

​​The government has been clear that we welcome international students who meet the requirements to study in the UK and positively impact our higher education (HE) sector. However, we will not tolerate abuse of the student visa system in any way and measures set out in the Immigration white paper in May, set out a balanced approach, helping the government achieve our manifesto commitment on reducing net migration and whilst maintaining the UK’s global competitiveness.​The Office for Students (OfS) has identified reliance on international student fee income as a risk to HE providers’ sustainability. It has been clear that providers will need to change their business models to protect their financial health as a response to this risk and others.

What assessment she has made of trends in the level of regional variation in the (a) progress, (b) attendance and (c) exclusion rates of pupils with SEND in schools receiving RISE intervention.

​​Regional Improvements for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams are a key part of the government‘s work to drive up education standards in schools across England. Attainment, attendance and exclusion rates are all among the criteria we are monitoring at national and regional level as part of assessing the impact of RISE-targeted intervention on the schools, but it is too early in the life of the programme to report on RISE impact. We expect to start publishing that data with appropriate comparisons over time during 2026.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of degree subjects associated with persistently (a) low employment and (b) earning outcomes; and what steps is she taking to address this.

​​The Post-16 education and skills white paper, published in October 2025, sets out plans to ensure the higher education system drives economic growth. This includes policies to incentivise delivery of courses that produce the skills needed for the economy and, therefore, employment.​The department is reforming the Strategic Priorities Grant from the 2026/27 academic year to ensure funding for courses aligns with the Industrial Strategy and future skills needs. We have also announced that we will introduce targeted maintenance grants to support students from low-income households studying courses aligned with the Industrial Strategy and our Missions before the end of this Parliament.​The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator for higher education in England. The regulatory system is designed to help ensure all courses lead to positive employment outcomes. The conditions of registration set minimum expectations for the percentage of students in professional employment or further study 15 months after graduating. Our proposals to ensure that large franchised providers are registered with the OfS will also help tackle the poor outcomes some students are getting from franchised courses.​The OfS is currently consulting on proposals to consider a wider range of employment outcomes when awarding quality ratings for student outcomes, including earnings data and data on whether graduates are utilising the skills they learned in higher education in future jobs. ​

What assessment she has made of graduate earning outcomes in the UK relative to other OECD countries.

The department works with the OECD to support their publications on education.The OECD’s ‘Education at a glance 2025’ shows that the earnings of graduate workers relative to secondary-educated workers in the UK is close to the OECD average. In particular, the report shows that the UK has a first degree graduate earnings premium of 37% among working age individuals, compared to 39% for the OECD average. In addition, table A4.5 presents the earnings differences in absolute terms. The publication can be found here: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-at-a-glance-2025_1c0d9c79-en.Variations by field of study are explored further in the following OECD report: https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2021/01/how-does-earnings-advantage-from-tertiary-education-vary-by-field-of-study_60f20424/8a4b8f7a-en.pdf.

Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to publish regular data on Pride in Place Programme spending by intervention type.

From April 2026, following the submission of their Regeneration plans, the 75 Phase 1 places will begin to receive up to £2m a year in programme funding for the next decade. The Phase 2 neighbourhoods announced under the expansion will begin to receive capacity and capital funding from April 2026. As outlined in our Regeneration Plan guidance, there will be a formalised monitoring process for the Pride in Place Programme – this is the process by which places will keep us updated on what projects and activities they are undertaking to deliver on the interventions they outlined in their regeneration plan. Further guidance on what data we will collect will be published in due course.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her Department's policies of differences in high-skilled employment rates by degree subject.

