Neil O'Brien MP: written questions
864 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Armed Forces: RecruitmentMinistry of DefenceTabled 10 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 30179More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the average length of time taken was between the point of application to join the (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) RAF and attestation in the latest period for which data is available.
Answer: The new Government inherited a crisis in recruitment. We have made it a priority to address this with a series of work streams designed to increase recruitment and renew the contract between the nation and those who serve to improve retention.Many factors...
Answered 18 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast Clubs: Primary EducationDepartment for EducationTabled 6 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 29474More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools (a) initially applied to be part of the universal primary school breakfast clubs pilot and (b) subsequently pulled out.
Answer: The government is committed to offering a free breakfast club in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England, beginning with the launch of an early adopter scheme in summer term 2025. Schools were invited to express their interest in tak...
Answered 20 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordChurches: Repairs and MaintenanceChurch CommissionersTabled 5 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 29047More
Question: To ask the Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed Project Spire on (a) church parishes and (b) the maintenance of historic church buildings.
Answer: Project Spire is important missional activity. The anticipated impact on parishes is an increased understanding of historic links with enslavement, which exist in many parts of the Church of England, and possible ways to share, discuss and respond.Funding...
Answered 21 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 4 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 28587More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's consultation entitled School accountability reform - school profiles, improvement and intervention, page 18, published on 3 February 2025, what estimate she has made of the nu
Answer: The department’s consultation document explained that, overall, we expect twice as many mandatory interventions in schools, through both structural intervention and targeted regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) interventions. This is e...
Answered 14 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordDepartment for Education: StaffDepartment for EducationTabled 27 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 26502More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of staff in her Department are qualified teachers.
Answer: The information on staff teaching qualifications is not centrally held on the department’s HR system. Seeking the information across the department’s full workforce could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Answered 6 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast ClubsDepartment for EducationTabled 27 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 26500More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the annual cost of providing free breakfast clubs in every primary school will be.
Answer: The department will fund schools to provide the new breakfast clubs. The department published its funding methodology alongside guidance for early adopters on 16 January, and it has worked closely with schools on these rates to ensure they were sufficient...
Answered 31 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast ClubsDepartment for EducationTabled 27 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 26499More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the cost of providing free breakfast clubs in primary schools in each financial year to 2028-29.
Answer: The department will fund schools to provide the new breakfast clubs. The department published its funding methodology alongside guidance for early adopters on 16 January, and it has worked closely with schools on these rates to ensure they were sufficient...
Answered 31 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordLanguages: EducationDepartment for EducationTabled 27 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 26498More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the total number of pupils who (a) have participated in the National Consortium for Languages Education’s language hubs since they were established and (b) currently use
Answer: There are currently 15 language hubs across England, typically comprising one lead school, working with seven partner schools and feeder primary schools, in addition to supporting wider networks of schools within their region. The support offered by langu...
Answered 30 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordICT: EducationDepartment for EducationTabled 27 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 26497More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many pupils are enrolled in a National Centre for Computing Education computing hub.
Answer: Computing hubs are embedded within individual schools which provide free computing continuing professional development (CPD), met a ministerially approved quality bar and are supported by the National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE). 28 schools in E...
Answered 30 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordOffenders: Foreign NationalsHome OfficeTabled 24 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 26338More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2025 to Question 23834 on Offenders: Foreign Nationals, what types of offences were committed by foreign national offenders who have completed their sentence and a
Answer: Under the UK Borders Act 2007, the Home Secretary has a statutory duty to make an automatic deportation order in respect of foreign national offenders sentenced to a prison term of at least twelve months, subject to certain exemptions, and specific rules ...
Answered 6 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordArmed Forces: Inheritance TaxTreasuryTabled 24 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 26337More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the consultation entitled Technical consultation - Inheritance Tax on pensions: liability, reporting and payment, published on 30 October 2024, if she will make an estimate of how much tax revenue
Answer: The costing for including inheritable pension wealth in the value of the estate for inheritance tax purposes from April 2027 was certified by the OBR at the 2024 Autumn Budget as ‘reasonable and central’. Additional information on the costing methodology ...
