Written questions by McMahon.

How many sub postmasters have had claims (a) settled and (b) not settled related to the Horizon issue.

As of 31 October 2025, around 9,300 claims have been settled across the Horizon redress schemes, with around 3,000 claims received not yet settled. The total number of settled claims includes 71 full and final settlements made under the former Overturned Convictions scheme prior to its closure on 2 June 2025. The 40 Overturned Convictions claims not fully settled are now being administered through the Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme (HCRS). The table below illustrates the progress to date across the schemes and is available on GOV.UK. The Department only reports on claims received, as there is not a fixed cohort of claims across these schemes. SchemeFull & Final Claims receivedFull & Final Offers madeFull & Final Offers acceptedFull & Final claims paidHorizon Shortfall Scheme: eligible claims before deadline2,4172,4172,1292,129Horizon Shortfall Scheme: eligible late claims8,8236,9196,2366,192Group Litigation Order Scheme476473400396Horizon Convictions Redress Scheme462460447445

Food and Rural Affairs, what information her Department holds on the number of pets by type that were placed with animal shelters as a result of (a) pet ownership affordability and (b) tenancy restrictions in each of the past three years.

The Department does not hold information on the number of pets placed with animal shelters as a result of the affordability of pet ownership or tenancy restrictions. This information may be collected by individual animal welfare organisations.

Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to tackle (a) misinformation (b) foreign influence in the 2026 elections.

The Government takes attempts by any country to intervene in our democratic processes very seriously. It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect our democratic and electoral processes. The Government addresses these challenges through coordinated efforts led by the Defending Democracy Taskforce and Joint Election Security and Preparedness (JESP) Unit which bring together Whitehall departments, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to monitor and mitigate election security risks, including mis – and disinformation and foreign interference. The Joint Election Security and Preparedness unit is currently leading on cross-government efforts in preparation for the 2026 elections, which are taking place across the UK.

Media and Sport, what estimate her Department has been made of the value of artwork sold by local authorities in England since 2010.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport does not hold information on the value of artworks that may have been sold by local authorities since 2010, as local authorities are responsible for the management of their own assets, which are held and displayed in a variety of ways. The Museums Association provides clear guidance to the sector on responsible collections management and the acquisition and disposal of collections. These guidelines, endorsed by major sector organisations, prohibit financially motivated disposals of museum artefacts. The government is committed to working collaboratively with councils, as co-funders of culture. As the government’s recent Pride in Place strategy makes clear, communities deserve vibrant public spaces, and the government is investing new money in shared community assets, including through our £20 million Museum Renewal Fund, supporting regional museums to improve public access to Collections.

What proportion of civil servants have working class backgrounds.

As committed in the Declaration on Government Reform and in order to better serve the public, the government must ensure it draws on the talent of people from the widest possible range of geographical, social and career backgrounds. We will make sure that citizens who have experienced disadvantages in their early lives are able to flourish in public service. According to the Civil Service People Survey 2024, 33% of civil servants responding to the survey come from a working class background. Specifically, based on the NS-SEC index for parental occupation, 30% of respondents to the survey were from a routine background and 3% from a never worked one. To note that these figures are based on the 60% of civil servants that completed the survey in 2024.

Communities and Local Government, if she will take legislative steps to require the promotion of party political content on social media platforms during the regulated period as third party campaign activity that has to be (a) valued and (b) declared in election expense returns.

Under existing legislation, spending above £20,000 in England or £10,000 in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland on promoting party political content during the regulated period, whether on social media or other platforms, must be treated as campaign expenditure. This means it must be valued and reported in the relevant spending return to the Electoral Commission.Both political parties and third-party campaigners are required to account for the costs of paid promotion, such as advertising on digital platforms, in their returns. These costs contribute to overall spending limits and transparency requirements designed to ensure fairness and accountability in elections.The Government will continue to keep electoral law under review and work closely with the Electoral Commission to ensure that the framework remains effective and proportionate in the context of evolving campaign practices, including digital campaigning.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2025 to Question 90780 on Prisoners' Release: Housing, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the (a) saturation and (b) clustering of housing facilities for people supervised by the Probation Service on communities.

