Every parliamentary written question tabled by Rupert Lowe this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 2,061–2,080 of 2,391 · this parliament
How many GP appointments were attended by irregular migrants in each year since 2018.
Primary care services delivered by general practitioners and nurses are free for all in England. Therefore, the migration status of individuals is not recorded, as it is not relevant to the care provided, or in relation to cost recovery.
How much was paid to DA Languages by all Departments in each of the last ten years.
The Cabinet Office does not hold information relating to other Departments’ expenditure. The Cabinet Office has not incurred any spend with DA Languages in each of the last ten years.
What steps the Government is taking to use (a) section 24(1)(a) of the Immigration Act 1971 and (b) section 2 of the Asylum & Immigration Act 2004 to stop people entering the country via small boats.
The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 amended Section 24(1)(a) of the Immigration Act 1971, to introduce tougher criminal offences for those attempting to enter the United Kingdom (UK) illegally or found to be facilitating illegal immigration.Since the Act came into force on 28 June 2022, Home Office Immigration Enforcement teams have pursued a number of suspects for offences brought in under the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.For example, in the current calendar year to 18 November 2024, 53 individuals identified as small boat pilots have been convicted under the Act.
Pursuant to the Answer of 21 November to Question 14376 on Health Services: Translation Services, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the number of (a) GP and (b) outpatient appointments conducted in a language other than English and British Sign Language.
The Department has not made, and has no plans to make, an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the cost of translation and interpretation services incurred by general practices (GPs).The Department has also not made, and has no plans to make, an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on the number of GP and outpatient appointments conducted in a language other than English and British Sign Language.
If she will encourage local authorities with (a) hotels and (b) other accommodation housing irregular migrants to impose (i) Public Space Protection Orders and (ii) Community Protection Notices around (A) hotels, (B) schools and (C) other public spaces.
It is for each relevant agency to decide how best to effectively implement PSPOs and CPNs in their local areas depending on the specific circumstances they are dealing with. The Home Office has published statutory guidance to support local areas to make effective use of those powers.
With reference to the oral contribution by the Minister for Border Security and Asylum to the Urgent Question on Asylum Seekers: Hotel Accommodation of 20 November 2024, Official Report, column 277, in which constituencies the 220 hotels are; and what the star rating is of each hotel.
For the safety and security of residents and staff at its accommodation sites, the Home Office does not publish detail of each site in use. However, data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, by local authority and accommodation type, can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for the most recent stats release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
How many dentist appointments were attended by irregular migrants in each year since 2018.
We do not hold data on how many dental appointments were attended by irregular migrants each year since 2018. Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for assessing the needs of their population and ensuring that the relevant dental services are available.
What the total cost was for the covid-19 vaccine roll-out in each year since 2021.
The total cost for the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, each year since 2021, is as follows:£2.1 billion in 2020/21;£5.6 billion in 2021/22;£2.8 billion in 2022/23; andthe audited accounts for 2023/24 have not yet been published, and so finalised figures will be unavailable until they have been published.These figures cover the costs incurred by the Department’s group of the procurement of the vaccines and subsequent costs of administration.
What proportion of payments of court fines were made by benefit payment deductions in each of the last ten years.
There is no central data available on the proportion of court fine payments made through benefit deduction payments. Gathering this information would incur disproportionate cost.
What consultations her Department is holding with public schools in relation to the removal of VAT exemptions.
The government carried out a technical consultation from 29 July to 15 September 2024 and published a response alongside a tax information and impact note on 30 October. The documents are published on GOV.UK and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees-removing-the-charitable-rates-relief-for-private-schools.The government received over 17,000 written responses during the consultation period, all of which were carefully considered.During the consultation period, the government also held a series of meetings with stakeholders who represent private schools. As the regulator of private schools, the department will continue to have regular meetings with representatives of private schools.
How many hotels have been used to house irregular migrants since 2018.
The Home Office does not publish data on the number of hotels in use. However, we can confirm that hotel use peaked at more than 400 under the previous government.
Whether there is an official process to inform local residents when a hotel is used to house irregular migrants.
For the safety, security and wellbeing of those indiviuals staying in Home Office accommodation and the staff who work there, we do not disclose information about specific hotels which may or may not be utilised by the Home Office to the general public.However, to ensure that views of key external stakeholders are sought and partners are engaged, the Home Office works with Regional Strategic Migration Partnerships to engage directly with local authorities and other statutory partners when there are plans to open a hotel in their local area.
How many people smugglers have been sentenced in relation to irregular migration across the English Channel since 2018.
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on offenders sentenced for irregular migration offences at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly: June 2024.However, data held centrally does not include information on whether offenders were people smugglers involved in irregular migration specifically across the English Channel. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
If she will make an estimate of the total amount written off in court fine accounts for each of the last 10 years.
