Written questions by Lowe.

How much was spent by NHS Trusts on celebrating Pride Month in June (a) 2023 and (b) 2024.

This information is not collected by NHS England.

Food and Rural Affairs, what forms his Department requires farmers to complete each year; what the length of these forms are; and what steps his Department is taking to help reduce the administration burden on farmers.

The Government does not require the same forms annually, and therefore we cannot provide this information. However, we are committed to improving the services we offer to farmers. Through ongoing service design and research with farmers, we continue to optimise our farming schemes, including the administration they include, to make published content clear and by iterating form design, so they work efficiently for farmers, food security and the environment, especially for those that are too often ignored such as small, grassland, upland and tenanted farms. This is a priority for the new Government and we will announce more information in due course. In the meantime, the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) strategic programme is focused on enhancing and streamlining services, including customer communications, application processes, forms, and data collection. This initiative includes multiple projects aimed at understanding and alleviating the administrative load faced by farmers and other stakeholders. As part of this programme, APHA has already conducted extensive user research, engaging customers across various sectors to identify their challenges and pain points. By listening directly to those who use its services, APHA is gaining valuable insights that allow it to evaluate and test solutions to make interactions with APHA smoother and more efficient.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the percentage of food served in canteens in his Department that is British.

Catering services at Defra are provided by our facilities management supplier, ISS. In the contract we require ISS to comply with Government Buying Standards (GBS) for food and catering services and ISS is encouraged to meet the best practice criteria of the GBS for food and catering services. The supplier is required to comply with the aims of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012. ISS has confirmed that: The percentage of British products purchased by ISS, for use across the Defra locations where food is served in the UK, is estimated at 57.20%.This figure is based on the total value of food purchased for use across the Defra locations since April 2024. Data is only available from April 2024 from this supplier.

What proportion of children in school in each constituency do not have English as their first language.

The information requested is in the attached table. Data for the proportion and number of children who do not have English as their first language can be found at school level in the school census publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics. A pupil is recorded to have English as an additional language if they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English. This measure is not a measure of English language proficiency nor a good proxy for recent immigration. As these figures are taken from the January 2024 school census, the Parliamentary constituencies are based on pre-election boundaries. Where statistics were published prior to the changes in Parliamentary constituency boundaries, they will be updated to reflect the new boundaries in the next publication of statistics. This is expected to be in June 2025 for the Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics publication.

How much was spent by police forces on celebrating Pride Month in June (a) 2023 and (b) 2024.

The Home Office does not hold this information.Decisions on how funding and resources are utilised are an operational matter for Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners, who are best placed to make resourcing decisions within their communities based on their local knowledge and experience.

What the value was of student loans that were written off in each of the last five years; and what this was as a proportion of all outstanding student loans.

The table below shows the amount that has been cancelled or written off during each financial year requested, the total amount outstanding at the start of the financial year including interest and loans not yet due for repayment (after adjustments) and the proportion that write offs or cancellations make out of the starting balance.The reasons for cancelled or written off loans are the following: death of borrower, age of borrower, disability, trivial balances, losses through fraud (including phishing) and other.Please note that write-offs do not include trivial balance write-offs. Trivial balance write-offs occur if there is a +/- balance on an account of £25 or less and no contact can be established with the borrower (customers can request for this to be reversed). In the context of these figures these borrowers are considered fully repaid and are therefore not included. Cancellations involve the clearance of the remaining debt in line with the terms of the loan, for example when reaching a specific age or becoming permanently disabled. Write-offs for bankruptcy, Individual Voluntary Arrangement or a trust deed, are no longer allowed against Student Loans balances. Any figures arise from retrospective clear up exercises.These figures have been taken from Student Loans Company’s Student loans in England publication that is updated in June each year. The publication, ‘Student loans in England: 2023 to 2024’ can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2023-to-2024, and the figures were taken from ‘Table 1A’ here: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F6672d0e2f92bc4be25da7e13%2Fslcsp012024.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.2019/202020/212021/222022/232023/24Amount cancelled or written off during the financial year (£m) 39.453.763.458.6101.1Total amount outstanding at the start of the financial year, including interest and loans not yet due for repayment (after adjustments) (£m)121,813.3140,092.8160,593.5181,612.3205,568.8Percentage of those written off out of total amount outstanding 0.03%0.04%0.04%0.03%0.05%

How many staff in their Departmental work outside of the UK; where these staff work; and what the cost is of salaries for these staff.

a) Total number of HM Treasury employees working overseas as at 30th October 2024. 51 b) Where these staff work. Australian TreasuryBritish Embassy, U.A.E.Canadian Finance MinistryFCDOGerman Finance MinistryInternational Monetary Fund, U.S.International Trade, IndiaMONEYVAL, Council of Europe, FranceNational Institute of Public Service, FranceNew Zealand TreasuryOrganisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, FranceMinistry of Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, FranceU.S. TreasuryUK Mission to the EU, BelgiumWorld Bank, U.S. c) Annual salary cost to HM Treasury for these staff £506,989

How many staff in their Departmental work outside of the UK; where these staff work; and what the cost is of salaries for these staff.

