Written questions by Lowe.

Communities and Local Government, how many (a) air miles and (b) flights she has completed since 5 July 2024.

Data on minister’s overseas travel and on senior civil servant’s business expenses is published on a quarterly basis. The latest available quarterly publications can be found here: MHCLG: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings, July to September 2024 - GOV.UK MHCLG: senior officials’ hospitality, July to September 2024 - GOV.UK.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the total cost to the public purse was of supporting the modernisation of the Albanian prison system.

In addition to work to disrupt Organised Immigration Crime and address the long-term drivers of migration, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Home Office and the Ministry of Justice work together to enable the return of eligible Albanian foreign national offenders to serve the remainder of their sentence in Albania. As part of an arrangement signed under the previous government in 2023 to implement the 2021 Prisoner Transfer Agreement, £4.3 million was committed over three years to support the modernisation of the Albanian prison system. We are reviewing the operation of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania signed by the previous Government to understand how more prisoners can be sent back to serve their time in Albanian prisons. During 2024,1,610 Albanian FNOs were removed from England and Wales - the highest number of any nationality and up 7% from the previous year.

What information her Department holds on the number and proportion of spousal visas granted to people who were (a) first and (b) second cousins to their spouse in 2024.

I refer the Honourable Member to the Answer I gave him on 20 December 2024 in response to Question UIN 19992.

How many and what proportion of applications to extend student visas were successful in 2024.

Information on grants and refusals of extensions of stay to study is published in table EXE_D01, within the ‘Extensions detailed datasets’ file, at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK. The latest publication includes data up to 31st December 2024.

What the cost to the public purse was of Universal Credit payments made to foreign nationals in 2024.

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost. 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 make an estimate of the number of work visas that will be issued in 2025.

The Home Office publishes statistics on the number of work visas issued in the Immigration system statistics quarterly release. See the entry clearance visa data tables.Future grant rates are very uncertain and liable to change.

Communities and Local Government, when the next tranche of levelling up funding is due to be paid to coastal towns.

Monitoring Returns determine the amount councils are paid in relation to each Levelling Up Fund project, with the next payments due in late March.

What information her Department holds on the number of assaults committed by biological males serving a custodial sentence in a women-only facility in 2024.

No such assaults have been reported.

What recent estimate she has made of the number of people with non-domiciled tax status who permanently left the UK in each month of 2024.

The Government’s priority is improving the UK’s competitiveness internationally and securing economic growth. The non-dom reforms have been specifically designed to make the UK competitive with a modern, simple tax regime that is also fair. The reforms establish a tax regime for new residents, which is more attractive to new arrivals than the current rules.The Government published a Tax Information and Impact Note for this policy on 30 October. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-changes-for-non-uk-domiciled-individuals/reforming-the-taxation-of-non-uk-domiciled-individuals.There have always been relatively large flows of non-doms in and out of the UK every year. For example. in the latest HMRC statistics for tax year 2022/23, 8,000 non-doms left and 13,000 arrived.We anticipate that some non-doms ineligible for the new regime will exit the UK in response to the changes. Taking this migration response into account, the OBR expects the non-dom reforms to raise £33.8 billion over the next five years to help fund the public services and investment projects needed to drive growth.

Media and Sport, if she will provide a breakdown of costs relating to her Department's podcast entitled First Draft.

The podcast was created and delivered as part of the DCMS Communications Teams' day to day work at no extra cost.

Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to support greyhound racing in England.

As the Secretary of State said recently, we have absolutely no plans to ban greyhound racing. We appreciate the joy it brings to many people in our country and the important contribution it makes to British cultural life and the rural economy, providing some 5400 jobs across Great Britain.The industry is supported by voluntary contributions from participating bookmakers through the British Greyhound Racing Fund, which plays a crucial role in its growth and sustainability. The Government remains committed to ensuring voluntary contributions reflect the value of the sport to the betting industry.

How many and what proportion of medical school places are occupied by non-UK nationals.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education sector. These data are shared with the department and include a wide range of information on students in UK higher education providers (HEPs), including their legal nationality.In the 2022/23 academic year, there were 84,230 student enrolments in medicine and dentistry subjects at UK HEPs, of which 19,990 held a legal nationality other than British or dual-British nationality, representing 24.7% of those with known legal nationality.

How many people used Access to Work support in 2024; for what reasons; and what the cost to the public purse was of this.

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 reasons 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 was 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. The Department intends to publish data for the financial year 2024/25 in the next official statistics publication which has a provisional publication date of September or October 2025.

With reference to the oral statement by the Prime Minister of 26 February 2025 on Defence and Security, Official Report, column 631, on what his Department plans to spend the increase in defence spending.

Full details will be set out in the Strategic Defence Review to be published in spring 2025.

How many people claiming Universal Credit received fit notes in 2024.

The number of people on Universal Credit in Great Britain who submitted an accepted fit note to the Department from January 2024 to September 2024 is 805,890. Notes:Numbers are rounded to 10.Statistics have been provided to September 2024 in line with latest published statistics on fit notes.Although most will have submitted Statements of Fitness for Work (fit notes), other forms of medical evidence that the Department accepts (e.g. hospital discharge letters) will be included in the totals.Data was taken from Universal Credit analytical systems but results have not been quality assured to Official Statistics publication standard.The Department regularly publishes Universal Credit Health Journey caseload statistics on Stat-Xplore including the monthly number of people on UC Health with a current fit-note.

What information her Department holds on the number of people impacted by train delays in 2024.

The Department does not hold information on the number of people affected by train delays. Rail industry data measures train delays. The Office of Rail and Road publishes quarterly and periodic (four-weekly) statistics on punctuality, reliability and causes of delay for passenger trains operating on the mainline network in Great Britain. This data set includes the percentage of recorded station stops that were arrived at ‘On Time’ (early or less than one minute after the scheduled time). In the year ending 4 January 2025, the proportion of station stops that were arrived at ‘On Time’ was 67.1%. These statistics can be found on the passenger rail performance data portal at https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/ .

If he will make an estimate of the total number of (a) air miles and (b) flights undertaken by his Department's staff in 2024.

The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero had a total number of airmiles of 5,234,196 and total number of flights of 1768 in 2024.

What the total number of minutes was by which trains were delayed in 2024.

The ORR publish statistics on delay minutes on their website at https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/ (Table 3184). In the year ending 4 January 2025, a total of 15,897,997 delay minutes (15.9 million) were recorded in Great Britain. For context, there were a total of 7,335,930 (7.3 million) trains planned in the calendar year January 2024 to December 2024 (Table 3123).Of these trains, 85.2% were measured as either arriving within 5 minutes at the scheduled final destination time (for London, South-East, Regional and Scotland operators) or within 10 minutes of the final scheduled destination time (for long distance operators) (Table 3113, Public Performance Measure). Ministers have been clear that rail services have been failing passengers, we need to improve services for passengers and deliver better value for money for the taxpayer.The Rail Minister is meeting with the Managing Directors of all train operators and their Network Rail counterparts, to address poor performance and demand immediate action to raise standards.

What the (a) value and (b) volume of coal imported into the UK was in 2024.

Coal import data are published by HMRC in the Overseas Trade Data tables. The coal import value and volume for 2024 will be published in table G.2 of the Digest of UK Energy Statistics in July 2025.

How many applications were made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in 2024; and how many and what proportion of those applications were unsuccessful.

9,554 applications were submitted to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme in 2024. 4,593 of these applications have now concluded, with 4,589, or 99.9% of, claims rejected.