Statutory responsibility for housing and homelessness provision in both England and Wales lies with local authorities. To supplement this, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) offers a three-tier structure of temporary accommodation, known as the Community Accommodation Service (CAS), for a small proportion of prison leavers and persons on bail. Many offenders leaving custody will have their own accommodation to return to. CAS properties are sourced according to a demand analysis undertaken by HMPPS, with as wide a geographical spread as possible. They are normally in areas close to local amenities, to assist with effective rehabilitation and sentence management planning. Services have been expanded across the country in recent years to meet demand for places. This serves both to help prison leavers at risk of homelessness and to protect the public. Other individuals under probation supervision who are in need of assistance on release from custody may be accommodated by the local authority or in accordance with private arrangements. When deciding whether to approve a proposed address, the probation practitioner will make a risk assessment and will also have regard to the offender’s sentence planning objectives

Media and Sport, what comparative assessment her Department of made of the (a) social class (b) regional breakdown of National Lottery customers and the beneficiaries of lottery-funded grant programmes.

The Gambling Commission, the regulator for the National Lottery and an arm’s-length body of DCMS, publishes annual data on National Lottery participation rates, including a breakdown by sex, age and region. A regional breakdown of lottery grant recipients can be found on the National lottery grant database: https://nationallottery.dcms.gov.uk/data. Further analysis on funding is carried out by the twelve lottery distributing bodies, who are independent of Government.

What estimate she has made of the transition costs to the public purse of the proposed abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners.

There will be a small programme team in the Home Office to oversee the transition of police governance functions from Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to Strategic Authority Mayors or, where that is not possible, new Policing and Crime Boards. This will be resourced through the reprioritisation of existing resources.The Home Office will work with Offices of PCCs and local authorities to assess local transition costs ahead of implementation in 2028. Following the approach taken for previous transfers of police governance in mayoral areas, costs are expected to be met locally through existing budgets.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure the provision of non-partisan political and democratic education in schools prior to the introduction of the forthcoming Elections Bill.

Teaching about democracy and elections already forms a central part of the secondary national curriculum for citizenship and can be taught as a non-statutory topic in primary schools.Education is a vital part of implementing the government's commitment to extend the right to vote to 16 and 17 years olds. The government takes empowering and equipping young people with the knowledge and skills they need seriously, and wants to break down barriers and drive participation in our democracy.Following the independent Curriculum and Assessment Review recommendations, the department has committed to make citizenship compulsory in primary schools and to publish revised programmes of study to ensure that all pupils receive an essential grounding in a range of topics including democracy, government and law. We will consult on programmes of study next year and the new national curriculum will be published in 2027 for first teaching in 2028.The department’s guidance on political impartiality supports schools with teaching about political issues in line with their statutory duties.

Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with BBC on the potential impact of its proposed budget savings on its (a) television, (b) radio, (c) streamed content and (d) website content.

The Prime Minister and Secretary of State believe public service broadcasting, and the BBC in particular, are vital British assets that contribute to our national life, and help to shape and define our nation. The Secretary State meets with the BBC leadership regularly to discuss a range of issues.It is important that the licence fee is used efficiently and the BBC must ensure it is delivering value for audiences. However, as an independent organisation, the BBC’s spending decisions are a matter for the BBC. The Government recognises the BBC faces funding pressures, and we will consider how we fund the BBC sustainably as part of the Charter Review.

How many people were referred to the Prevent programme by local authority and risk type in each of the last five years.

