Written questions by Lowe.

What the (a) average waiting time for people calling and (b) time people spent on hold for her Department was in each of the last five years.

The table below shows the Average Time to Answer and the Average Hold Time, in an hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss) format, for all people calling DWP for the last 5 business years, with 2025 to 2026 being to 12th Oct’ 2025* only, that being the last date for which data is available. Reporting YearAverage Time to Answer (hh:mm:ss)Average Hold Time (hh:mm:ss)2021-202200:09:3900:00:362022-202300:08:2200:00:282023-202400:08:3400:00:262024-202500:07:2200:00:232025 to date*00:05:50*00:00:18 DISCLAIMER Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information, designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.

What the average (a) waiting time for people calling and (b) time spent on hold to the Personal Independence Payment helpline was in the last year.

The table below shows the Average Time to Answer and the Average Hold Time, in an hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss) format, for all people calling Personal Independence Payment lines for each of the last twelve complete reporting months. Month / YearProduct LineAverage Time to Answer (hh:mm:ss)Average Hold Time (hh:mm:ss)Oct-2024Personal Independence Payment00:10:1900:00:34Nov-2024Personal Independence Payment00:11:4700:00:33Dec-2024Personal Independence Payment00:09:5500:00:36Jan-2025Personal Independence Payment00:17:3800:00:32Feb-2025Personal Independence Payment00:12:4100:00:31Mar-2025Personal Independence Payment00:14:1000:00:31Apr-2025Personal Independence Payment00:09:0700:00:34May-2025Personal Independence Payment00:10:1400:00:36Jun-2025Personal Independence Payment00:09:3700:00:35Jul-2025Personal Independence Payment00:10:4200:00:36Aug-2025Personal Independence Payment00:11:5900:00:35Sep-2025Personal Independence Payment00:10:3300:00:34 DISCLAIMER Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information, designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.

What the average (a) waiting time for people calling and (b) time spent on hold to the Universal Credit helpline was in the last year.

The table below shows the Average Time to Answer and the Average Hold Time, in an hours, minutes and seconds (hh:mm:ss) format, for all people calling Universal Credit for each of the last twelve complete reporting months. Month / YearDirectorateAverage Time to Answer (hh:mm:ss)Average Hold Time (hh:mm:ss)Oct-2024Universal Credit00:02:3200:00:09Nov-2024Universal Credit00:02:2300:00:09Dec-2024Universal Credit00:01:3600:00:09Jan-2025Universal Credit00:01:1000:00:08Feb-2025Universal Credit00:02:0300:00:08Mar-2025Universal Credit00:02:1600:00:08Apr-2025Universal Credit00:03:2700:00:09May-2025Universal Credit00:03:2700:00:08Jun-2025Universal Credit00:01:5100:00:07Jul-2025Universal Credit00:02:4400:00:06Aug-2025Universal Credit00:01:5500:00:07Sep-2025Universal Credit00:01:3700:00:07 DISCLAIMER Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information, designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.

How many people are claiming Universal Credit by their preferred language.

The information is not held. Universal Credit claims can only be made in English and Welsh.

How much her Department has paid to Serco in each of the last ten years.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer provided in PQ 15558.

How many irregular migrants are housed in the Great Yarmouth Borough Council area; what accommodation is used to house those migrants; and what the cost is of housing those migrants.

Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in different areas is routinely published by the Government in table ASY D_11 here:Asylum and resettlement datasets - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab)The Home Office does not publish asylum support data disaggregated by method of arrival.Costs are subject to change depending on numbers being accommodated within the asylum system. Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential. Therefore, the Home Office does not publish this information. However, total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

How many habitual residence tests related to Universal Credit assessments have been granted in each of the last five years.

The table below gives the number of Universal Credit (UC) Habitual Residence Test (HRT) assessments that resulted in a ‘pass’ decision in the past five years. Date Decision Entered on Admin SystemNumber of UC HRT 'Pass' DecisionsApril 2020 to March 2021912,000April 2021 to March 20221,029,000April 2022 to March 2023527,000April 2023 to March 2024524,000April 2024 to March 2025798,000April 2025 to September 2025400,000 (Source: DWP UC HRT Administrative data) Notes:The Habitual Residence Test (HRT) is nationality blind. It is applied to British citizens returning from abroad to check for factual habitual residency in the UK, as well as to foreign nationals to check they have an immigration status permitting access to public funds and that they are factually habitually resident.Not all HRT passes lead to a UC award as claimants need to meet all eligibility criteria.All figures are rounded to the nearest thousand decisions.An individual may have multiple HRT assessments and multiple passes.These figures are not Official Statistics. These figures stem from administrative data and represent the best estimates using current methodologies and assumptions about the data. Future improvements in methodology may lead to different subsequent estimates.Figures are for the UK.

How much was spent on translation and interpretation in Jobcentres in the last financial year.

The Department carefully monitors the provision of translation and interpretation services for customers. It has not been possible to disaggregate expenditure on services for Jobcentres alone.

Whether he has made an estimate of reoffending rates for prisoners released under the early release scheme.

This Government inherited prisons days from collapse. We have had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.Whilst this change provided the intended medium-term relief, it was only ever a temporary change to bridge to a more sustainable solution. The Sentencing Bill has now been introduced to ensure we never run out of prison space again.Our initial operational insights suggested there was not a significant change to the use and application of recall since the implementation of SDS40. We will, however, continue to monitor this.The requested information cannot be provided because it would form a subset of the data that underpins future versions of these Official Statistics.Proven reoffending rates are published regularly on an annual and quarterly basis. The most recent rates are available at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/collections/proven-reoffending-statistics.

Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of food consumed in the UK that is produced domestically.

The food production to supply ratio compares all domestic food production to supply, including food that the UK exports instead of consuming. In 2024, the production to supply ratio was 65%. When food exports are taken into account, Defra estimates that in 2024 57% of food consumed in the United Kingdom was domestically produced. Defra publishes both of these figures annually, in its Agriculture in the UK publication.

What the (a) average waiting time for people calling and (b) time people spent on hold to Jobcentres was in the last year.

We cannot provide the data requested for this Parliamentary Question. Jobcentres span multiple benefit streams and business functions and therefore we do not retain telephony data specifically relating to Jobcentres.

What the value was of student loans that were written off in the last year; and what this was as a proportion of all outstanding student loans, by nationality.

The requested information can be found in the Student Loans Company’s Student loans in England publication, updated in July each year. The publication, ‘Student loans in England: 2024 to 2025’ can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2024-to-2025.The amount that has been cancelled or written off during the 2024/25 financial year, 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 can be found at: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F684c16b8da3d1b49e6797046%2Fslcsp012025.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK.These statistics are not broken down by borrower nationality. This information is not readily available and cannot be obtained within the timeframe given to respond. Figures for the 2025/26 financial year will be available in the July 2026 publication.

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

The Government, in line with manifesto commitments, is considering all lawful means of achieving its ambition that half of all food purchased across the public sector should be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards. In order to understand where we are starting from, we are currently assessing what food the public sector buys and where it comes from. In due course, this will tell us the proportion of food served by public sector organisations, including Defra, that is British.

How many yellow card reports there have been on covid-19 vaccines.

The number of Yellow Card reports received by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for COVID-19 vaccines can be found in the Interactive Drug Analysis Profiles on the Yellow Card website, which is available at the following link:https://yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/idapsThe Interactive Drug Analysis Profiles contain complete listings of suspected adverse reactions for all medicines and vaccines reported through the scheme. On this platform, individuals can search for the specified vaccine of interest in order to find data displayed in graphs and tables, which include information such as patient age, sex and ethnicity. The number of reports for each vaccine of interest is provided on the “Overview” tab of the profile. As the data does not necessarily refer to proven side effects, individuals should refer to the product information for details on the possible side effects, with further information available at the following link:https://www.medicines.org.uk/emcWhen considering spontaneous data for medicinal products, it is important to be aware that a reported reaction has not necessarily been caused by the vaccine, only that the reporter had a suspicion it may have been. Each year, millions of doses of routine vaccinations are given in the United Kingdom alone, and when any vaccine is administered to large numbers of people, some recipients will inevitably experience illness following vaccination. The fact that symptoms occur after the use of a vaccine or medicine, and are reported via the Yellow Card scheme, does not in itself mean that they are proven to have been caused by it. Underlying or concurrent illnesses may be responsible, and such events can also be coincidental. It is also important to note that the number of reports received via the Yellow Card scheme does not directly equate to the number of people who suffer adverse reactions, and therefore the reports cannot be used to determine the incidence of a reaction. Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) reporting rates are influenced by the seriousness of the ADRs, their ease of recognition, and the extent of the use of a particular vaccine. They may also be stimulated by awareness and publicity about a vaccine. Reporting tends to be highest for newly introduced medicines during the first one to two years on the market, and then falls over time.

What the (a) cost for translation of and (b) percentage of communications in each language in e-RS communication letters was so far this year.

NHS England only incurs costs for changes to templates or when new languages are added. Therefore, the primary cost is associated with template updates, not per-letter translation. No changes have been made to templates in 2025, nor have additional languages been added, so no costs for translation have been incurred.There are no additional variable costs for providing a translated letter, as an English language version of the letter would be sent instead. The following table shows the total number of e-RS letters as well as the proportion of these letters that were translated, sorted by the language they were translated to, for 2024/25 and for 2025/26 to date: 2024/252025/26Total e-RS letters1,066,650402,685Arabic0.64%0.57%Bengali0.82%0.74%Gujarati0.29%0.30%Kurdish0.21%0.18%Persian0.22%0.20%Polish0.75%0.73%Punjabi0.50%0.45%Somali0.26%0.22%Turkish0.36%0.35%Urdu1.35%1.27%Albanian0.15%0.13%Chinese0.06%0.06%French0.17%0.15%Greek0.08%0.08%Hindi0.17%0.15%Hungarian0.09%0.09%Italian0.18%0.16%Lithuanian0.12%0.10%Portuguese0.32%0.30%Romanian0.48%0.44%Russian0.16%0.17%Slovak0.15%0.13%Spanish0.30%0.26%Tamil0.24%0.18%Wolof0.00%0.01%Total translated8.05%7.44%

How many and what proportion of NHS staff were non-patient facing in each of the last ten years.