Answered 29 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordImmigration: Married PeopleHome OfficeTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24934More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were exempted from the spouse visa financial requirements on account of receiving benefits which exempted them in the latest period for which data is available.
Answer: Where an individual is applying on the 5-year partner route, their partner must be in receipt of one or more of the specified disability related benefits in order to be subject to the ‘adequate maintenance test’ rather than the Minimum Income Requirement ...
Answered 28 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDepartment for Work and Pensions: Translation ServicesDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24933More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many calls to her Department were translated in each month since January 2021 for which data is available by language code; and what the cost of that translation was.
Answer: The Contract value for the 3-year term (9th May 2022 - 8th May 2025) is £23.1m which is inclusive of all calls and face to face services. This includes interpretation translation, British Sign Language, video remote services and staff support (internal Br...
Answered 6 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordFurther Education and Schools: Employers' ContributionsDepartment for EducationTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24932More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2025 to Question 21364 on Further Education and Schools: Employers' Contributions, in which month her Department plans to pay the grant for the cost of national insurance.
Answer: Payment dates will be confirmed in due course.
Answered 28 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast ClubsDepartment for EducationTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24931More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether teachers staffing free school breakfast clubs will count as directed time.
Answer: From April 2025, up to 750 early adopter schools will be funded to provide access to a free, universal breakfast club lasting at least 30 minutes that includes food. The government has published guidance explaining the role of schools taking part in the b...
Answered 24 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordChildren's Wellbeing and Schools BillDepartment for EducationTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24930More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the cost to local government of implementing the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Answer: The department has conducted initial new burdens impact assessments, in line with normal practice, for measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Once the new burdens assessments have been finalised, where it is assessed there is a new burden ...
Answered 31 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast ClubsDepartment for EducationTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24929More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether schools delivering free school breakfasts will be allowed to charge for provision outside the free 30 minute entitlement.
Answer: This government is committed, through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to delivering a free breakfast club of at least 30 minutes in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England.Breakfast clubs boost attainment and attendance, a...
Answered 23 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordOffenders: DeportationHome OfficeTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24928More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of foreign national offenders who left prison following a sentence of 12 months or more were deported in each (a) quarter and (b) year for which data is available.
Answer: Available statistics on the returns of FNOs by nationality and year are published on a quarterly basis. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending September 2024, which are available at: Immigration system statistics data ta...
Answered 23 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordRemittancesTreasuryTabled 20 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24927More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of personal remittances from the United Kingdom in each of the last five years, broken down by region.
Answer: Remittances from the United Kingdom to other countries are not taxable, as such HMRC does not hold this data.
Answered 28 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordUndocumented Workers: FinesHome OfficeTabled 17 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24684More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the value of illegal working civil penalties was in the last five years; and how many and what proportion of those penalties have been paid.
Answer: I refer the Honourable Member to my response to his previous question UIN 21664.
Answered 27 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordListed Places of Worship Grant SchemeDepartment for Culture, Media and SportTabled 16 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 24475More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department plans to set out the future of the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme before its current funding ends on 31 March 2025.
Answer: On the 22nd of January, I was pleased to announce that the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme would continue from March 2025 to March 2026. Further details can be found here in the Written Statement.
Answered 24 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordAsylum: FinanceHome OfficeTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23840More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how (a) many people were in receipt of and (b) much was spent on support under section (i) four, (ii) 95 and (iii) 98 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 in each year since 2015.
Answer: The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts at Home Office annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK.Prior to 2023/24 asylum support costs were not published separately.The government is determined ...
Answered 20 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordAsylumHome OfficeTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23839More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on local authority spending on successful asylum claimants in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024.
Answer: The information requested is not held by the Home Office.
Answered 22 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordAsylum: Social Rented HousingHome OfficeTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23838More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of successful asylum claimants who have moved into social housing since 2018 by local authority.
Answer: The information requested is not held by the Home Office.
Answered 22 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordAsylumHome OfficeTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23837More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum claims in each local authority were (a) successful, (b) ongoing and (c) rejected since 2018.
Answer: The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the initial decision of asylum claims (including grants and refusals), and data on asylum claims awaiting initial decision, is published in tables A...
Answered 17 Jan 2025
Original Parliament record
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