Written questions by Holden.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 105279, whether the Office for Students has had discussions with commercial pilot training providers on registration with that office.

Registration with the Office for Students (OfS) is voluntary and open to providers that meet the statutory definition of an English higher education provider. This includes those delivering higher‑level courses within the scope of the OfS regulatory framework.Operational decisions concerning engagement with potential applicants regarding registration, including discussions with commercial pilot training providers, are matters for the OfS as an independent regulator.

With reference to her oral contribution of 9 December 2025 in the debate on the Railways Bill, Official Report, column 207, how the £150 million figure relates to the £663 million per year efficiency saving projected for 2028–29 in the Departmental Efficiency Plan.

The oral contribution on 9 December 2025 in the debate on the Railways Bill referred to savings from management and performance fees payable to private sector operators. These savings are factored into the Department's Spending Review settlement but are not included in the published Departmental Efficiency Plan.

How much his Department has spent in each of the last 3 years on (a) maternity services and (b) compensation for errors in maternity services.

The following table shows the annual spend for providing maternity care for each of the last three years:YearAnnual spend2022/23£4,722,376,5942023/24£5,174,161,6372024/25£5,790,365,917Source Patient-Level Costing dataset, NHS National Cost Collection, NHS EnglandNote: data is not yet available for the financial year 2025/26.NHS Resolution (NHSR) manages clinical negligence and other claims against the National Health Service in England. The following table shows the total payments for maternity, including obstetrics and neonatology, clinical negligence claims across all clinical schemes between 2022/23 and 2024/25, broken down by primary specialty and payment year:Payment YearObstetrics (£)Neonatology (£)Total Maternity (£)2022/231,086,187,27620,097,4301,106,284,7062023/241,145,173,13430,185,7391,175,358,8732024/251,287,368,29147,037,7981,334,406,089Source: NHSR.Notes:the data includes the damages and NHS legal costs and claimant legal costs paid in each relevant financial year;payments include those raised against both claims that were closed or open at the end of each financial year; anddata on “notified claims value” only includes an early estimate of eventual settlement value if all the claims were to settle with damages.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2026 to Question 107160, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of English language proficiency requirements for registered nurses and care staff in NHS settings.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has published an accepted list of countries where English is a majority spoken language on its website. This is available at the following link:https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/joining-the-register/english-language-requirements/recent-practice-in-english/This list is primarily based on the UK Visas and Immigration skilled worker visa list, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/knowledge-of-englishAny variation from this list is based on independent evidence as to whether a country is majority English-speaking.No assessment has been made by the Department of the adequacy of English language proficiency requirements for registered nurses and care staff in National Health Service settings.As the independent regulator of registered nurses, the NMC is responsible for establishing the requirements that applicants must meet to demonstrate English language proficiency for registration.It is the responsibility of NHS employers to assess the English language proficiency of nurses and the care staff they employ as part of their recruitment process to ensure workers have a sufficient level of English to carry out their role safely.

Pursuant to the Answer of 3 February 2026 to Question 107160, which countries are defined by the Nursing and Midwifery Council as majority English-speaking for the purposes of meeting English language proficiency requirements.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has published an accepted list of countries where English is a majority spoken language on its website. This is available at the following link:https://www.nmc.org.uk/registration/joining-the-register/english-language-requirements/recent-practice-in-english/This list is primarily based on the UK Visas and Immigration skilled worker visa list, which is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/knowledge-of-englishAny variation from this list is based on independent evidence as to whether a country is majority English-speaking.No assessment has been made by the Department of the adequacy of English language proficiency requirements for registered nurses and care staff in National Health Service settings.As the independent regulator of registered nurses, the NMC is responsible for establishing the requirements that applicants must meet to demonstrate English language proficiency for registration.It is the responsibility of NHS employers to assess the English language proficiency of nurses and the care staff they employ as part of their recruitment process to ensure workers have a sufficient level of English to carry out their role safely.

Pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2026 to Question 107166, what information her Department holds on level crossing performance, safety incidents and disruption.

Safety at level crossings on the mainline railway is the statutory responsibility of Network Rail, which monitors and records performance, safety incidents and disruption to help inform mitigation measures. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR), as the independent safety regulator, also collects, scrutinises and publishes data on level crossing incidents and enforcement activity.My Department does not hold a separate dataset on level crossing performance. We rely on Network Rail’s operational data and the ORR’s published statistics, which together provide a comprehensive picture of safety and disruption at level crossings.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2026 to Question 110095, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the absence of route-level ferry fare modelling risks on consumer price impacts for ferry-dependent communities.

The Government has not undertaken route level ferry fare modelling for the UK ETS domestic maritime expansion. This is because, as we set out in the Impact Assessment, operators’ commercial decisions, vessel utilisation and fare structures vary widely. The qualitative assessment indicates that any passthrough to consumers is likely to be modest. The Government will review the maritime element of the UK ETS in 2028 with further consideration of regional or distributional impacts.

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2026 to Question 107163, what information her Department holds on airport kerbside drop-off charges.

There is no requirement for airports or airport car park providers to provide details of drop-off charges to the Department. We regularly engage with airports on surface access strategies and drop-off charges form part of these wider discussions. Information about individual airports' car parking and drop-off charges is available on their respective public websites.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2026 to Question 108297, whether his Department holds any evidence on rates of neonatal and post-neonatal death, including accidental suffocation and overlaying, associated with parental cannabis use during pregnancy and the postnatal period.

The Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK (MBRRACE-UK) programme is responsible for reviewing stillbirths and neonatal deaths across the United Kingdom to identify causes, improve clinical care, and reduce future preventable deaths. Analysis of MBRRACE-UK data found that between 2014 and 2024, there were 17 neonatal deaths attributed to accidental suffocation, with only one case explicitly linked to cannabis use. There was also one neonatal sudden infant death syndrome case involving maternal cannabis and alcohol history, and one neonatal death where maternal cannabis use was a secondary contributor. There were thus a total of three neonatal deaths linked to cannabis use between 2014 and 2024.The National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) collects and analyses data on the deaths of all children under 18 years of age. The latest data published by the NCMD highlighted that of the deaths reviewed by Child Death Overview Panels between April 2024 and March 2025, substance misuse during pregnancy was identified as a contributing factor in 62 out of 4,035 infant deaths where data was available. The NCMD thematic report on Deaths of children and young people due to traumatic incidents also highlighted that between 1 April 2019 and March 2022, there were 42 deaths as a result of accidental strangulation or suffocation. 13, or 31%, children were aged under one years old, 17, or 40%, were aged one to four years old, and 12, or 29%, were aged five to 17 years old. In total, 18 children died where entrapment or overlay was found to be a significant contributing factor, but the analysis did not look at whether or not there was substance misuse by the parents.

Pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 105896, whether equivalent gross efficiency and implementation cost breakdowns have been produced for other components of the Departmental Efficiency Plan, including regulated settlements and corporate initiatives.

As set out in the Departmental Efficiency Plan, the department plans to deliver efficiencies of £663m in 28/29. We do not currently hold a breakdown on how these efficiencies breakdown by gross efficiencies and implementation costs in regulated settlements and corporate initiatives.

What correspondence 10 Downing Street has received from Global Counsel since 4 July 2024.

It is not routine to publish correspondence between the Prime Minister and any individual or organisation. This does not mean correspondence has or has not been received.

With reference to Cabinet Office: Government Procurement Card spend over £500 - March 2025, published 24 April 2025, for what reason the £811 payment to Women in Product UK was not listed in the Cabinet Office’s list of exempted Civil Service 2024/2025 External Expenditure on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

The Cabinet Office published all the external expenditure on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion provided by departments under the Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Expenditure Guidance on 30 May 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 108798 what the British Business Bank’s total programme expenditure, staffing costs, and consultancy and professional services costs were in 2024–25, broken down by programme or business line.

The British Business Bank’s total staffing costs in 2024-25 were £71.591 million. In the same year, the BBB incurred total expenditure of £26.456 million on professional fees. These comprise fees relating to investment scheme design and transactions and other operational professional services.A breakdown by business line is provided below, taken from the British Business Bank’s annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025.All figures in £ '000Staff costsProfessional servicesBritish Business Finance2,089186British Business Investments2,5883,157British Patient Capital4,616643Nations and Regions Investments1,28316Start Up Loans4,100253BBB Investment Services16917Company plc, Holdings and British Business Financial Services56,74622,184Total group71,59126,456

What the cost to UK Export Finance was of mitigating operational emissions arising from (a) its office footprint and b) business travel in 2024-25.

UKEF’s office footprint is managed by the Government Property Agency, which is responsible for the provision of all energy and utility services. UKEF mitigates operational emissions arising from business travel through policies to reduce the cost of business travel; these measures do not place additional costs on UKEF.Full details regarding expenditure on UKEF’s office footprint and business travel for 2024-25 can be found in the UK Export Finance Annual Report and Accounts 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK.

Pursuant to the Answer of 6 May 2025 to Question 48266 on Equality, whether the proposed socio-economic duty will apply to the Law Officers.

The public sector duty regarding socio-economic inequalities will apply to the public authorities listed in section 1(3) of the Equality Act 2010. That list includes a Minister of the Crown. The duty will therefore apply to the Law Officers as Ministers of the Crown.The duty is not yet in force in England. Once in force, the duty will require public authorities, when making decisions of a strategic nature about how to exercise their functions, to have due regard to the desirability of exercising them in a way that is designed to reduce the inequalities of outcome which result from socio-economic disadvantage.

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2026 to Question 107769, what estimate he has made to the Insolvency Service of compliance with Net Zero, sustainability and climate-related disclosure requirements.

I have made no such assessment, however the Insolvency Service’s total emissions have been reported in the Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts since 2012/13. Progress on wider sustainability requirements is reported quarterly to the Department for Business and Trade through the Agency’s Greening Government Commitment (GGC) returns. The Agency adheres to the Greening Government Commitments and the Taskforce on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) guidance.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2026 to Question 108459 on Department for Transport: Artificial Intelligence, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of AI-enabled initiatives operating on a test-and-learn basis not delivering the expected benefits on the corporate initiatives efficiency target.

Please see the previous response to Question 108459 which answers this question.

Whether his Department issues guidance to teams on the proportion of staff time or budget that should be allocated to net zero strategy or corporate sustainability activity.

The department does not issue guidance to teams on the proportion of staff time or budget that should be allocated to net zero strategy or corporate sustainability activity.

What the Competition and Markets Authority’s total expenditure was in 2024–25, broken down by project and function.

The Competition and Markets Authority’s published Annual Report and Accounts contains details of its expenditure, including a breakdown of total gross expenditure by operating segment. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2026 to Question 110095, whether the Department plans to publish route-specific or island impact assessments before domestic maritime is brought into scope of the UK ETS in 2026.

The Impact Assessment set out that it is not possible to robustly break down compliance costs to the level of individual routes or service types, as ticket prices, fare structures and commercial operating decisions vary widely. The Assessment therefore considers impacts at the sector and scheme level. The Authority consulted extensively with all operators, including those serving island mainland and shortsea routes, to ensure all perspectives informed policy development.