Written questions by O'Brien.

Media and Sport, if she will review the Answer her Department provided to Question 99845 on 18 December 2025, with reference to the Answer provided to Question 99844 on 8 January 2026.

We have corrected the answer to PQ 99845 and apologise for the error.

With reference to table 1 of Annex A of the Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25, if he will publish a breakdown of the spending of both (a) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit and (b) Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit on Delivering Affordable energy for households and businesses in that financial year.

A detailed breakdown of the Resource and Capital Departmental Expenditure limit spending in 2024-25 under Delivering Affordable energy for households and businesses and Ensuring that our energy system is reliable and secure is held on the HM Treasury database OSCAR and published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oscar-annual-release-november-2025.

Innovation and Technology, with reference to table 1 of Annex A of the Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25, if he will publish a breakdown of the spending of Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (CDEL) spending on Science and Research, excluding CDEL on Science and Research (ALB), net in that financial year.

Please find below a breakdown of the Science and Research line outturn for FY 2024-25 per table 1 in Annex A of the DSIT Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25:British Academy£60.228mResearch Base£113.700mRoyal Academy of Engineering£41.971mRoyal Society£111.429mSpace Directorate£30.841mUK Space Agency£607.077mResearch Capital Investment Fund£37.949mHorizon and Copernicus Association£1,043.123mOffice for Quantum£1.197mTotal£2,047.515m

With reference to table 1 of Annex A of the Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25, if he will publish a breakdown of the spending of both (a) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit and (b) Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit on Ensuring that our energy system is reliable and secure in that financial year, including the value of the Bulb loan which was repaid in that financial year.

A detailed breakdown of the Resource and Capital Departmental Expenditure limit spending in 2024-25 under Delivering Affordable energy for households and businesses and Ensuring that our energy system is reliable and secure is held on the HM Treasury database OSCAR and published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oscar-annual-release-november-2025.

Food and Rural Affairs, if she will review the incomplete Answer her Department provided to Question 97203 on 6 January 2026.

The incomplete answer to Question 97203 on 6 January 2026 was due to a processing and formatting error on the Written Parliamentary Questions website. This error has been corrected and the complete answer to Question 97203 is below: In core Defra, high performance substantive senior civil servants are those with an end-year performance rating of “Exceeded”. The headcount and proportion of each grade for those employed during the period November 2024 – October 2025 were: Grade*Number of employeesProportion of Grade who achieved ‘Exceeded’ as their end-year performance decisionSenior Civil Servant Pay Band 116 c.Senior Civil Servant Pay Band 2c.c. * Where individuals changed substantive grade during the period, they are reported against their earliest substantive grade.c. These numbers are suppressed in accordance with the Defra data protection policy. End-year performance decisions were removed from the performance management framework for delegated staff grades in April 2023. Delegated staff grades are recognised through continuous recognition awards.

How many households are claiming housing benefits, either housing benefit or the housing element of Universal credit, in each Broad Market Rental Area (a) in total, (b) in the private rented sector and (c) in the social rented sector.

Information on the number of households receiving the Universal Credit (UC) Housing Element in the Private Rented Sector by Broad Rental Market Area (BRMA) is available on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/). Information on Housing Benefit (HB) caseload is available on Stat-Xplore disaggregated by Local Authority, but not by BRMA. Housing support for social rented sector households claiming either Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit is not determined within BRMAs. BRMAs only apply to housing support in the private rented sector.

Communities and Local Government, for a breakdown of the programme spend and income of RDEL in the Local Growth and Devolution Estimate Line in FY 2024/5, with reference to MHCLG's Annual Report 2024/5, SoPS 1.1.

Please see table below for a breakdown of income and expenditure on the requested estimate rows and DEL control totals. Estimate RowMain Expenditure StreamsGrossIncomeNetCommunities DEL Estimate Rows24/25 £k £k £kB: Housing and Planning CDEL Affordable Housing Programme642,249-642,249 Building Safety Fund278,770-278,770 Local Authority Housebuilding199,897-199,897 Housing Infrastructure Fund102,517-102,517 Planning Stewardship63,781-63,781 Brownfield Housing Fund59,728-59,728 Disabled Facilities Grant711,000-711,0000 Other131,732-25,408106,324Total2,189,675 -736,408 1,453,267 I: Housing and Planning (ALB)(Net) CDEL Affordable Homes Programme 2,398,482 Existing Homes England Delivered Programmes 847,683 Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land Fund 298,720 Cladding Safety Scheme 150,599 Other 18,197Total 3,713,681 C: Local Growth and Devolution RDEL Programme UK Shared Prosperity Fund1,012,406-1,012,406 Investment Funds167,774-167,774 European Regional Development Fund101,533-101,755-222 Devo Deals69,233-69,233 Place Based Funding36,891-36,891 Levelling Up Fund19,540-19,540 Other59,509-38759,122Total1,466,886 -102,142 1,364,744

Communities and Local Government, with reference to MHCLG's Annual Report 2024/5, if he will publish a breakdown of the Gross Outturn and Income of CDEL in the Housing and Planning Estimate Line in FY 2024/5.

Please see table below for a breakdown of income and expenditure on the requested estimate rows and DEL control totals. Estimate RowMain Expenditure StreamsGrossIncomeNetCommunities DEL Estimate Rows24/25 £k £k £kB: Housing and Planning CDEL Affordable Housing Programme642,249-642,249 Building Safety Fund278,770-278,770 Local Authority Housebuilding199,897-199,897 Housing Infrastructure Fund102,517-102,517 Planning Stewardship63,781-63,781 Brownfield Housing Fund59,728-59,728 Disabled Facilities Grant711,000-711,0000 Other131,732-25,408106,324Total2,189,675 -736,408 1,453,267 I: Housing and Planning (ALB)(Net) CDEL Affordable Homes Programme 2,398,482 Existing Homes England Delivered Programmes 847,683 Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land Fund 298,720 Cladding Safety Scheme 150,599 Other 18,197Total 3,713,681 C: Local Growth and Devolution RDEL Programme UK Shared Prosperity Fund1,012,406-1,012,406 Investment Funds167,774-167,774 European Regional Development Fund101,533-101,755-222 Devo Deals69,233-69,233 Place Based Funding36,891-36,891 Levelling Up Fund19,540-19,540 Other59,509-38759,122Total1,466,886 -102,142 1,364,744

Pursuant to the answer of 13 January 2026 to WPQ 104190, how many estates were liable to inheritance tax by constituency over the last five years aggregated.

As stated in my previous answer, these statistics are publicly available. The estimated number of estates liable to Inheritance Tax, broken down by UK (Westminster) Parliamentary Constituency, is published annually as part of HMRC’s Inheritance Tax Liabilities statistics, and is available in Table 12.9 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics.

What was the a) mean and b) median amount of housing support claimed by people in each local authority who were on i) Housing Benefit ii) the Housing Element of UC and iii) either Housing Benefit or the Housing Element of UC.

I) The information requested for Housing Benefit (HB) mean amounts are available on Stat-Xplore (link below). II) Universal Credit (UC) is a single integrated benefit made up of different elements, such as Housing. Benefit units receive one combined monthly payment, and any deductions apply to the total award, not individual elements. Breakdowns of the UC Housing Element are available at national level in the Benefit Expenditure Tables (link below). However, the underlying data is not sufficient to produce these breakdowns at a sub-national level, such as local authorities. As a result, it is not possible to robustly estimate mean or median element of UC at a local authority level. III) Due to data quality limitations that prevent calculation of (ii), it is not possible to estimate the population receiving either HB or the housing element of UC.Stat-XploreBenefit Expenditure and Caseload Tables: Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2025 - GOV.UK

With reference to his Answer of 12 January 2026 to WPQ 101070, of the over 100,000 people that the Government estimates could benefit from mobility and partnership opportunities from Erasmus+ participation in 2027-8, how many he expects to be UK students.

Erasmus+ is open to learners, trainees and staff in higher education, further education, vocational education and training, schools, adult education, youth programmes and sport programmes. The department will have detailed information on the UK’s Erasmus+ beneficiaries after our first year of participation.

How many people started apprenticeships who were aged a) 16, b) 17, c) 18, d) 19, e) 20, f) 21, g) 22, h) 23, i) 24 in each year since 2017-18.

Apprenticeship starts in England for the individual ages requested are available in the accompanying file. Further information on apprenticeship starts can be found in the department’s apprenticeships statistics publication, which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships.

With reference to Question 100498, how many households on Housing Benefit and Universal Credit who have flowed off the benefit cap are in the Other outcome category by reason of receiving an exempting benefit during the quarter to (a) August 2025, (b) May 2025, (c) February 2025 and (d) November 2024.

The Department publishes Official Statistics on the number of households in Great Britain on Housing Benefit (HB) or Universal Credit (UC) that have flowed off the benefit cap, including outcome at off-flow, in the HB Cumulative Caseload dataset and the UC Cumulative Caseload dataset, which are published quarterly on Stat-Xplore, with monthly off-flows data currently available to July 2025. The HB statistics do have an Outcome at off-flow category for ‘Household receiving other exempt benefit (Employment Support Allowance support group / Disability Living Allowance / Industrial Injuries / Personal Independent Payment).’ However, statistics on the number of exempting benefit outcomes for UC are included in the Outcome at off-flow category of ‘Other outcome’, and to produce a further breakdown of this group would incur disproportionate cost. Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access general guidance on how to extract the information required.

