Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the £10 billion figure cited in her speech of 5 March 2026 on the Earned Settlement proposals represents direct savings to public finances, or a long-term estimate of the fiscal cost of a specific group of migrants over their lifetime.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Proposals for introducing an earned settlement model, as set out in the Command Paper “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement” (CP1448), were subject to a public consultation, which opened on 20 November 2025 and closed on 12 February 2026.

We are currently considering the results of that consultation, and have been and continue to work closely with other departments across government on the impacts of Earned Settlement, including with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education in relation to the Child Poverty Strategy.

The Home Secretary’s speech on 5 March 2026 referred to the lifetime net fiscal costs of care workers and their adult dependants expected to settle between 2026 and 2030. This is based on findings from the Migration Advisory Committee published here: Estimated lifetime net fiscal costs for care workers and their adult dependants - GOV.UK.

As with all significant policy changes, the proposals will be subject to both economic impact assessments and equality impact assessments, which we will make available when the full response to the consultation is published.

Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome publicly.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure children’s best interests will be treated as a primary consideration when considering forthcoming legislation on Article 8, in line with the UK’s obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This government is fully committed to the European Convention on Human Rights and our obligations under the UN Convention on the rights of the child. However, the government recognises the family and private life rules are not working as intended.

As we work to restore order, control and fairness to our immigration system the government will set out a new family policy that will cover all UK residents. We will also strengthen the public interest test to take back control over who comes to and stays in the UK, striking the right balance between individual family rights and the wider public interest. We will clarify Article 8 rules so that fewer cases are treated as ‘exceptional’ and set out how and when someone can make a claim.

We will adhere to commitments laid out in the 2025 UK Immigration White Paper, to ensure children who have been in the UK for most of their life, turn 18, and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle.

Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 also requires the Home Office to take into account the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the UK. We will undertake children impact assessments to ensure Section 55 and children’s best interests are central to immigration decisions that may affect them.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to retain existing private life rules for children and young people, which were recently reformed to reflect the ties to the UK of children and young people who are born and grow up here.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

This government is fully committed to the European Convention on Human Rights and our obligations under the UN Convention on the rights of the child. However, the government recognises the family and private life rules are not working as intended.

As we work to restore order, control and fairness to our immigration system the government will set out a new family policy that will cover all UK residents. We will also strengthen the public interest test to take back control over who comes to and stays in the UK, striking the right balance between individual family rights and the wider public interest. We will clarify Article 8 rules so that fewer cases are treated as ‘exceptional’ and set out how and when someone can make a claim.

We will adhere to commitments laid out in the 2025 UK Immigration White Paper, to ensure children who have been in the UK for most of their life, turn 18, and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle.

Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 also requires the Home Office to take into account the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the UK. We will undertake children impact assessments to ensure Section 55 and children’s best interests are central to immigration decisions that may affect them.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of earned settlement proposals on overall tax contributions; and whether this has been factored into the fiscal modelling for the proposals.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Proposals for introducing an earned settlement model, as set out in the Command Paper “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement” (CP1448), were subject to a public consultation, which opened on 20 November 2025 and closed on 12 February 2026.

We are currently considering the results of that consultation, and have been and continue to work closely with other departments across government on the impacts of Earned Settlement, including with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education in relation to the Child Poverty Strategy.

The Home Secretary’s speech on 5 March 2026 referred to the lifetime net fiscal costs of care workers and their adult dependants expected to settle between 2026 and 2030. This is based on findings from the Migration Advisory Committee published here: Estimated lifetime net fiscal costs for care workers and their adult dependants - GOV.UK.

As with all significant policy changes, the proposals will be subject to both economic impact assessments and equality impact assessments, which we will make available when the full response to the consultation is published.

Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome publicly.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education on the impact of earned settlement proposals on the Child Poverty Strategy.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Proposals for introducing an earned settlement model, as set out in the Command Paper “A Fairer Pathway to Settlement” (CP1448), were subject to a public consultation, which opened on 20 November 2025 and closed on 12 February 2026.

We are currently considering the results of that consultation, and have been and continue to work closely with other departments across government on the impacts of Earned Settlement, including with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education in relation to the Child Poverty Strategy.

The Home Secretary’s speech on 5 March 2026 referred to the lifetime net fiscal costs of care workers and their adult dependants expected to settle between 2026 and 2030. This is based on findings from the Migration Advisory Committee published here: Estimated lifetime net fiscal costs for care workers and their adult dependants - GOV.UK.

As with all significant policy changes, the proposals will be subject to both economic impact assessments and equality impact assessments, which we will make available when the full response to the consultation is published.

