Written questions by Lowe.

If she will make an estimate of the (a) number and (b) total cost to the public purse of courses available to inmates at (i) HMP Maidstone, (ii) HMP Huntercombe and (iii) HMP Morton Hall for the last financial year.

In 2023-24, 23 education courses were provided at HMP Maidstone, 26 at HMP Huntercombe and 48 at HMP Morton Hall.Data on the cost of providing these courses at HMP Huntercombe and HMP Morton Hall are in the process of validation. Information in relation to HMP Maidstone is not available, as the costs form part of a single budget item covering a number of prisons and cannot be disaggregated.Courses, such as the ones offered at these sites, are one of many valuable ways in which we can improve rehabilitation and cut reoffending which costs society more than £18 billion per year.

If she will make an estimate of the total amount written off in court fine accounts for each of the last 10 years.

Financial penalties imposed by the courts will often consist of multiple elements including, amongst others, compensation, victim surcharge, prosecutor’s costs and a fine.The Government takes the recovery and enforcement of all financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to ensuring impositions are paid. The courts will do everything within their powers to trace those who do not pay and use a variety of sanctions to ensure the recovery of criminal fines and financial penalties.In very limited scenarios, HMCTS may decide to administratively write-off the debt, the circumstances in which this can happen are severely restricted and occur only when there is no opportunity for the debt to be collected, for example, when a company has been dissolved with no distributable assets. The debt is written off for administrative purposes only, the imposition is still legally enforceable and if in the future it becomes apparent that assets are available to pay the debt then the account is written back. There also remain specific and limited situations where the Court can legally cancel any debt.The table below details the net value of the fine element of an imposition that has been administratively written off/ (written back - reinstated) for each financial year from 2014-15 to 2023-24. Judicial cancellations are not included as these are a direct instruction from the court to amend the value of the imposition.Financial yearNet fine impositions written off/ (written back) in each year £000 2014-1545,3452015-1629,7282016-17(17,728)2017-18(44,441)2018-19(8,332)2019-209,4582020-218,7972021-228,4802022-2312,1432023-249,400

If she will make an estimate of the number of pensioners per constituency in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty.

Statistics on the number of pensioners living in relative and absolute poverty are not available at a constituency level. Statistics on the number of pensioners living in relative and absolute poverty at regional level are published annually in the Households Below Average Income statistics Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

What the total amount of outstanding court fines are.

Financial penalties imposed by the courts will often consist of multiple elements including, amongst others, compensation, victim surcharge, prosecutor’s costs and a fine.The Government takes the recovery and enforcement of all financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to ensuring impositions are paid. The courts will do everything within their powers to trace those who do not pay and use a variety of sanctions to ensure the recovery of criminal fines and financial penalties. These sanctions can include deducting money from an individual offender’s earnings or benefits, if they are unemployed, or issuing warrants instructing approved enforcement agents to seize and sell goods belonging to the offender. If the offender does not pay as ordered and the money cannot be recovered by other means, then the court can take other actions which includes sending them to prison for non-payment of the financial penalty including a fine.The total amount of outstanding fines is published annually in note 4 of the HMCTS Trust Statement. (Trust Statement 2023-24).The amount outstanding at 31 March 2024 was £1,064,286,669.

Whether her Department has commissioned public opinion polling on irregular migration in the last five years.

Contracts are in place for polling on a range of Home Office policy areas, including irregular migration.

What the cost of providing security services to hotels used for housing irregular migrants was in each year since 2018.

Security for asylum accommodation is part of the service requirements that are provided by the Home Office accommodation providers under the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC). The HO does not publish a breakdown of costs by individual elements of the AASC service - and could only do so at disproportionate cost

How many hotels have been used to house irregular migrants since 2018.

The Home Office does not publish data on the number of hotels in use. However, we can confirm that hotel use peaked at more than 400 under the previous government.

What proportion of court cases have required a translator for each of the last 10 years.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Pursuant to the Answer of 19 November 2024 to Question 13562 on National Income, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of immigration numbers on recent trends in the rate of (a) economy growth and (b) GDP per capita.

The impact of migration on GDP and GDP per capita will depend, among other factors, on the age, education, skill level, and participation rate of migrants, as well as the investment response of businesses. The latest data indicates that net migration has fallen from a peak of 764,000 in the year ending December 2022 to 685,000 in the year ending December 2023. The independent OBR make a net migration forecast to underpin their economic and fiscal forecasts.

