Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many assessments for Personal Independence Payment were carried out by Capita by telephone in 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Capita delivers Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the Midlands and Wales, and on behalf of the Department for Communities (DfC) in Northern Ireland.
Information relating to the Midlands and Wales is not currently published by DWP; however, we intend to include this data in a future statistical release.
If your query concerns Northern Ireland, responsibility for this information rests with the DfC. This data is not held by DWP.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of vaccine uptake in schools.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) monitors uptake of childhood and adolescent vaccinations via the school-based programmes and publishes this in annual coverage reports. Uptake across the programmes has shown a decline since the COVID-19 pandemic, with some evidence of stabilisation during the academic year 2023/24. The reports are available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/vaccine-uptake
NHS England, in conjunction with regional colleagues, has produced a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination school-aged immunisation improvement and uptake plan for internal operational National Health Service use, as part of their commitment to improving vaccine coverage.
In addition, NHS England has improved digital communications on vaccinations, including expanding the NHS app, and has improved access to the HPV vaccine outside of schools through community clinics at convenient times and locations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (i) prosecutions and (ii) convictions there were for the use of a mobile phone while driving in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide range of criminal offences including using a mobile phone when driving in England and Wales within the Outcomes by Offences data tool.
This can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were entitled to free school meals in each of the last three years.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department publishes data on free school meal (FSM) eligibility and the number of eligible pupils taking FSMs on school census day in the annual Schools, Pupils and their Characteristics accredited official statistics, which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25.
The latest figures were published in June 2025, and the next figures will be published in summer 2026.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what financial support is available for the installation of solar panels in UK domestic settings.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Solar is an important part of the Government’s strategy for increasing energy performance of buildings and contributes to meeting the government’s fuel poverty targets.
The Warm Homes Plan will deliver £15 billion of public investment helping households take up measures like solar panels, heat pumps, batteries and insulation. Homeowners will soon be able to apply for government-backed, low and zero interest loans to assist with upfront costs for solar.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to help tackle educational underachievement.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, but too many face barriers holding them back, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The government’s Plan for Change sets our intention to give every child the best start in life, setting a milestone of a record proportion of children starting school ready to learn, backed by investment close to £1.5 billion over the next three years, subject to the spending review.
High and rising standards are the key to strengthening outcomes for every child. The department is driving standards in every school through regional improvement for standards and excellence teams, a refreshed high quality curriculum and assessment system, and recruiting an additional 6,500 additional teachers.
The Schools White Paper will build on our existing work to drive school standards and improve outcomes for all children.
This is alongside wider work to improve outcomes for all children, including tackling child poverty and our Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many assessments for Personal Independence Payment were carried out by Capita in person in 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Capita delivers Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the Midlands and Wales, and on behalf of the Department for Communities (DfC) in Northern Ireland.
Information relating to the Midlands and Wales is not currently published by DWP; however, we intend to include this data in a future statistical release.
If your query concerns Northern Ireland, responsibility for this information rests with the DfC. This data is not held by DWP.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding provision for the police.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2026–27 final police funding settlement provides up to £21.0 billion for the policing system in England and Wales.
This is an increase of up to £1.3 billion compared with the 2025–26 settlement, representing a 6.7% cash increase and a 4.4% real terms increase. Total funding to police forces will be up to £18.4 billion, an increase of up to £796 million compared to the 2025-26 police funding settlement. This equates to a 4.5% cash increase and a 2.3% real terms increase in funding.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of further and higher education funding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has increased investment in 16-19 education by £400 million in the 2025/26 financial year. From the Spending Review, we will invest nearly £800 million extra in 2026/27, including and fully consolidating the £190 million boost to 2025/26 funding provided in May.
The department is investing in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Skills Fund (ASF), spending £1.4 billion in the 2025/26 academic year. The ASF fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.
To support long‑term stability in higher education, the department is increasing maximum tuition fees in line with inflation, by 2.71% in 2026/27 and 2.68% in 2027/28, in addition to the 3.1% increase delivered for the current academic year. The government provides £1.31 billion in Strategic Priorities Grant (SPG) funding for the 2025/26 academic year to support teaching, high‑cost subjects and disadvantaged students, and we are working with the Office for Students to reform the SPG to better target priority skills needs and access and participation.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants were overpaid cost of living payments in 2025; and what is the total amount of the overpayments identified in 2025.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department publishes fraud and error statistics annually and the data for FYE 2025 can be found here: Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2025 - GOV.UK.