None of the DWP’s employees work outside the UK.

How many staff in their Department work outside of the UK; where these staff work; and what the cost is of salaries for these staff.

For security reasons, we do not give out figures of how many operational staff are working at a given time or on a specific operational deployment.

How many civil servants earn (a) over £100,000 and (b) more than the Prime Minister.

Civil Service Statistics (Table 35) provides information on the number of civil servants earning over £100,000 and in other bandings. The latest information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-service-statistics-2024 The previous administration did not publish a 2023 list. The Cabinet Office will publish this in due course following the usual process.

How many people are claiming the enhanced mobility component of the personal independence payment by each eligible health condition.

The Department regularly publishes Personal Independence Payment (PIP) statistics. The 'PIP Cases with Entitlement' dataset on Stat-Xplore, which contains the number of people entitled to PIP by mobility award status and health condition, has been suspended due to technical issues which are adversely affecting the Stat-Xplore site itself. This data series will be re-instated as soon as this issue has been resolved. The ‘PIP Clearances’ dataset is unaffected and provides the number of people who were awarded PIP, by mobility award status and health condition, each month from April 2013 to July 2024.

What steps he is taking to reduce the costs associated with the covid-19 inquiry.

It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic and the response to it. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work, and she has been clear in her intention to complete her work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What steps her Department has taken to prevent illegal immigrants claiming benefits.

All benefits claimants have to verify their identity before they can receive payments. For any claimants who aren’t British or Irish, we verify that they have a valid UK immigration status. Illegal immigrants cannot access taxpayer-funded benefits (publicly funded benefits), including Universal Credit or Personal Independence Payment. In order to receive such benefits, an individual must either be a British or Irish citizen or hold an immigration status that allows them to access such benefits. Whether someone holds a valid immigration status or is a British or Irish citizen is tested through DWP residency tests and verified through information from the Home Office. For DWP benefits that do not require a valid immigration status (contributory benefits), such as New-Style Jobseeker’s Allowance and Statutory Sick Pay, claimants will need to satisfy other eligibility criteria, such as having employment periods and paid sufficient national insurance contributions. To have been employed to meet the contributory benefits criteria, a valid. National Insurance number is required, meaning the identity and immigration status of the claimant has been verified.

Whether her Department has carried out a cost-benefit analysis of removing non-domiciled tax status.

The Government is committed to addressing unfairness in the tax system, so that everyone who makes their home in the UK pays their taxes here. The Government will therefore remove the outdated concept of domicile status from the tax system and implement a new residence-based regime, which is internationally competitive and focused on attracting the best talent and investment to the UK. Further details of this policy will be announced at the Budget, including a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN), as is routine for tax policy.

Whether her Department holds data on where foreign nationals released from prison reside.

We are committed to delivering justice for victims and safer streets for our communities.Any foreign national offender (FNOs) convicted of a crime who receives a custodial sentence in the UK is referred to the Home Office for deportation consideration following sentencing. We are focussing resource on those cases currently serving custodial sentences and maximising removals directly from prison.Where removal is not immediately possible, electronic monitoring can be used to manage foreign national offenders in the community. Electronic monitoring allows for more effective contact management of individuals, enabling us to manage and correct behaviours so that they comply with their immigration bail conditions until they are removedWe will pursue deportation action against individuals living in the community rigorously, actively monitoring and managing cases through the legal process and negotiating barriers to removal.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights on her Department's ability to deport foreign national offenders.

This Government is unequivocally committed to the European Convention on Human Rights.

What steps her Department is taking to protect free speech for students in higher education.

This government is absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom. Higher education (HE) must be a space for robust discussion and intellectual rigour. This is outlined in the existing legislation, whereby universities have a legal obligation to protect lawful freedom of speech, and protections for free speech are also set out in the Office for Students’ registration conditions. The government took the decision to pause the implementation of further parts of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act to ensure that it is workable in practice and that it protects freedom of speech for students. The department is continuing to meet with a full range of stakeholders, including academics with concerns about constraints on freedom of speech and mission groups representing the voice of students in HE. This will feed into decision making on the future of the Act and this government’s longer-term policy on protecting freedom of speech across the HE sector.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that police officers are able to effectively engage with all communities.

Police forces that reflect the communities they serve are crucial to maintaining public trust and confidence in a modern diverse society, and the police workforce is now more representative than it has ever been.The Home Secretary has also made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which includes the addition of thousands more neighbourhood police personnel, as part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission.

What steps she plans to take to support military families who rely on fee-paying boarding schools for their children.

The Government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity, ensuring every child has access to high-quality education. We have made the decision to end tax breaks for private schools, to raise revenue for essential public services, including investing in the education system.Recognising the enormous sacrifices our military families make, the Ministry of Defence provide the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) to eligible Service Personnel. The government will monitor closely the impact of these policy changes on affected military families and the Spending Review is the right time to consider any changes to this scheme.

If she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of legal fees relating to the introduction of VAT on independent school fees.

Following scrutiny of the Government’s costing by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, the Government will confirm its approach to these reforms at the Budget on 30 October, and set out its assessment of relevant expected impacts of this policy change in a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN).