Derek Twigg

The data for Death Benefit Nominations (DBNs) was successfully migrated from the previous administrator (MyCSP) Compendia solution to the current Hartlink system managed by the current administrator, Capita. While the vast majority of records were digital, any legacy exceptions originally held on paper were maintained as scanned images within the Electronic Document Management system; these images were also fully transitioned to Capita alongside all other member documentation.

Although a functional issue with Capita’s online pension portal at the point of go-live briefly prevented DBNs from displaying correctly to users, this technical matter has been resolved. Members are now able to view their existing nominations through the online system, with the full functionality to amend, delete, or add new nominations as required.

The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. The then Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jeremy Quin MP, had overall responsibility for Civil Service workforce matters at the time and confirmed that the Cabinet Office should proceed to award the contract to Capita. This was further subject to the Cabinet Office’s controls process for which the then Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office, Alex Burghart MP, had oversight.

The contract awarded in November 2023 followed a standardised rigorous procurement process with an open and transparent evaluation process, centred on the core criteria of quality, cost, and social value.

The Cabinet Office did not approach any other government department as part of the procurement exercise, past performance is covered in the selection stage of the procurement and, as no concerns were raised at this stage, Capita progressed through to the next stage.

While Capita is not currently covering the costs associated with the deployment of the surge team, they remain responsible for any additional expenses incurred, such as the use of contractors. Furthermore, any further service failures by Capita will attract financial penalties, which will reduce the overall cost of the contract.

The contract includes key performance indicators that, if not met, include financial penalties. These have already been applied in respect of Capita’s performance in December.

The Cabinet Office will continue to use all available commercial levers to hold Capita to account and ensure they deliver the contractual service levels.

The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. The then Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jeremy Quin MP, had overall responsibility for Civil Service workforce matters at the time and confirmed that the Cabinet Office should proceed to award the contract to Capita. This was further subject to the Cabinet Office’s controls process for which the then Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office, Alex Burghart MP, had oversight.

The contract awarded in November 2023 followed a standardised rigorous procurement process with an open and transparent evaluation process, centred on the core criteria of quality, cost, and social value.

The Cabinet Office did not approach any other government department as part of the procurement exercise, past performance is covered in the selection stage of the procurement and, as no concerns were raised at this stage, Capita progressed through to the next stage.

While Capita is not currently covering the costs associated with the deployment of the surge team, they remain responsible for any additional expenses incurred, such as the use of contractors. Furthermore, any further service failures by Capita will attract financial penalties, which will reduce the overall cost of the contract.

The contract includes key performance indicators that, if not met, include financial penalties. These have already been applied in respect of Capita’s performance in December.

The Cabinet Office will continue to use all available commercial levers to hold Capita to account and ensure they deliver the contractual service levels.

The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. The then Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jeremy Quin MP, had overall responsibility for Civil Service workforce matters at the time and confirmed that the Cabinet Office should proceed to award the contract to Capita. This was further subject to the Cabinet Office’s controls process for which the then Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office, Alex Burghart MP, had oversight.

The contract awarded in November 2023 followed a standardised rigorous procurement process with an open and transparent evaluation process, centred on the core criteria of quality, cost, and social value.

The Cabinet Office did not approach any other government department as part of the procurement exercise, past performance is covered in the selection stage of the procurement and, as no concerns were raised at this stage, Capita progressed through to the next stage.

While Capita is not currently covering the costs associated with the deployment of the surge team, they remain responsible for any additional expenses incurred, such as the use of contractors. Furthermore, any further service failures by Capita will attract financial penalties, which will reduce the overall cost of the contract.

The contract includes key performance indicators that, if not met, include financial penalties. These have already been applied in respect of Capita’s performance in December.

The Cabinet Office will continue to use all available commercial levers to hold Capita to account and ensure they deliver the contractual service levels.

A response has been issued here.

The Department’s energy and emissions projections include growth in power demand from computing services such as data centres. However, to ensure a comprehensive view of the energy system, the methodology projects at a broader sector level, not disaggregating specific estimates for data centres.

The Capacity Market ensures supply meets demand. It operates by securing most of the required capacity four years in advance, with additional capacity secured one year ahead based on updated forecasts. This approach ensures Great Britain meets the Reliability Standard, which balances cost and reliability to maintain adequate electricity security.

A cross-Government approach is taken to support the UK’s Life Sciences sector. This was the case for Government’s work to explore AstraZeneca’s potential investment in Speke, which involved No10, HM Treasury, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Business and Trade.

The department does not specifically collect data on school days lost due to weather conditions.

From the start of the 2024/25 academic year, it became mandatory for schools to share attendance data with the department. Attendance data can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools.

Other attendance statistics and past releases are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-pupil-absence. This shows pupil absence statistics from May 2010 onwards and pupil attendance statistics from September 2022.

It is for individual settings and responsible bodies to determine their approach to closure based on their own risk assessment. Closures should be considered a last resort, and the imperative is for settings to remain open where it is safe to do so. Where a school was planning to be open for a session but then has to close unexpectedly, for example due to adverse weather, the attendance register is not taken as usual because there is no session. For statistical purposes this is counted as a ‘not possible’ attendance.

Where settings are temporarily closed, individual settings and responsible bodies should consider providing remote education for the duration of the closure in line with departmental guidance. Providing remote education does not change the imperative to remain open, or to reopen as soon as possible. Pupils who are absent from school and receiving remote education still need to be recorded as absent using the most appropriate absence code. Schools should keep a record of and monitor pupil’s engagement with remote education, but this is not formally tracked in the attendance register. Guidance for schools on providing remote education is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/providing-remote-education-guidance-for-schools/providing-remote-education-guidance-for-schools. Additional guidance for parents on remote education is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/providing-remote-education-information-to-parents-template.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has not had recent discussions with universities regarding the attendance of defence companies at career fairs and events. As autonomous institutions, universities have the discretion to decide which companies they invite to such events.

