Neil O'Brien MP: written questions
300 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Habitual Residence TestDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 24 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 40566More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of (a) personal independence payments and (b) disability living allowance payments to households containing at least one claimant that passed
Answer: The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate.
Answered 27 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordUniversal Credit: Habitual Residence TestDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 24 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 40565More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of universal credit payments to households containing at least one claimant that passed a habitual residence test in each year since 20
Answer: The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate.
Answered 27 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordUniversal Credit: RefugeesDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 24 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 40564More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of universal credit payments to households where (a) one and (b) both claimants are refugees in each quarter since 2017.
Answer: The Department has no current plans to make such an estimate. However, the Department is exploring the feasibility of developing suitable official statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit customers.
Answered 27 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordHigher Education: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 20 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 39962More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, which higher education institutions have been made subject by the Office for Students to (a) enhanced monitoring, (b) investigation, (c) a quality assessment report and (d) other quality related interventions;
Answer: The Office for Students (OfS) is the non-departmental public body responsible for higher education in England. It is independent of government.In 2022/23, the OfS opened investigations into the quality of business and management courses at eight providers...
Answered 7 Apr 2025
Original Parliament recordSchools: StaffDepartment for EducationTabled 14 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 38378More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much and what proportion of (a) primary and (b) secondary schools' expenditure was on staff in each of the last three years.
Answer: Overall core revenue funding for schools totals almost £61.6 billion for the 2024/25 financial year. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs for the 2025/26 fin...
Answered 19 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordDoctors: TrainingDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 11 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 37269More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of people starting an (a) F1 and (b) F2 placement were international medical graduates in each deanery in each year since 2015.
Answer: The attached table contains information published by the General Medical Council (GMC) on the place of qualification of all foundation programme doctors by their region. The tables cover the period since 2012 and illustrate the increase in international r...
Answered 27 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordVATTreasuryTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36130More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the compatibility of changes to VAT legislation with the principal of fiscal neutrality.
Answer: Fiscal neutrality is a key feature of the VAT system, and helps to ensure market distortions are minimised by equalising the tax treatment of supplies which are identical or sufficiently similar from the point of view of the consumer. When changing VAT le...
Answered 13 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordPrivate Education: VATTreasuryTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36129More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how private schools who were not previously VAT-registered but did produce taxable supplies that were under the registration threshold will be treated under the new VAT guidance.
Answer: A private school, or any other business, making taxable supplies under the threshold has no requirement to register for VAT. Once the value of taxable supplies made exceeds the VAT registration threshold, which currently stands at £90,000, they must regis...
Answered 14 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordBusiness: TaxationTreasuryTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36128More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the new VAT legislation for private schools led to HMRC amending or redefining the scope of input tax recovery for business who made exempt supplies prior to registration.
Answer: VAT incurred prior to registration is not input tax. However, HMRC has discretion under the provisions of Regulation 111 of the VAT Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/2518) to allow such VAT to be treated as input tax, subject to the normal rules. There was theref...
Answered 13 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordPrivate Education: VATTreasuryTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36127More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether independent schools under the new interpretation of VAT entities following the Autumn Budget 2024 are their own class of business.
Answer: Taxpayers who are required to register for VAT can usually do so online. The ‘Business activity’ section of the VAT registration form requires a full description of all the taxpayer’s business activities, including the type of goods and/or services that t...
Answered 13 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordVATTreasuryTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36126More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason the publication of new VAT guidance in October 2024 was following the Budget.
Answer: Since 1 January 2025, all education services and vocational training provided by private schools in the UK for a charge have been subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20 per cent. Since the announcement of this policy, HMRC has taken action to support p...
Answered 13 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordEducational Institutions: StandardsDepartment for EducationTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36125More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list all (a) statutory and (b) non-statutory guidance issued to schools and colleges since 4 July 2024, along with the dates on which the guidance was issued.
Answer: The information requested can be found in the attached spreadsheet.
Answered 22 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordEnglish Language and Mathematics: GCSEDepartment for EducationTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36124More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the average proportion of students was obtaining the equivalent of (a) Grade 5 or better and (b) Grade 4 or better in GCSE (i) English and (ii) Maths in each Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index dec
Answer: The information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.However, the department publishes the percentage of pupils achieving grades 4/5 or above in English and mathematics GCSEs by Income Deprivation Affecting Children...
Answered 29 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordSchoolsDepartment for EducationTabled 6 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 36123More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will list the (a) name and (b) URN of all currently open state schools alongside the (i) URN, (ii) Establishment number and (iii) name of the predecessor institutions for each.
