Every parliamentary written question tabled by James McMurdock this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 701–720 of 4,196 · this parliament
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled New powers to protect vital free speech at universities, published on 20 April 2026, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that students, staff
The Office for Students (OfS) will introduce its free speech complaints scheme on 1 September 2026, which will be available for higher education (HE) provider staff, non-student members and visiting speakers. HE students will, as now, be able to complain...
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled New powers to protect vital free speech at universities, published on 20 April 2026, what role the proposed free speech complaints scheme will play in t
The Office for Students’ free speech complaints scheme, open to higher education staff, non-student members and visiting speakers will come into force from 1 September, and will be an important route of redress for those who believe their lawful free spee...
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled New powers to protect vital free speech at universities, published on 20 April 2026, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of free speech
On Monday 20 April, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced she would make commencement regulations by June to bring into force the Office for Students’ (OfS) free speech complaints scheme for staff, external speakers and non-...
What assessment he has made of the potential impact of unregulated vaping products containing (a) undisclosed and (b) prohibited substances on people's health.
While vaping is less harmful than smoking and can be an effective quit aid for adult smokers, there has been increasing uptake of youth vaping and long-term harms are unknown.The Department recently ran a call for evidence which included questions on ingr...
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled New powers to protect vital free speech at universities, published on 20 April 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of external ac
Any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK or to coerce universities to limit free speech and academic freedoms, will not be tolerated. Foreign interference concerns have been raised in relation to ...
How many (a) illegal and b) non-compliant vaping products have been seized in each of the last 12 months.
Illicit and underage sales of tobacco and vapes undermine the Government’s work to protect people from harm and risk of addiction. The Government is investing up to £10 million of new funding per year in Trading Standards from 2025/26 to 2028/29, to tackl...
What steps he is taking to prevent the sale of unregulated vaping products in local high streets.
The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 will strengthen enforcement activity by providing powers for ministers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to introduce a licensing scheme for the retail sale of tobacco, vapes and nicotine products. A new licensing schem...
What steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) timeliness and (b) accuracy of death notifications across Government systems.
Tell Us Once is a cross government voluntary death notification service, available in all local authorities within England, Scotland & Wales. The service allows recently bereaved citizens, at a very stressful time in their lives, to inform participati...
What assessment he has made of the potential impact of illegal vape retailers on legitimate local businesses.
Retailers who sell illicit vaping products or illegally sell vapes to people underage undermine the Government’s work to protect children and the general public from the risk of harm and addiction. This also creates an unfair playing field for the vast ma...
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled New powers to protect vital free speech at universities, published on 20 April 2026, what criteria will be used by the Office for Students to determine
The Office for Students (OfS) published regulatory guidance on higher education providers’ free speech duties in June last year. On 23 April, the OfS published an update on the complaints scheme and conditions of registration, encouraging providers to rev...
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled New powers to protect vital free speech at universities, published on 20 April 2026, whether she has had discussions with the security services on ident
In February 2026, we hosted an event for university Vice Chancellors on foreign interference alongside my hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Security, MI5 and cyber security services. At the event, we announced a new Academic Interference Reporting Ro...
What proportion of overpayments to deceased welfare claimants have been recovered in each year since 2020.
A Direct Payment after Death (DPaD) overpayment can occur if notification of a person’s death did not arrive in time to stop a benefit payment going into their account. The process for recording a death requires administrative action by medical examiners,...
How many instances of benefit overpayments to deceased claimants have been recorded in each year since 2020.
A Direct Payment after Death (DPaD) overpayment can occur if notification of a person’s death did not arrive in time to stop a benefit payment going into their account. The process for recording a death requires administrative action by medical examiners,...
With reference to the Guide to the Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) Scheme published in January 2026, what proportion of applications to the scheme were (a) successful and (b) rejected in the most recent appli
In the February 2026 MSRS bid round, the Department for Transport received 53 eligible bids with a total value of £22.9m (England only). The Department awarded 42 bids with a total value of £20m. The MSRS budget for 2026/27 is £20m. MSRS grants are awarde...
Whether her Department is providing additional support to schools and colleges in areas where an higher than average proportion of students do not achieve a grade 4 in GCSE (a) English and (b) Maths.
The department has committed £27.7 million this financial year to raise reading standards, including a statutory reading check for pupils in year 8 to help schools provide targeted support. In 2025/26, the English Hubs programme launched a pilot to suppor...
What recent assessment he has made of the potential to increase utilisation of the existing NHS estate.
Data on the utilisation of the National Health Service estate is collected and published annually through the Estates Returns Information Collection. The latest data from 2024/25 is available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-informati...
What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that students are not disadvantaged by errors made in the initial approval of student finance.
As part of our work to protect public money in higher education (HE), we take swift and proportionate action to identify fraud and error in the student finance system.Where fraud or error has been identified, students may be required to repay the funding ...
What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that cases of retrospective withdrawal of student finance do not occur in future.
As part of our work to protect public money in higher education (HE), we take swift and proportionate action to identify fraud and error in the student finance system.Where fraud or error has been identified, students may be required to repay the funding ...
What steps her Department is taking to support students at risk of dropping out due to changes in funding eligibility.
As part of our work to protect public money in higher education (HE), we take swift and proportionate action to identify fraud and error in the student finance system.Where fraud or error has been identified, students may be required to repay the funding ...
How many students were affected by the withdrawal of (a) maintenance loans and (b) grants linked to (i) weekend and (ii) flexible learning courses.
As of 20 May 2026, the department is aware of 24,689 students that have been affected by the issue of higher education providers incorrectly classifying weekend-only courses on the Student Loans Company’s (SLC) course management system. The number of affe...