Written questions by Lowe.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department plan to attend the NFU farming rally on 19 November 2024.

The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spoke to farmers who attended the NFU farming rally on 19 November and has had frequent engagement with the farming sector, including with NFU President Tom Bradshaw the evening before the rally. Ministers have had further meetings with key industry organisations, including the Country Land and Business Association Conference. Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner met with the NFU, British Retail Consortium, Food and Drink Federation, and UK Hospitality. He also spoke at the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution parliamentary reception. He has also recently spoken at the Northern Farming Conference, the Eggs and Poultry Industry conference, the Agricultural Industries Confederation conference and the Tenant Farmers Association Executive Committee.

What the primary language of benefits claimants has been in each of the last 10 years.

The Department does not centrally hold the information requested as it is not a requirement for a customer to declare their ‘primary’ language. Customer communications and benefit information is provided in English and Welsh as appropriate. Necessary information can be provided in another language and translation services are available.

If his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of creating an internal league table comparing UK cancer (a) care and (b) waiting times with other developed countries.

The Department has no current plans to create such an internal league table. Professor Lord Darzi has undertaken an independent investigation into the state of the National Health Service, the findings of which were published on 12 September 2024 and will feed into the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan to build a health service that is fit for the future. The Government will therefore set out any further priorities on cancer and health for England in due course.The Department remains committed to improving cancer survival rates by hitting all NHS cancer waiting time targets within five years, so no patient waits longer than they should.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a curfew on irregular migrants housed in (a) hotels and (b) other types of accommodation.

I refer the Hon. Member to PQ 13616.

How many school days were lost due to school closures during the Covid lockdowns.

The department does not hold information on total school days lost due to school closures during the COVID-19 lockdowns.However, during the COVID-19 pandemic the department did collect and publish information on attendance in education and early years settings. This information can be found in the following statistical release: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

How many people used Access to Work support at what cost and for what reasons in the last financial year.

The most recent complete financial year of data available in the published Access to Work official statistics is 2023/24: Access to Work statistics: April 2007 to March 2024 - GOV.UK. In 2023/24, around 61,630 people received a payment for any Access to Work provision and total expenditure across all provision was £257.8 million. We have interpreted reason for using Access to Work as being the primary medical condition reported by the individual. In 2023/24, the largest Access to Work customer group in terms of number of payments, by primary medical condition are those with a ‘Mental health condition’, who account for 27% (16,560) of the total number of customers. Those with the primary medical condition ‘Learning disability’ are the second most common group and make up 11% of customers (6,720 people). Those who are ‘Deaf or hard of hearing’ are in receipt of the highest proportion (30%) of total Access to Work expenditure.

How many deaths listed (a) covid-19 as the main cause of death and (b) covid-19 as a contributory cause of death since January 2020.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 12 November is attached.

How many people have been sentenced for (a) murder, (b) rape and (c) other sex offences in each year for the previous ten years, broken down by primary language.

The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of defendants sentenced for murder, rape, and other sex offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool. The latest publication (2023 data) is available from the Outcomes by Offence data tool published here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.However, it is not possible to identify an offender’s primary language from the centrally collated convictions data. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.

How many claimants are in receipt of Universal Credit after passing a habitual residency test.

The information is not readily available and has not previously been published as official statistics. The Department is exploring the feasibility of developing suitable official statistics related to the immigration status of non-UK / Irish Universal Credit customers.

If she will provide a breakdown of the primary language of registered sexual offenders.

Qualifying offenders (i.e., those convicted for an offence in Schedule 3 to the Sexual Offences Act 2003) are required to notify personal details to the police. This system is often referred to as the ‘sex offenders’ register’ and requires offenders to provide specified details, including their passport (or passports, if they are dual nationals), on an annual basis and whenever those details change.In addition, the data provided to the police, and other relevant information is stored on the ViSOR database which allows for the recording and sharing of biographical information and information relevant to the offender’s risk between the police and other relevant agencies. MAPPS is a Home Office-led project to replace the ViSOR database to improve multi-agency information sharing. Information about the languages spoken by registered sex offenders is not collated centrally.