Food and Rural Affairs, what the mean size in hectares was of businesses ranked in the top 4% of SFI annual revenue payments by October 2025.

The mean size of a businesses ranked in the top 4% of Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) annual revenue payments as of October 2025 is 803 hectares.

Food and Rural Affairs, what the mean and median total income per business for the Sustainable Farming Incentive was in the year to October 2025.

Farm businesses can hold multiple Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements under the SFI scheme. As of October 2025, there were 44,474 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements including SFI 23 and SFI 24. Over the full term of the agreement the mean value of these agreements was £57,000 and the median value of these agreements was £32,000.

Food and Rural Affairs, as of 1st October 2025 how many SFI agreements included actions SAM1, NUM1, HRW1 and IPM1 broken down by individual action.

As of 1st October 2025, there were 32,405, Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements which included actions (C)SAM1, (C) NUM1, (C)HRW1 or (C)IPM1. The number of agreements containing these actions and the value of these actions broken down by individual action are shown in the table below. option codeNumber of AgreementsTotal Value of Action within Agreement (£)CHRW15,7668,754,000CIPM17,16224,258,000CNUM17,59314,852,000CSAM19,17917,963,000HRW110,19121,709,000IPM115,65653,025,000NUM116,58332,435,000SAM118,42151,638,000 To Note: An Agreement can have multiple options so for example may have NUM1, SAM1 & IPM1 so may be counted multiple times under number of agreements in the table above.

Food and Rural Affairs, what the total annual payments made to businesses under the SFI for actions SAM1, NUM1, IPM1 and HRW1 (broken down by individual action) were at 1 October 2025.

As of 1st October 2025, there were 32,405, Sustainable Farming Incentive agreements which included actions (C)SAM1, (C) NUM1, (C)HRW1 or (C)IPM1. The number of agreements containing these actions and the value of these actions broken down by individual action are shown in the table below. option codeNumber of AgreementsTotal Value of Action within Agreement (£)CHRW15,7668,754,000CIPM17,16224,258,000CNUM17,59314,852,000CSAM19,17917,963,000HRW110,19121,709,000IPM115,65653,025,000NUM116,58332,435,000SAM118,42151,638,000 To Note: An Agreement can have multiple options so for example may have NUM1, SAM1 & IPM1 so may be counted multiple times under number of agreements in the table above.

How many estates were liable to inheritance tax passing on death in each parliamentary constituency, over the last five year period taken as a whole.

The estimated number of estates liable to Inheritance Tax, broken down by UK (Westminster) Parliamentary Constituency, is published annually as part of HMRC’s Inheritance Tax Liabilities statistics, and is available in Table 12.9 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics. The latest tax year for which statistics are available is 2022-23; data for earlier years are available on the National Archives website. Data for 2023-24 is scheduled to be published in July 2026 in the normal way.

Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the drivers of and reasons for the almost trebling of the wage and salary costs of Arts Council England since April 2017.

Arts Council England (ACE) is an arms-length body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). As such, ACE is responsible for its own operational matters, including wage and salary costs. Nevertheless, they are in scope of the Cabinet Office annual pay remit guidance and, as the sponsoring department, DCMS oversees ACE's activities to ensure adherence to that central guidance and the principles of Managing Public Money.It is important to note that an accounting adjustment impacts any comparison between reported staff costs between April 2017 and March 2025 as presented in the accounts. The accounts in 16/17 are not directly comparable to other years, as the figure is reduced by £3m due to an unutilised pension provision.Nevertheless, staff costs have increased over the period. This reflects some headcount growth (in part to support new funding initiatives as well as improved approaches to counter-fraud, cyber security, governance, and data reporting), and pay awards limited to those allowable by the Cabinet Office pay remit.

What assessment his Department has made of the drivers of and reasons for the more than doubling of the wage and salary costs of the Mining Remediation Authority since April 2017.

Forecast headcount at the Mining Remediation Authority for the end of March 2026 is c460 full time equivalent posts which has increased since April 2017 in line with the growth in the complexity and number of 24/7 incidents. Pay cases submitted by the Mining Remediation Authority during the period have been considered by the Department alongside Civil Service pay remit guidance. More information about the Mining Remediation Authority’s funding and programmes can be found in its latest Annual Report and Accounts. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mining-remediation-authority-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025