The Home Office does not routinely publish data on Prevent referrals by local authority, as releasing it could have detrimental effect on national security. However, the Home Office does publish data on Prevent referrals by region and type of concern for the last five years.The type of concern categories have been updated twice in the period you have requested, 2020/21 and 2024/25. They were updated for the 2021/22 publication and the latest publication ( Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme, April 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK) to better describe the nature of concerns that are referred into Prevent. They were developed based on analysis of data available as well as consultation with frontline staff and policymakers about their experiences and requirements. The new type of concern categories do not exactly match onto previous years’ categories, therefore, there is a break in the time series and trends by type of concern should be interpreted carefully.The type of concern presented is based upon information provided by the referrer. For cases that progress further into the programme, officers may update the type of concern based upon new information that comes to light. Therefore, the statistics regarding type of concern are likely to include a mix of the type of concern raised by the original referrer and the type of concern that the Channel Case Officers believe the individual is presenting as more information has become available.c) Table A below provides a summary of the number of people referred to the Prevent programme by region and type of concern for 2024/25.Table A: The number of referrals to Prevent by region and type of concern, 2024/25.YearRegionExtreme Right WingIslamist ExtremismLeft Wing ExtremismAnarchist ExtremismNorthern Ireland Related – Dissident Republican ExtremismInCelFascination with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks (where no other ideology)Multiple ideologies (with no dominant ideology)No ideology – other susceptibility to radicalisation identifiedNo ideology identifiedOtherUnspecifiedTotal2024/25Total1,798870211316664694241,9083,00917598,7782024/25East1014143043432783021506142024/25East Midlands1353301355527135348617492024/25London22733000112811172153165501,3542024/25North East278942221167571346392151,3122024/25North West321121514880574292531701,2962024/25South East26937511554435873682701,3972024/25South West1092620091626732941215682024/25Wales82202002181464186823982024/25West Midlands2761681551064511933031401,090 c) Table B below provides a summary of the number of people referred to the Prevent programme by region and type of concern for 2021/22 to 2023/24.Table B: The number of referrals to Prevent by region and type of concern, 2021/22 to 2023/24.YearRegionExtreme Right WingIslamistOtherConflictedNo specific extremism issueHigh CT risk but no ideology presentVulnerability present but no ideology or CT riskNo risk, vulnerability or Ideology PresentSchool massacreIncelUnspecifiedTotal2023/24Total1,3149131261,278042,4895811625416,9222023/24East118621078001906711405402023/24East Midlands9959976002956318216222023/24London12329016177002609616309812023/24North East202872028600276135241001,0402023/24North West24017314169012979341109482023/24South East2005023354015153318601,2002023/24South West671885401280418404812023/24Wales5711423001184711402752023/24West Midlands20816322610125890221008352022/23Total1,3107811121,214052,5056541596986,8172022/23East7839126800242646105102022/23East Midlands114431175002767912406142022/23London1402612416701339139191301,1032022/23North East22177152550132711327601,0422022/23North West236176191720127245321709702022/23South East26280212310142441321401,1062022/23South West7914266002724112304892022/23Wales611224200115278222712022/23West Midlands1197961380123810511967122021/22Total1,3091,0271001,020052,1275871547706,4062021/22East7641837001706511204102021/22East Midlands112615780129411313106782021/22London122384121700122851111309922021/22North East2591101515500372109321101,0632021/22North West185166161550215342271207582021/22South East246121232310139355281701,1152021/22South West10223872001925014704682021/22Wales5318244001103010502722021/22West Midlands15410311780021572890650c) Table C below provides a summary of the number of people referred to the Prevent programme by region and type of concern for 2020/21.Table C: the number of referrals to Prevent by region and type of concern, 2020/21YearRegionIslamistExtreme Right-WingOtherMixed, unstable, or unclearTotal2020/21Total1,0641,2291002,5224,9152020/21East9310982374472020/21East Midlands7713653125302020/21London29497182796882020/21North East157253194528812020/21North West149129222975972020/21South East107225164267742020/21South West298461732922020/21Wales238431202302020/21West Midlands1351123226476

How many new buses her Department funded annually since 2015; and how many of those were made in the UK annually since 2015.

Through the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) programmes, the Department has provided funding which has procured 1300 buses through ZEBRA 1, 1,955 buses through ZEBRA 2 and a further 319 buses due to scope increases. These buses were funded in 2021, 2024 and 2025 respectively and around 60% of these are from UK manufacturers.The Government is committed to ensuring the UK remains a leader in bus manufacturing, and earlier this year launched the UK Bus Manufacturing Expert Panel. The Panel brings together industry experts and local leaders to achieve three key objectives of supporting growth in UK bus manufacturing, developing a pipeline of future bus orders and prioritising passenger-centric bus design.

How many complaints were reported to British Transport Police for (a) antisocial behaviour, (b) sexual harassment, (c) sexual assault and (d) physical assault on trains in each of the past three years.

