Asked by: Amanda Martin (Labour - Portsmouth North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were employed by her Department at the rank of Chief Immigration Officer at the end of the 2015-16 financial year.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Border Force had 760 BFOs at grade CIO as of FY 2015/16.
Asked by: Amanda Martin (Labour - Portsmouth North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 June to Question 57910 on Legal Aid Scheme, how much the Legal Aid Agency paid in fees to Duncan Lewis LLP in (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, (c) 2023-24, and (d) 2024-25 related to immigration and asylum cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information can be found in the table below. Information filterable by financial year, legal aid provider, and type of legal aid can be viewed on the Provider explorer dashboard of the Legal aid provider completions and starts statistics data visualisation tool.
Financial Year | Immigration and Asylum Closed Case Expenditure – Duncan Lewis |
2021-2022 | £8,201,255 |
2022-2023 | £7,980,147 |
2023-2024 | £8,108,969 |
2024-2025 | £6,052,515 |
Duncan Lewis is the largest Legal Aid provider in the UK, currently operating across 29 offices.
Legal aid is only available in respect of immigration cases which are within the scope of legal aid as set out under Schedule 1, Part 1 of the Legal Aid and Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 and is subject to both financial eligibility and merits tests.
Asked by: Amanda Martin (Labour - Portsmouth North)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish a list of the (a) names and (b) locations of former airforce bases within the UK that are no longer in use by the Royal Air Force but remain part of the Ministry of Defence estate as of 1 September 2025.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
No, a historical list is not held. The Defence Disposal Database details all Ministry of Defence sites the Department plans to release when they become surplus to Defence requirements. This is published on gov.uk: Disposal database: House of Commons report - GOV.UK
Asked by: Amanda Martin (Labour - Portsmouth North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) requiring secondary schools to provide at least one hour per week of (i) music, (ii) drama and (iii) art teaching and (b) abolishing arts carousel timetabling models on arts participation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Art and design, music and drama within English are important parts of the national curriculum, and the government trusts schools to determine how best to teach all arts subjects, including teaching time.
Schools are expected to fund the teaching of arts subjects from their core budget. School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion.
In addition, a £76 million annual core grant is provided to 43 Music Hub partnerships to provide instrument tuition, loans, and whole-class ensemble teaching alongside £25 million for instruments and technology. From September 2026, the National Centre for Arts and Music Education will also support excellent teacher training in the arts, boost partnerships between schools and arts organisations and promote arts subjects.
The department launched the four-year music opportunities pilot in September 2024 across 12 local areas, backed by £2 million and a further £3.85 million from Arts Council England and Youth Music. The pilot supports pupils eligible for the pupil premium and others to learn how to play an instrument or sing to a high standard, including fully funded one-to-one tuition. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.
Asked by: Amanda Martin (Labour - Portsmouth North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging schools to fully fund one-to-one music tuition for pupils eligible for pupil premium funding.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Art and design, music and drama within English are important parts of the national curriculum, and the government trusts schools to determine how best to teach all arts subjects, including teaching time.
Schools are expected to fund the teaching of arts subjects from their core budget. School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion.
In addition, a £76 million annual core grant is provided to 43 Music Hub partnerships to provide instrument tuition, loans, and whole-class ensemble teaching alongside £25 million for instruments and technology. From September 2026, the National Centre for Arts and Music Education will also support excellent teacher training in the arts, boost partnerships between schools and arts organisations and promote arts subjects.
The department launched the four-year music opportunities pilot in September 2024 across 12 local areas, backed by £2 million and a further £3.85 million from Arts Council England and Youth Music. The pilot supports pupils eligible for the pupil premium and others to learn how to play an instrument or sing to a high standard, including fully funded one-to-one tuition. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.
Asked by: Amanda Martin (Labour - Portsmouth North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to increase dedicated arts funding for schools to ensure (a) music, (b) drama and (c) art are delivered as core subjects.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Art and design, music and drama within English are important parts of the national curriculum, and the government trusts schools to determine how best to teach all arts subjects, including teaching time.
Schools are expected to fund the teaching of arts subjects from their core budget. School funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning that core school budgets will total £65.3 billion.
In addition, a £76 million annual core grant is provided to 43 Music Hub partnerships to provide instrument tuition, loans, and whole-class ensemble teaching alongside £25 million for instruments and technology. From September 2026, the National Centre for Arts and Music Education will also support excellent teacher training in the arts, boost partnerships between schools and arts organisations and promote arts subjects.
The department launched the four-year music opportunities pilot in September 2024 across 12 local areas, backed by £2 million and a further £3.85 million from Arts Council England and Youth Music. The pilot supports pupils eligible for the pupil premium and others to learn how to play an instrument or sing to a high standard, including fully funded one-to-one tuition. The findings from the pilot will inform future policy on widening music opportunities.