The following table shows the number and percentage of the full time equivalent (FTE) workforce employed by National Health Service trusts and other core NHS organisations in England that are in NHS infrastructure support roles, which represents a proxy for non-patient facing roles, as of each July from 2015 to 2025: Total staffNHS infrastructure support staffPercentage of staff who are in infrastructure supportJuly 20151,005,767156,83915.6%July 20161,027,898160,97815.7%July 20171,046,828165,25215.8%July 20181,065,395169,34815.9%July 20191,099,144177,90316.2%July 20201,166,566184,14915.8%July 20211,195,405193,64316.2%July 20221,225,470202,37616.5%July 20231,292,820214,19216.6%July 20241,346,030219,30616.3%July 20251,372,429218,96216.0%Source: the data can be found in the file titled “Preliminary - NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations - data tables” from worksheet one of the NHS Hospital and Community Health Service Monthly Workforce Statistics, published by NHS England, and available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statisticsNotes:the NHS infrastructure support staffing group includes staff defined as managers, senior managers, non-patient facing clerical/administrative staff, and maintenance/works staff;FTE refers to the proportion of full time contracted hours that the post holder is contracted to work. One would indicate they work a full set of hours, while 0.5 would indicate that they worked half time; andthese data relate to the Hospital and Community Health Service workforce directly employed in NHS trusts and other core organisations, for instance integrated care boards for the latest data point, who are paid.

How many applications were made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in each of the last three years; and how many and what proportion of those applications were unsuccessful.

The NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) regularly publishes data on the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme to improve transparency. Information related to COVID-19 vaccine claim volumes and outcomes up to June 2025 is available at the following link:https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/vdps-covid-19Claims that have not been assessed may have been rejected before a medical assessment took place as they did not meet the eligibility criteria for the scheme. Other claims are still live, but the NHS BSA may be awaiting medical records. Medical assessments cannot take place until sufficient medical records have been received to allow for a robust assessment.

What amount of charges were issued by NHS trusts for treatment to non-UK residents not entitled to free secondary healthcare in each of the last three financial years; how much of that amount was successfully recovered in each of the last three financial years; and what the outstanding amount is.

We have taken ‘non-UK residents’ to mean chargeable overseas visitors. The Department publishes data on the income identified from chargeable overseas visitors in England as part of the Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts. The cash payments received by the National Health Service from overseas visitors are also published annually in the consolidated NHS provider accounts. The information for the last three years is available at the following links:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6745b836e7cf64050b8098c4/consolidated-nhs-provider-accounts_annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024_print-ready.pdf (page 79)https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/676150ef26a2d1ff18253415/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-2024-web-accessible.pdf (page 284)https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65b2a4fc5f8ce2000d3ae544/consolidated-provider-accounts-2022-to-2023-print.pdf (page 74)https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65b236c81702b10013cb1289/DHSC-Annual-report-and-accounts-2022-2023-web-accessible.pdf (page 275)https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/consolidated-provider-accounts-21-22-final.pdf (page 66)https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63e50dc0d3bf7f05c8e947a8/dhsc-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-2022_web-accessible.pdf (page 319)NHS charges can be recovered up to six years from the date of invoice, and therefore the amount recovered in a year does not necessarily mean it was identified in the same financial year.

Communities and Local Government, if his Department will take steps to require local authorities to ensure staff in customer-facing roles are fluent in English.

Local authorities are independent employers responsible for the management of their own workforces and compliance with all relevant employment legislation. They are expected to organise their workforce so that it is best placed to meet the needs of their residents.

Whether her Department will extend English language testing requirements to foreign nationals working in (a) private security or (b) enforcement roles contracted by the Department.

The Private Security Industry Act (PSIA) 2001 created the Security Industry Authority (SIA) as the regulator of the private security industry.The SIA sets minimum training standards and issues licenses to applicants who have acquired the correct licence-linked qualifications. Before a learner can take a licence-linked qualification, they must prove they have English language skills to B2 standard on the Home Office list of recommended qualifications. This standard means that the learner has a degree of fluency in English. The SIA reviews training standards every five years to ensure that individuals seeking to work in regulated roles meet refreshed minimum standards, and that skills keep pace with emerging threats to public safety.Where overseas nationals fill enforcement roles contracted by the Home Office, they require an immigration permission to do so, and they may be subject to English language requirements mandated by the Immigration Rules. For the Skilled Worker immigration route, the required level of English is being increased from B1 to B2 level (effective from 8 January 2026).