Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2026 to Question 112445 on Shipping and with reference to section 4 of her Department's publication entitled Seafarers in the UK Shipping Industry: 2025, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) level of the availability and (b) uptake of ratings apprenticeships.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department remains committed to increasing the number of seafaring jobs and ratings apprenticeships in the UK. The apprenticeship levy remains available for use in the maritime industry, including for ratings apprenticeships in England, and the Department and MCA continues to fund 50% of a cadetship through the Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) fund, which was recently increased to £19.4m.
Apprenticeships are a devolved matter, with ratings apprenticeships available in England in areas including deck rating, marine engineering and officer of the watch. Officials are engaging with industry and the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the uptake of maritime apprenticeships, particularly in areas where industry has reported skills shortages. We regularly discuss relevant areas with other Departments.
The recommendations of the review of the effectiveness of funding for UK seafarer training are being assessed by officials.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, further to the Answer of 17 February 2026 to Question 112445 on Shipping, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on the (a) availability and (b) uptake of ratings apprenticeships in England and Wales.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department remains committed to increasing the number of seafaring jobs and ratings apprenticeships in the UK. The apprenticeship levy remains available for use in the maritime industry, including for ratings apprenticeships in England, and the Department and MCA continues to fund 50% of a cadetship through the Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) fund, which was recently increased to £19.4m.
Apprenticeships are a devolved matter, with ratings apprenticeships available in England in areas including deck rating, marine engineering and officer of the watch. Officials are engaging with industry and the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the uptake of maritime apprenticeships, particularly in areas where industry has reported skills shortages. We regularly discuss relevant areas with other Departments.
The recommendations of the review of the effectiveness of funding for UK seafarer training are being assessed by officials.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the recommendations in the independent review of the effectiveness of funding for UK seafarer training, published by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency on 13 April 2026.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department remains committed to increasing the number of seafaring jobs and ratings apprenticeships in the UK. The apprenticeship levy remains available for use in the maritime industry, including for ratings apprenticeships in England, and the Department and MCA continues to fund 50% of a cadetship through the Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) fund, which was recently increased to £19.4m.
Apprenticeships are a devolved matter, with ratings apprenticeships available in England in areas including deck rating, marine engineering and officer of the watch. Officials are engaging with industry and the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the uptake of maritime apprenticeships, particularly in areas where industry has reported skills shortages. We regularly discuss relevant areas with other Departments.
The recommendations of the review of the effectiveness of funding for UK seafarer training are being assessed by officials.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has assessed the potential impact of recent changes to planned core education hours in public sector prisons on its compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Department complies with the ongoing Public Sector Equality Duty to have due regard to the potential equality impacts of decisions to make changes to the provision of education in prisons at both a national and local level. Changes to planned core education hours vary across different prisons because the national funding formula for prison education has been refreshed, to ensure that allocations are a fair reflection of prison population, function and regional cost differences. Governors and Heads of Education, Skills and Work undertake needs analysis to understand the characteristics and needs of their local prison population, and commission education based on this information. New Core Education contracts also have strengthened requirements around Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Providers are required to adhere to the Public Sector Equality Duty, and must continuously maintain an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion action plan to ensure equity of access to learning.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled Universal Credit Statistics updated on 17 March 2026 showing people with indefinite leave to remain were 2.7% of Universal Credit claims, whether his Department holds other information of migrants claiming benefits.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest statistics showing the percentage of people on Universal Credit in Great Britain by immigration status were published on 17 February 2026, and reported that in January 2026 the percentage of people on Universal Credit in Great Britain with the immigration status of indefinite leave to remain was 2.6%.
Information relating to other benefits is not held on digital systems, in a way that allows it to be extracted for the publication as official statistics.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the expected increase in public funds claimed by migrant workers.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Ministers and officials at DWP and the Home Office regularly discuss a range of matters.
Most migrants with temporary visas cannot access the benefit system. Access to public funds and benefits is usually at the point of settlement, which for most people will be after they have lived in the UK legally for five years, and the Home Office Earned Settlement policy consultation is looking at increasing this to ten years.
The Home Office are also consulting on changing the default position to maintain No Recourse to Public Funds at settlement and lifting this only at the point of British citizenship.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the earned settlement proposals on the number of applicants claiming caring benefits.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has made no such assessment.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Risk Assessed Recall Review applications on behalf of prisoners serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection have been (a) submitted, (b) accepted, and (c) directed for release, in each month since November 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Since 1 November 2024, officials in the Public Protection Casework Section (PPCS) in HMPPS has on behalf of the Secretary of State considered the suitability of every newly recalled IPP prisoner for re-release under RARR. That means that the recalled offender does not need to make an application for RARR. In each case, officials in PPCS will have regard to any recommendation made by the offender’s community offender manager. The number of recalled IPP offenders re-released via RARR in each month from 1 November 2024 to 30 September 2025 is given in the table below.
Year | Month | Release Decisions |
2024 | November | 0 |
2024 | December | 3 |
2025 | January | 8 |
2025 | February | 5 |
2025 | March | 8 |
2025 | April | 4 |
2025 | May | 4 |
2025 | June | 8 |
2025 | July | 7 |
2025 | August | 1 |
2025 | September | 2 |
Note:
Data quality: The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
We have provided the RARR release data up to 30 September 2025 as we have only published general release data up to 30 September 2025.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make it her policy not to expand Managed Service Provider usage until the joint HMRC and PCS evaluation is concluded and reviewed.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC is currently in the Proof of Value phase for the use of Managed Service Providers (MSPs), supported by a joint evaluation agreed with the PCS trade union. The evaluation covers service quality, productivity, customer experience and value for money, and is intended to inform any future decisions about MSP use.
HMRC expects to complete the first phase of this evaluation in April, after which the findings will be reviewed internally and used to inform future decisions on the MSP approach. The evaluation will help ensure that any next steps are evidence‑based and aligned with service needs and value for money.
Any future planning decisions will be made through normal business planning and Spending Review processes, informed by the evaluation evidence. The findings will be considered alongside operational need, value for money and commercial sensitivities, and used to shape HMRC’s future approach to the use of MSPs.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she expects the joint HMRC and PCS evaluation of the Managed Service Provider Proof of Value trial will be completed and published.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC is currently in the Proof of Value phase for the use of Managed Service Providers (MSPs), supported by a joint evaluation agreed with the PCS trade union. The evaluation covers service quality, productivity, customer experience and value for money, and is intended to inform any future decisions about MSP use.
HMRC expects to complete the first phase of this evaluation in April, after which the findings will be reviewed internally and used to inform future decisions on the MSP approach. The evaluation will help ensure that any next steps are evidence‑based and aligned with service needs and value for money.
Any future planning decisions will be made through normal business planning and Spending Review processes, informed by the evaluation evidence. The findings will be considered alongside operational need, value for money and commercial sensitivities, and used to shape HMRC’s future approach to the use of MSPs.