Answer: Information on all open and closed establishments in England is published on the Get Information about Schools (GIAS) service, which can be accessed here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. Files available to download include information for...
Answered 29 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordGovernment Communication Service: Social MediaTreasuryTabled 4 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 35364More
Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the comments of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on Newsnight on 29 July 2024, what the evidential basis is for the claim that the Government Communication Service spent hundreds of millions of
Answer: The government has taken decisive action to reduce wasteful spend, In Fixing the Foundations, the Chancellor identified £100m of savings from non-essential spending on government communications across 2024-25 and 2025-26. Cabinet Office provided estimates...
Answered 12 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordRented HousingMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentTabled 3 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 34921More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of people (a) renting privately and (b) in the social rented sector were (i) born in the UK and (ii) not born in the UK in each region of England in
Answer: The Department does not hold the required information.
Answered 12 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordImmigrationHome OfficeTabled 25 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 33559More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of people that (a) applied for asylum, (b) were granted asylum and (c) were granted other forms of leave to stay in each year between 1995 and 2001.
Answer: The Home Office publishes data on asylum claims and initial decisions in the ‘Asylum applications, initial decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’ as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Pre-2002 data on asylum claims and i...
Answered 11 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordPersonal Independence Payment: Medical ExaminationsDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled 25 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 33558More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) successful claim rate and (b) average number of points scored for PIP Assessments were for assessments undertaken (i) in-person, (ii) not in-person and (iii) across all modes in each of the
Answer: The successful claim rate following assessments undertaken (i) in-person, (ii) not in-person and (iii) across all modes is shown below for each of the last ten years. Calendar YearSuccessful claim rate (%)Assessment in-person (i)Assessment not in-person...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordBreakfast Clubs: Primary EducationDepartment for EducationTabled 24 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 33062More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many of the schools chosen to take part in the Breakfast clubs early adopters pilot already have a breakfast club; and how many already have a free breakfast club.
Answer: I refer the hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston to the answer of 17 April 2025 to Question 34817.
Answered 23 Apr 2025
Original Parliament recordCervical Cancer: ScreeningDepartment of Health and Social CareTabled 24 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 33061More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether patients who have changed gender from female to male are still automatically invited to cervical screening.
Answer: The NHS Cervical Screening Programme provides all women and people with a cervix between the ages of 25 and 64 years old with the opportunity to be screened routinely to detect certain types of human papillomavirus infection, which is the cause of 99.7% o...
Answered 5 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordUniversity of Greater Manchester: FinanceDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 32245More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of reports of financial irregularities at the University of Greater Manchester.
Answer: This is a matter for the University of Greater Manchester. We understand the Office for Students, the independent regulator for higher education (HE) in England, has also been notified of this case. The university is conducting its own investigation, and ...
Answered 5 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordPrisoners' Release: Foreign NationalsHome OfficeTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 32231More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of foreign national offenders were released from prison in each quarter since 2012; and of these how many were released because (a) an immigration judge granted bail, (b)
Answer: The Home Office publishes data relating to numbers of FNOs released into the community by reason of release in the Immigration Enforcement transparency data. Table FNO_02 of the latest Immigration Enforcement data contains data on FNOs released into the c...
Answered 26 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordOffenders: DeportationHome OfficeTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 32230More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many FNO appeals against Deportation were (a) lodged, (b) Allowed and (c) Allowed, Human Rights grounds only in each Financial Year since 2008-09.
Answer: The Home Office does not regularly publish information about FNO appeals against deportation. However, in February 2022 an ad-hoc transparency piece on FNO lodged and allowed appeals, covering the period 2008 to 2021, was released. This provides numbers o...
Answered 26 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordChildren in CareDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 32082More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the predicted cost of children looked after is in 2024-25; and what proportion of this is allocated to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answer: In 2023/24, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £14.8 billion. Over half of that expenditure was on services for children looked after, which is a total of £8.1 billion (54.9%).Expenditure under the last adminis...
Answered 20 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordChildren in CareDepartment for EducationTabled 21 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 32081More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much the Government spent on children looked after in 2023-24; and what proportion of this was on unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answer: In 2023/24, local authority gross expenditure on children's and young people's services was £14.8 billion. Over half of that expenditure was on services for children looked after, which is a total of £8.1 billion (54.9%).Expenditure under the last adminis...
Answered 20 Mar 2025
Original Parliament record
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