River ecological health status is based on Cycle 3 classifications in the River Basin Management Plans (RBMP), which were classified in 2019, partially updated in 2022, and again partially updated in 2025. The 2019 and 2022 classifications are publicly available, and the 2025 classifications are being readied for publication this Summer. Alongside this, the Environment Agency is currently reviewing all river classifications, reasons for failure, waterbody-level measures and river basin plan objectives, preparing for the December 2027 publication of Cycle 4. Cycle 4 baseline classifications are expected in 2028.

The Environment Agency’s 2025-2030 Water Industry National Environment Programme is assessing risks from storm overflows in the Mersey catchment. The programme requires United Utilities to investigate the impact of over 450 storm overflows and to complete three investigations aimed at developing a catchment scale approach to reducing sewage discharges.

The Department does not routinely hold this data. It is the responsibility of train operating companies to collect this information. Wider performance data is however publicly available through The Office of Rail and Road's data portal. This can be found at: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.

Whilst the question refers to calendar years, railway performance information is presented in four-weekly rail periods as standard.

The Department does not routinely hold this data. It is the responsibility of train operating companies to collect this information. Although not on a line of route basis, wider performance data is publicly available through the Office of Rail and Road's data portal. This can be found at: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/.

Whilst the question refers to calendar years, railway performance information is presented in four-weekly rail periods as standard.

The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) collects data on cancer incidence across a range of tumour types and stages. Data showing the annual incidence rate of stage four lung cancer can be found at the following link:

https://nhsd-ndrs.shinyapps.io/incidence_and_mortality/

The following table shows the incidence rate of stage four lung cancer from 2015 to the most recently published data available, from 2023:

NHS England publishes the number of posts and fill rates for medical specialty training programmes, including general practice training. Data for 2013 to 2025 is available at the following link:

https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/fill-rates

NHS England publishes monthly information on the composition of the workforce employed by National Health Service trusts and integrated care boards in England. This includes information on the number of consultant radiologists. The information can be found at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

Information on the number of doctors by grade and specialty can be found for each month in the file ‘NHS HCHS Workforce Statistics, Trusts and core organisations – data table, [date]’ on worksheet ‘4’.

No specific central assessment has been made of the requirement for consultant radiologists in the NHS, with decisions on the provision of local services being managed by individual NHS service providers and commissioners.

The Department does not hold cancer waiting times data at a parliamentary constituency level. NHS England publishes cancer waiting times statistics by National Health Service provider and integrated care board, including performance against the faster diagnosis standard (FDS) which replaced the former two-week wait standard in October 2023, as the FDS measures whether patients referred urgently with suspected cancer have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days.

NHS England also continues to publish data on the time from an urgent suspected cancer referral to a first outpatient attendance and from an urgent breast symptomatic referral to a first hospital assessment. However, these measures do not necessarily indicate when a patient is first seen by a cancer specialist, as they may include attendance with a consultant-led team member, attendance at a diagnostic clinic, or a direct diagnostic test through a straight-to-test pathway. This data is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/monthly-data-and-summaries/2026-27-monthly-cancer-waiting-times-statistics/

The average waiting time for patients to receive diagnostic results is tracked and published using the Diagnostic Imaging Dataset (DIDS).

The median number of days from request to test for diagnostic imaging, including computed tomography scans, for 2025/26 is available on table two at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/diagnostic-imaging-dataset/diagnostic-imaging-dataset-2025-26-data/

This covers diagnostic imaging in all settings, including emergency referrals, which in most cases would have been delivered on the same day. Data from June 2026 is not yet available, but NHS England is implementing improvements to DIDS in 2026/27 and data for May will be published in due course.

The Hon Member received a response to PQ 101725 on 4^th February 2026.

We are committed to ensuring that any asylum seeker who commits a serious crime in the UK is not granted asylum and is removed or deported as quickly as possible. If deported, the person is prohibited from returning to the UK as long as the deportation order made against them remains in force. Anyone who is subject to a deportation order is liable to have their fingerprints retained beyond the standard 15-year retention period.

Once abroad, there is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel back to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge.

If someone returns to the UK and re-enters the further submissions process has to be followed. Due to our robust biometric checks, face and fingerprints, individuals who have re-entered in this way will be detected upon being encountered, have their further submissions heard quickly, and they will be removed as swiftly as possible if their further submissions are without merit. We will deny the benefits of protection status to those who commit serious crimes and are a danger to the community, or those who are a threat to national security.

We are clear that serious criminals are not welcome here.

In 2015, 2206 civil penalties were issued for illegal working. Information on illegal working civil penalty statistics has been published since 2016 as part of the Home Office Immigration Transparency Data and can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68a3015732d2c63f8693437d/immigration-enforcement-data-apr-jun-2025.ods on tab CP02.

The data reflects the total number of penalties issued, rather than the number of businesses affected, as fines have been imposed on both sole traders and limited companies.

The below table provides the number of convictions for employing illegal workers since 2015. Prosecution is targeted at the most persistent offenders.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Available data on third country refusals, where the claimant is believed to have reached a safe third country prior to claiming in the UK, is published in table Asy_D02 of the asylum detailed datasets. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to the year ending March 2025.

The Home Office keeps all its immigration visa routes under regular review, which includes consulting the Department of Health and Social Care on which occupations should be eligible for the Health and Care Visa.

No funding has been diverted from the £3 billion a year that has been committed in support of Ukraine and encompasses Taskforce KINDRED.