Financial penalties imposed by the courts will often consist of multiple elements including, amongst others, compensation, victim surcharge, prosecutor’s costs and a fine.The Government takes the recovery and enforcement of all financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to ensuring impositions are paid. The courts will do everything within their powers to trace those who do not pay and use a variety of sanctions to ensure the recovery of criminal fines and financial penalties.In very limited scenarios, HMCTS may decide to administratively write-off the debt, the circumstances in which this can happen are severely restricted and occur only when there is no opportunity for the debt to be collected, for example, when a company has been dissolved with no distributable assets. The debt is written off for administrative purposes only, the imposition is still legally enforceable and if in the future it becomes apparent that assets are available to pay the debt then the account is written back. There also remain specific and limited situations where the Court can legally cancel any debt.The table below details the net value of the fine element of an imposition that has been administratively written off/ (written back - reinstated) for each financial year from 2014-15 to 2023-24. Judicial cancellations are not included as these are a direct instruction from the court to amend the value of the imposition.Financial yearNet fine impositions written off/ (written back) in each year £000 2014-1545,3452015-1629,7282016-17(17,728)2017-18(44,441)2018-19(8,332)2019-209,4582020-218,7972021-228,4802022-2312,1432023-249,400
What is the total amount deducted from benefit payments to pay for claimants' court imposed fines each year for the ten previous years.
Table 1 provides the total amount deducted from Universal Credit payments to repay a Court Fine debt for each financial year from April 2018 to August 2024. Table 1: the total amount deducted from Universal Credit payments for Court Fines, April 2018 to August 2024Financial YearsTotal Amount Deducted for Court FinesApr-18 to Mar-19£2,000,000Apr-19 to Mar-20£49,000,000Apr-20 to Mar-21£95,000,000Apr-21 to Mar-22£52,000,000Apr-22 to Mar-23£45,000,000Apr-23 to Mar-24£58,000,000Apr-24 to Aug-24£28,000,000 Notes:1. Monetary amounts have been rounded to the nearest million. 2. Court fines are classed as a Third Party Deduction. Data for Third Party Deductions is incomplete before April 2018, so we can't provide data for earlier years. 3. Data up to August 2024 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Deductions Statistics.4. Data for 2018/19 only includes Universal Credit full service claims. Data on Universal Credit live service for 2018/19 is not available. In May 2016 the Universal Credit full service for all claimant types began to rollout nationally and was completed by the end of 2018.5. Comparison across the different financial years is problematic due to changes in the deductions policy for Universal Credit, which would have affected the number of households having a third party deduction.6. Figures have been provided for Universal Credit households in Great Britain. Northern Ireland claims are administered by the Department for Communities. 7. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.8. The methodology used is different to those used to derive the Official Statistics Household series and therefore, figures may not be comparable.
What the total amount of outstanding court fines are.
Financial penalties imposed by the courts will often consist of multiple elements including, amongst others, compensation, victim surcharge, prosecutor’s costs and a fine.The Government takes the recovery and enforcement of all financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to ensuring impositions are paid. The courts will do everything within their powers to trace those who do not pay and use a variety of sanctions to ensure the recovery of criminal fines and financial penalties. These sanctions can include deducting money from an individual offender’s earnings or benefits, if they are unemployed, or issuing warrants instructing approved enforcement agents to seize and sell goods belonging to the offender. If the offender does not pay as ordered and the money cannot be recovered by other means, then the court can take other actions which includes sending them to prison for non-payment of the financial penalty including a fine.The total amount of outstanding fines is published annually in note 4 of the HMCTS Trust Statement. (Trust Statement 2023-24).The amount outstanding at 31 March 2024 was £1,064,286,669.
If she will make an estimate of the (a) number and (b) total cost to the public purse of courses available to inmates at (i) HMP Maidstone, (ii) HMP Huntercombe and (iii) HMP Morton Hall for the last financial year.
In 2023-24, 23 education courses were provided at HMP Maidstone, 26 at HMP Huntercombe and 48 at HMP Morton Hall.Data on the cost of providing these courses at HMP Huntercombe and HMP Morton Hall are in the process of validation. Information in relation to HMP Maidstone is not available, as the costs form part of a single budget item covering a number of prisons and cannot be disaggregated.Courses, such as the ones offered at these sites, are one of many valuable ways in which we can improve rehabilitation and cut reoffending which costs society more than £18 billion per year.
What proportion of court cases have required a translator for each of the last 10 years.
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
If she will make an estimate of the number of pensioners per constituency in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty.
Statistics on the number of pensioners living in relative and absolute poverty are not available at a constituency level. Statistics on the number of pensioners living in relative and absolute poverty at regional level are published annually in the Households Below Average Income statistics Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
What the cost of providing security services to hotels used for housing irregular migrants was in each year since 2018.
Security for asylum accommodation is part of the service requirements that are provided by the Home Office accommodation providers under the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts (AASC). The HO does not publish a breakdown of costs by individual elements of the AASC service - and could only do so at disproportionate cost