​​The Post-16 education and skills white paper, published in October 2025, sets out plans to ensure the higher education system drives economic growth. This includes policies to incentivise delivery of courses that produce the skills needed for the economy and, therefore, employment.​The department is reforming the Strategic Priorities Grant from the 2026/27 academic year to ensure funding for courses aligns with the Industrial Strategy and future skills needs. We have also announced that we will introduce targeted maintenance grants to support students from low-income households studying courses aligned with the Industrial Strategy and our Missions before the end of this Parliament.​The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator for higher education in England. The regulatory system is designed to help ensure all courses lead to positive employment outcomes. The conditions of registration set minimum expectations for the percentage of students in professional employment or further study 15 months after graduating. Our proposals to ensure that large franchised providers are registered with the OfS will also help tackle the poor outcomes some students are getting from franchised courses.​The OfS is currently consulting on proposals to consider a wider range of employment outcomes when awarding quality ratings for student outcomes, including earnings data and data on whether graduates are utilising the skills they learned in higher education in future jobs. ​

What plans she has to publish data on graduate career progression to assess the long-term impact of higher education on entry into high-skilled employment.

As set out in the Post-16 education and skills white paper, this government is determined that our world leading higher education (HE) system drives economic growth by creating a highly skilled workforce.The independent regulator of the HE sector, the Office for Students (OfS) defines high-skilled employment as those working in occupations within the Standard Occupation Classification codes 1-3 (managers, directors and senior officials; professional occupations; and associate professional occupations).The OfS publish progression rates for graduates measuring the proportion with positive outcomes including those in high skilled employment and/or further education as part of the student outcomes dashboard. Data for the English HE sector and by provider is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/student-outcomes-data-dashboard/data-dashboard/. This data is published annually and was last published in August 2025.The Higher Education Statistics Agency also publish annual statistics in the ‘Graduate Outcomes’ publication. This looks at the outcomes of graduates 15 months after their graduation, including high skilled employment, defined as above. This data is published annually and was last published in July 2025 here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/graduates.

What steps she is taking to help ensure that students studying subjects with historically low graduate earning outcomes receive value for money from their degree.

​​The Post-16 education and skills white paper, published in October 2025, sets out plans to ensure the higher education system drives economic growth. This includes policies to incentivise delivery of courses that produce the skills needed for the economy and, therefore, employment.​The department is reforming the Strategic Priorities Grant from the 2026/27 academic year to ensure funding for courses aligns with the Industrial Strategy and future skills needs. We have also announced that we will introduce targeted maintenance grants to support students from low-income households studying courses aligned with the Industrial Strategy and our Missions before the end of this Parliament.​The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator for higher education in England. The regulatory system is designed to help ensure all courses lead to positive employment outcomes. The conditions of registration set minimum expectations for the percentage of students in professional employment or further study 15 months after graduating. Our proposals to ensure that large franchised providers are registered with the OfS will also help tackle the poor outcomes some students are getting from franchised courses.​The OfS is currently consulting on proposals to consider a wider range of employment outcomes when awarding quality ratings for student outcomes, including earnings data and data on whether graduates are utilising the skills they learned in higher education in future jobs. ​

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the alignment between degree subject provision and priority occupations identified by Skills England.

The Skills England report, ‘Assessment of Priority Skills to 2030’ sets out that in higher education (HE) over half (53%) of employed recent education leavers are in priority occupations (see table below).The HE sector is independent and individual institutions are responsible for deciding which courses to deliver. The government is not involved in these decisions but does support delivery of high-cost courses through the Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG). We are reforming the SPG to ensure alignment of funding with the priority sectors which support the Industrial Strategy and the Plan for Change and future skills needs. In addition, Priority Additional Entitlement under the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will be available for courses that align with industrial strategy priorities. From January 2027, LLE funding will all also be available for level 4, 5 and 6 modules from full level qualifications in subject groups that address priority skills gaps and align with the government’s industrial strategy.Top 10 first degree (level 6) higher education subjects into priority occupations:SubjectShare of learners entering priority occupationsNursing and midwifery97%Medicine and dentistry96%Medical sciences81%Architecture, building and planning79%Pharmacology, toxicology and pharmacy78%Allied health73%Computing70%Engineering68%Economics65%Physics and astronomy60% Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/assessment-of-priority-skills-to-2030/assessment-of-priority-skills-to-2030#education-supply-for-priority-occupations.