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 1,001–1,020 of 4,196 · this parliament
How many students have had their maintenance loans or grants withdrawn due to being reclassified as distance learners in the last 12 months.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
What steps her Department is taking to support students at risk of dropping out due to changes in funding eligibility.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
With reference to his Department’s press release entitled NHS patients and British businesses to benefit from historic changes to medicines access following pharmaceutical partnership with USA, published on 2 April 2026, what modelling his Department has undertaken of the long-term cost implications for the NHS of the changes to medicines access and pricing.
The Department has already been clear that the estimated costs of the United Kingdom’s medicines pricing commitments are approximately £1 billion in England over the remaining three-years of the Spending Review. The final and longer-term costs of these changes will depend on future growth in spending on medicines.This is not something that we can pre-empt at this time as it depends on which drugs come to market and which are assessed as approved for use on the National Health Service accordingly.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, whether any primary legislation will be required to implement the changes announced on 26 March 2026.
The government is committed to identifying existing disproportionate reporting and consultation duties that are slowing down delivery. The policy analysis is in the early stages and all options are being considered.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, which government department was consulting on a change to how it produces its annual report, as referenced in the press release; and how many of these consultations had it undertaken previously.
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, whether Ministers will publish a list of consultation and reporting requirements that are removed or amended under the reforms.
No decision has currently been taken on which requirements have been removed or amended under the reforms.Any removal of statutory consultation duties will require legislation, and so parliament will be able to scrutinise these changes in the ordinary way.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what criteria will be used by AI systems to determine whether consultation requirements should be removed.
AI tools are being used to identify statutory requirements to consult. Decisions remain the purview of Ministers.
Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 31 March 2026 to Question 123457 on Local Government and Voluntary Organisations: Social Impact Bonds, whether her Department has any plans to consult areas due to become Mayoral Strategic Authorities in 2028 upon their creation for participating in the delivery of Better Futures Fund-based projects.
DCMS remains in the design stages of the Better Futures Fund (BFF). We are aware of the need to consider the views of areas that will become Mayoral Strategic Authorities over the lifetime of the Fund, and will determine how best to do this in due course.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, how many of the 131 consultation requirements referenced in the press release were from government-sponsored bills or secondary legislation.
All 131 consultation requirements were from existing primary legislation, not bills currently before Parliament or Secondary legislation. The government is committed to identifying existing disproportionate reporting and consultation duties that are slowing down delivery.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, whether the new accountability framework for Permanent Secretaries, designed to focus on delivering the Prime Minister’s priorities, will result in a reduction in responsibilities for other cabinet ministers.
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
What steps her Department is taking to help ensure that students are not disadvantaged by errors made in the initial approval of student finance.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what estimate his Department have made of the (a) number of, and (b) cost of Equalities Impact Assessments since July 2024 which would not have taken place under the new policy.
Equalities Impact Assessments are carried out for a variety of reasons, for both internal policies and processes within the Cabinet Office under Public Sector Equality Duty to assess the impact of external policies and processes. Although there is a small central team who provide advice and guidance, it is the responsibility of individual business units to assess whether a formal assessment is required, and if so, these are typically conducted locally by the teams themselves. There is currently no requirement for teams to report activity, and we do not hold a central record across the department. It is therefore not possible to provide an accurate estimate of the number of assessments conducted. Given Equalities Impact Assessments are conducted internally, there are no direct costs associated, however the amount of official time taken to carry out the activity would be relevant. It is similarly not possible to provide an accurate estimate of time taken, as this varies significantly based on the scale and complexity of the policy or process being developed. The new policy referenced will ensure it is far clearer when an assessment is required, and what parameters need to be followed, with the intention of reducing the amount of official time spent on this activity, whilst still providing robust challenge.
How many students are currently affected by the withdrawal of student finance linked to weekend or flexible learning courses.
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, if he will make an assessment of which cabinet decisions since July 2024 would have been sped up as a result of the proposed reform to the process for collective Cabinet agreement of government policy.
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what the higher bar will be for reporting and consultation requirements in legislation.
Consultation should only be used when it is the most effective tool for good policymaking and not used for other reasons. Reporting requirements should not disproportionately slow down delivery.
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled Interest rate cap introduced to protect Plan 2 borrowers, published on 7 April 2026, what assessment she has made of the impact of the cap on incentives for graduates to pursue higher education.
The government has taken decisive action to cap the maximum interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 (postgraduate) student loans at 6%, instead of the Retail Prices Index (RPI) plus 3%, for the 2026/27 academic year. This short term protective measure removes the risk of a temporary increase in inflation causing loan balances to compound at an unsustainable rate.The interest rate cap follows changes we have already made to the student finance system to improve it and make it fairer for students, graduates and taxpayers. This includes increasing the repayment threshold for Plan 2 loans to £28,470 in April 2025, its first increase since 2021, and increasing it again on 6 April this year, to £29,385. The department is also reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants from the 2028/29 academic year, providing students from low income households with up to £1,000 extra support that will not need to be repaid.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, how many statutory consultation requirements Ministers expect to remove or amend as a result of the reforms.
The government is committed to identifying existing disproportionate reporting and consultation duties that are slowing down delivery. This process is still ongoing.
Pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what the projected savings to the public purse are as a result of reduced consultations.
Policy analysis is currently ongoing to develop recommendations to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. We have already identified initial targeted first steps, but this is a significant piece of work requiring ministerial decisions across a range of policy areas. We are developing our plan of work and raising our ambition. Once this has been agreed, we will be in a position to develop quantifiable metrics in terms of resource savings to the public purse.
With reference to her Department’s press release entitled Interest rate cap introduced to protect Plan 2 borrowers, published on 7 April 2026, what analysis her Department has undertaken of the effect of the cap on long-term student loan repayment burdens for graduates.
The government is capping the maximum interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 student loans at 6%, instead of the Retail Prices Index (RPI) plus 3%, for the 2026/27 academic year. This short term measure will protect students and graduates from the potential of inflationary pressures due to the situation in the Middle East.Student loan interest rates are ordinarily set for each academic year by reference to the RPI value for the year to the preceding March. On that basis, interest rates for the 2026/27 academic year would normally be determined using the RPI figure for March 2026, which is due to be published on 22 April 2026.The impact of the interest rate cap on long term repayments for graduates, and on forecast cost impacts for the public purse, will depend on the March RPI value. Costs will be set out at Budget in the usual way.
With reference to his Department’s press release entitled NHS patients and British businesses to benefit from historic changes to medicines access following pharmaceutical partnership with USA, published on 2 April 2026, what measures are in place to monitor whether the accelerated access to new treatments is translating into measurable improvements in patient outcomes.
The Department will continue to work with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and NHS England to monitor and assess access to medicines in the United Kingdom and to monitor patient outcomes through the NHS Outcomes Framework Indicators.There are no plans to routinely monitor the direct impact of accelerated access to new medicines on patient outcomes.