Once the final model has been decided, the Government will communicate the outcome publicly.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the net cost to her Department of the student loans system associated with the student loan outlay provided to English Plan 2/Plan 5 undergraduate borrowers in England in (i) 2022/23, (ii) 2023/24, (iii) 2024/25 and (iv) in the future.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Details of the expected government subsidy in the financial years requested, in respect of student loan outlay when all future forecasted and discounted repayments are accounted for and otherwise known as Resource Accounting and Budgeting charge, can be found below.

2022/23 financial year: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/b2347ffa-4373-417c-f41c-08deb23852d3. This data is from table 4.1 in the fuller publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2022-23.

2023/24 financial year: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/14f870b6-e141-4285-c5a6-08deb20526ae. This data is from table 4.1 in the fuller publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2023-24

2024/25 financial year and forecasts: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/fae8f4af-58bf-4647-c5a7-08deb20526ae. This data is from table 4.1 in the fuller publication: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england/2024-25.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department collects data on (a) track closures, (b) number of races and (c) attendance for greyhound racing.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

DCMS engages regularly with the governing body for greyhound racing, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), to keep abreast of developments in the sport, including those relating to tracks, races and attendance.

Data on tracks and attendances are available on the GBGB website.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 17 March 2026 to Question 119436 on Overseas Students: Sudan, if she will take steps to review the decision on Chevening scholarship recipients.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

By year ending September 2025, asylum claims along the affected routes by nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan had risen to over 470% of their 2021 level. The visa brake operates on a nationality-based approach on the Student visa route for Sudan and three other nationalities. This is in order to safeguard the fairness, credibility and sustainability of the immigration system as a whole, and so we are unable provide an exception to individuals who are resident in third countries.

While the terms and conditions of the Chevening Scholarship require scholars to return home for at least two years following the completion of courses, there have been instances of asylum claims made by Chevening scholars for each of the affected nationalities in recent years. Given this continued asylum risk, introducing exceptions from the visa brakes for Chevening scholars of these nationalities would be unfair

The brake will be kept under regular review. The visa brake is not intended to be permanent, but it will only be released once the government considers it appropriate to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the visa brake on applicants who have been long-term residents in third countries.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

By year ending September 2025, asylum claims along the affected routes by nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan had risen to over 470% of their 2021 level. The visa brake operates on a nationality-based approach on the Student visa route for Sudan and three other nationalities. This is in order to safeguard the fairness, credibility and sustainability of the immigration system as a whole, and so we are unable provide an exception to individuals who are resident in third countries.

While the terms and conditions of the Chevening Scholarship require scholars to return home for at least two years following the completion of courses, there have been instances of asylum claims made by Chevening scholars for each of the affected nationalities in recent years. Given this continued asylum risk, introducing exceptions from the visa brakes for Chevening scholars of these nationalities would be unfair

The brake will be kept under regular review. The visa brake is not intended to be permanent, but it will only be released once the government considers it appropriate to do so.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Visa brake imposed on 4 countries after widespread visa abuse, published on 4 March 2026, what steps she is taking to improve data sharing, including asylum application data, with sponsors.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office works closely with sponsors and sector bodies to support compliance with sponsorship duties and the integrity of the immigration system.

The Home Office regularly shares information with sponsors, including data to support monitoring of visa refusal rates, and in 2025 introduced new mechanisms to enhance refusal data sharing. Sponsors must report to the Home Office where a student does not enrol, or has sponsorship withdrawn after enrolment, and therefore already has access to that information.

We continue to explore opportunities to strengthen data sharing in line with data protection legislation, which includes considering our obligations on handling personal and sensitive data.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will ask Sheffield Hallam University to reconsider its proposal to close its Collegiate nursery provision.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

I would like to say how sorry I was to read of the proposed closure of Sheffield Hallam’s nursery. I know how devastating such closures can be and the impact this can have on families and the wider community.

Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area.

The department does not regulate the contracts between private businesses and parents buying childcare from them, and it would not be appropriate to become involved in local decision making. We are therefore unfortunately unable to directly intervene in individual cases.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action they are taking to address those issues and where needed support them with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract. No local authorities

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made on the commitment to review early years funding, including national funding formulae, and consult the sector on changes by summer 2026; and when the consultation will launch.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

We remain committed to engaging closely with stakeholders and launching the early years funding consultation in line with our stated timeframe of summer 2026. Further details on the date of publication will be confirmed in due course.

Communications blackout and human rights in Azad Jammu and Kashmir

Retirement of Tracy Thirlwall

Draft Code of Practice on Services, public functions and associations

Government response to Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza

National Emergency Briefing

US sanctions on Cuba

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