The British Transport Police have provided the following figures for the last 3 years. Passenger numbers have been increasing year-on-year since the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions and will account for some of the increase in crime reports. Overall, the railway is a safe environment, with 26.0 crimes recorded per million passenger journeys in 2024/25 (0.0026%), this was 26.8 in 2023/24 and 24.4 in 2022/23. Offence/Incident Type2022/232023/242024/25Antisocial Behaviour 309983290040932Unwanted Sexual BehaviourNot available18301958Sex offences225124332655Violence including assault122601458215522

What information her Department holds on the number of (a) licensing authorities in England whose policies permit the licensing of drivers with non-UK driving licences and (b) licensed taxi and private hire vehicle drivers who hold a non-UK driving licence, by the country of issue of those licences.

The Department does not hold this information centrally.

How many work visa compliance visits were carried out for illegal working in the fast food delivery economy in the most recent year for which data is available; and how many breaches were found for (a) Ubereats, (b) Justeat, (c) Deliveroo, (d) Foodhub, (e) McDonalds/McDelivery and (f) others.

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.However, the latest published data that we do have on illegal working and recent enforcement activity focusing on delivery drivers can be found at the links below: Illegal working and enforcement activity to the end of September 2025 - GOV.UKHundreds arrested in illegal delivery rider shut down   - GOV.UKIllegal working activity between 20 July and 26 July 2025 - GOV.UK

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of reducing the move-on period for newly recognised refugees from 56 days to 28 days on (a) rates of refugee homelessness and (b) local authority budgets and services.

From 1 September 2025, the Home Office took the decision to pause the 56 day move on period pilot for single adults in receipt of a positive asylum decision, with the exception of individuals who are pregnant, over the age of 65 or have a known/evidence disability, as defined by the 2010 Equality Act.This decision was taken to ensure that the asylum system continues to run efficiently, enabling the Home Office to continue reducing the overall number of asylum hotels in use, and the number of people staying in them.We continue to work with local authorities and use our Asylum Move On Liaison Officers alongside Migrant Help to support newly recognised refugees during the move on period and to mitigate the risk of homelessness.The Home Office will continue to monitor the impact of all our policies on the number of hotels in use for accommodating asylum seekers, the overall cost of the asylum accommodation estate, the wider effect on local communities, and any pressures placed on local authorities and public amenities.

Representing the House of Commons Commission, how many parliamentary passes were revoked for security reasons in each year since 2015.

We are not able to provide the number of parliamentary passes that were revoked for security reasons in each year since 2015. The pass system is a live database with accounts being deleted routinely in line with the data retention schedule, records are therefore not available in the way requested over the period.The Parliamentary Security Department (PSD) can revoke passes on security grounds. This may be because security clearance has been withdrawn, exclusion from the estate is necessary because of the risk to the wider parliamentary community, or because the passholder has exhibited unacceptable security behaviours. For the period that records are held, which is since 5 July 2024, PSD has fully revoked 10 passes on security grounds.It is worth noting that PSD’s vetting unit also revokes passes at the request of the pass sponsors without requiring or recording a reason. The most common reason would be because the passholder has left employment requiring access to the estate, but if there were security reasons behind their request this may not be specified.

What estimate he has made of the number of (a) clothes banks and (b) clothes bank users in each year since 2015.

The Department does not hold official statistics on the number of registered food banks. Food banks are independent organisations, often run by charities, faith groups, or community organisations, and are not regulated or registered centrally by the Government. Statistics on food bank use are published annually in the Households below average income statistics report and are only available from 2021/22 onwards. The most recent publication is available here: Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2024 - GOV.UKThe Government is committed to tackling poverty. We know that good work can significantly reduce the chances of families falling into poverty. Our Get Britain Working White Paper sets out our reforms to the system to enable greater participation, progression and productivity in the labour market.We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. We have already introduced the Fair Repayment Rate, reducing the Universal Credit overall deductions cap from 25% to 15% of a customer’s standard allowance, giving 1.2m households an average of £420 per year. In addition, we will increase the Universal Credit Standard Allowance from April 2026, estimated to be worth £725 annually by 2029/30 in cash terms. To further support struggling families, we provided £742 million to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) in England until 31 March 2026. Enabling local authorities to continue to provide vulnerable households with immediate crisis support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food. The Devolved Governments receive consequential funding through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion.

What criteria determined the order in which asylum accommodation hotels were prioritised for contract termination since 2023.

This Government is committed to closing all hotels accommodating asylum seekers and will do so in a controlled, managed and orderly manner. A range of factors are considered when selecting hotels for closure including contractual arrangements, geographical considerations and operational deliverability.