What the total cost has been of providing private healthcare to irregular migrants in each year since 2018.

Asylum seekers are not provided with private healthcare.

Media and Sport, how many public pools closed in each of the last ten years.

Since 2015, 279 swimming pools on sites owned by Local Authorities have closed. At the same time, 248 swimming pools have opened. Facilities may close for a number of reasons: this can include the rationalisation of multiple older facilities into a modern, better located facility.The breakdown for closures per year is as follows:2015: 402016: 362017: 312018: 232019: 312020: 402021: 272022: 272023: 202024 (as of end of August) : 4

How many people have been diagnosed with autism in each of the last ten years.

The information requested isn’t held centrally. Some relevant information, drawn from the Mental Health Service Data Set, is published by NHS England in the Autism Waiting Times Statistics. However, this data only represents a partial picture of the numbers of people who are referred for suspected autism and are recorded with an autism diagnosis following an assessment. The Autism Waiting Times Statistics are available at the following link:https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/autism-statisticsNHS England continues to work with providers and partner organisations to improve the data quality.

How many and what proportion of (a) asylum seekers and (b) undocumented migrants were eligible for support under (i) Section (A) 95 and (B) 98 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and (ii) Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 in each of the last ten years; and if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of that support in the same period.

As has long been the case. the Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide accommodation support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute before their claim is decided and those without a valid claim can be removed. By clearing the backlog and increasing removals of those with no right to stay, we can end the use of asylum hotels. Data on the number of asylum seekers in receipt of support, can be found within the Asy_D09 tab for our most recent stats release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab). The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab). The Home Office does not have, and therefore cannot discharge, duties under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989. It is for the local authority where an unaccompanied child is located to consider its duties under the Children’s Act 1989.

Pursuant to the Answer of 12 November 2024 to Question 12868 on Habitual Residence Test, how many habitual residency tests for Universal Credit there were, excluding factual habitual residency tests, in each of the last five years.

Habitual Residence Tests (HRT) always assess whether individuals are factually habitually resident. For an individual to be factually habitually resident they must have been living here for a significant period of time and have a settled intention to remain. There were therefore no HRTs over the past 5 years which excluded an assessment of factual habitual residence.

How many people have presented at A&E for a (a) heart attack and (b) stroke in each of the last ten years.

Prior to 2020/21, the mechanism used to collect and record accident and emergency activity was not sufficiently granular to identify the requested conditions. However, NHS England can provide a count of attendances with a relevant primary diagnosis from 2020/21 onwards. The following table shows the number of attendances, broken down by the relevant diagnosis, from 2020/21 to 2023/24:YearDiagnosisAttendances2020/21Stroke110,7562020/21Heart Attack28,2092020/21Cardiac Arrest9,1302021/22Stroke118,6992021/22Heart Attack34,8752021/22Cardiac Arrest10,3012022/23Stroke120,7312022/23Heart Attack35,5242022/23Cardiac Arrest10,8872023/24Stroke122,8122023/24Heart Attack35,8292023/24Cardiac Arrest10,185Source: the data is from The Emergency Care Data Set, which is available at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/data-collections-and-data-sets/data-sets/emergency-care-data-set-ecds

What the monthly cost is of storing PPE related to Covid.

It currently costs approximately £200,000 per week, the equivalent to £850,000 for November 2024, to store personal protective equipment unsuitable for National Health Service use. The figure is dynamic because the stock is reducing.A programme of work is underway to reduce our excess stock. This work will significantly reduce the cost of our storage network, and is due to be complete by January 2025, through sales, donations, recycling, and energy from waste.

How many UK born doctors have left the NHS for employment outside of the UK in each of the last ten years.

The Department does not hold the information requested.

How many people were diagnosed with depression in each of the last ten years.

The Department does not hold this information centrally.

What information her Department holds on the number of pot holes that were reported in each of the last 25 years.

It is the responsibility of local highway authorities to manage and maintain their local highway networks, including understanding what parts of the network require maintenance, based on local needs and priorities. Local authorities are required to provide road condition information to the Department as part of the data obligations set out in the Single Data List. The Department publishes this information on gov.uk, and the data goes back to March 2007.