What overpayments of benefits due to Departmental error there were in each of the last five financial years.

The Department publishes estimates of the levels of fraud and error in the benefit system by financial year. These statistics for the last five years are available at: Fraud and error in the benefit system - GOV.UK Below is an extract: OVERALL LEVELS OF MVFEFYE 24FYE 23FYE 22FYE21FYE 20All3.7%  (£9.7bn)3.6%  (£8.3bn)4.0%  (£8.7bn)3.9%  (£8.2bn)2.4%  (£4.5bn)Fraud2.8%  (£7.4bn)2.7%  (£6.3bn)3.0%  (£6.5bn)2.9%  (£6.2bn)1.4%  (£2.7bn)Claimant Error0.6%  (£1.6bn)0.6%  (£1.4bn)0.7%  (£1.5bn)0.6%  (£1.3bn)0.6%  (£1.1bn)Official Error0.3%  (£0.8bn)0.3%  (£0.7bn)0.3%  (£0.7bn)0.4%  (£0.8bn)0.4%  (£0.7bn)

How many people from the EU without settled status have been paid benefits since the end of the transition period.

The requested information is not readily available. We are, however, exploring the feasibility of developing suitable statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit claimants. EU citizens present in the UK at the end of the Transition Period but with less than 5 year’s continuous residence have been able to apply for pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. They can access disability benefits and, if they are exercising a qualifying right to reside, for example as a worker or self-employed, they can access income related benefits. EU citizens who have arrived in the UK since the end of the Transition Period will be subject to the same rules as citizens from the rest of the world. They typically have no recourse to public funds for the first five years and cannot access income related, disability or carer benefits. Those who have made sufficient national insurance contributions can access contributory benefits.

How many farmers her Department consulted on changes to agricultural property relief before the Autumn Budget 2024.

The Government takes into account all representations made ahead of the Budget, and meets with stakeholders on a regular basis.

Pursuant to Answer of 19 November 2024 to Question 13879 on Sexual Offences: Languages, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing registered sex offender nationality data stored on the ViSOR database.

ViSOR is the information-sharing system that the police, probation and prison services use to manage the risks posed by violent and sexual offenders managed under multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). The categorisation of those offenders on the system is based on the level of risk they are assessed to represent, not their nationality.

How many staff of what grade her Department employed in non-customer engaging roles in each of the last five financial years.

The information you have requested is not held centrally and will have to be provided by operational teams. Gathering this data would incur disproportionate costs.

How much her Department has paid in benefits to people from the EU without settled status since the end of the transition period.

The requested information is not readily available. We are, however, exploring the feasibility of developing suitable statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit claimants. EU citizens present in the UK at the end of the Transition Period but with less than 5 year’s continuous residence have been able to apply for pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. They can access disability benefits and, if they are exercising a qualifying right to reside, for example as a worker or self-employed, they can access income related benefits. EU citizens who have arrived in the UK since the end of the Transition Period will be subject to the same rules as citizens from the rest of the world. They typically have no recourse to public funds for the first five years and cannot access income related, disability or carer benefits. Those who have made sufficient national insurance contributions can access contributory benefits.

What steps she is taking to tackle illegal migration.

Mr Speaker, this Government came to office with a pledge to crack down on the organised crime gangs responsible for the vile trade in people-smuggling across the Channel, working with our counterparts in Europe and beyond, and I am pleased to report that those efforts have produced significant successes in recent weeks.Working with agencies across government and with international partners, our new Border Security Command will continue to lead the UK’s efforts to dismantle the smuggling gangs, and disrupt their supply chains, and I look forward to further successes resulting from that work in the weeks and months to come.

With reference to item 29 of Table 5.1 of the Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, what the evidential basis is for her Department's estimate that changes to inheritance tax will raise £520 million from 2028/29.

I refer the Honourable Member to the PQ referenced 13620 published on 11th November 2024 at https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-11-11/13620.

How many staff her Department employs at (a) SEO, (b) Grade 7 and (c) Grade 6.

We have provided the information requested in the table below. Staffing figures (as of 31st October 2024) are provided as Full Time Equivalence (FTE): GradeFTESEO4099.3G73069.8G61146.0

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing daily numbers of irregular migrants housed in (a) hotels and (b) other accommodation.

Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.

How much her Department spent on staff (a) travel, (b) subsistence and (c) stays in hotels in each of the last five years.

The Department does not keep this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.Information on annual DWP spend can be found here.