Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of student loans issued in each of last five years for which data is available were for students with settled status, expressed in (a) monetary terms and (b) number of students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not able to provide the requested data on settled status in the required timescale.
Settled status is a residency category, which is data held by the Student Loans Company (SLC).
However, changes in the application process over time, including the transition to electronic applications and introduction of new products, systems and processes in line with the legislation, mean that data held for earlier cohorts is held differently across multiple SLC systems.
As a result, it is not currently possible to produce robust settled status data within the required timescales. The department and the SLC are undertaking work to improve the quality and consistency of data provided.
Once this work is complete, the department expects to be able to provide information in response to such questions.
The department is not able to provide the requested data on immigration status. The SLC does not hold immigration status data. Immigration status data is held by the Home Office and is used by the SLC as part of the assessment for loan eligibility. However, as the SLC does not hold immigration status data in their own systems, this breakdown cannot be provided.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of student loans issued in each of the last five years for which data is available were for students with a non-Common Travel Area immigration status.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not able to provide the requested data on settled status in the required timescale.
Settled status is a residency category, which is data held by the Student Loans Company (SLC).
However, changes in the application process over time, including the transition to electronic applications and introduction of new products, systems and processes in line with the legislation, mean that data held for earlier cohorts is held differently across multiple SLC systems.
As a result, it is not currently possible to produce robust settled status data within the required timescales. The department and the SLC are undertaking work to improve the quality and consistency of data provided.
Once this work is complete, the department expects to be able to provide information in response to such questions.
The department is not able to provide the requested data on immigration status. The SLC does not hold immigration status data. Immigration status data is held by the Home Office and is used by the SLC as part of the assessment for loan eligibility. However, as the SLC does not hold immigration status data in their own systems, this breakdown cannot be provided.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the student loan outlay is by immigration status of the student cohort for the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department is not able to provide the requested data on settled status in the required timescale.
Settled status is a residency category, which is data held by the Student Loans Company (SLC).
However, changes in the application process over time, including the transition to electronic applications and introduction of new products, systems and processes in line with the legislation, mean that data held for earlier cohorts is held differently across multiple SLC systems.
As a result, it is not currently possible to produce robust settled status data within the required timescales. The department and the SLC are undertaking work to improve the quality and consistency of data provided.
Once this work is complete, the department expects to be able to provide information in response to such questions.
The department is not able to provide the requested data on immigration status. The SLC does not hold immigration status data. Immigration status data is held by the Home Office and is used by the SLC as part of the assessment for loan eligibility. However, as the SLC does not hold immigration status data in their own systems, this breakdown cannot be provided.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to HC Deb 9 March 2026, vol. 782 column 47, to which specific parliamentary votes was the Chancellor referring when she said opposition parties had voted against freezes in fuel duty.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As part of the debate on the “Middle East: Economic Update”, the Chancellor referred to votes relating to two Budgets, which included the policy decisions to extend the 5 pence per litre cut to fuel duty.
The 5p cut extensions have been legislated via Statutory Instrument. The primary legislative vehicle for Budget policy decisions is the Finance Bill. At second readings of the Finance Bills, the House debates the whole principle of each bill. For divisions on the second readings of the Finance Bills in 2024 and 2025, a number of opposition parties voted against, including the Conservatives.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the difference is between the 250,000 retail, hospitality and leisure businesses benefitting from business rates relief, as cited in answer to question UIN 904249, and the 750,000 businesses benefitting from the lower multiplier, as cited in answer to question UIN 111573.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
More properties will benefit from the new retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) multipliers because there is no cash cap, meaning all qualifying properties in an RHL chain will benefit.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding is allocated to the National Wealth Fund for each financial year from 2024-25 onward, broken down by capital spending allocations and financial transactions.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is capitalised with £27.8bn to make investments in support of the growth and clean energy missions. £10 billion of its capital is allocated for guarantees, £4 billion for local authority lending, and the rest is split between debt and equity.
HM Treasury has not made specific allocations of this capital to each financial year. The NWF has the target of committing all its capital by 2029/30.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the policy to write off 90% of local authority SEND debs will be funded.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This funding relates to money that has already been spent by local authorities. The effect of the decision referred to is to transfer the accounting for that historic spending from local to central government. Any impact will be reflected in the OBR’s upcoming forecast.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the cost of the additional business rates support for pubs will be funded.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
From April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget, ahead of their bills being frozen in real terms for a further two years. The cost of this support will not impact other sectors’ bills.
Final costings will be confirmed at a fiscal event in the usual way.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any of the spending included by the government in its calculation of spending 2.6% of GDP on NATO qualifying defence spending by 2027 includes financial transactions.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence's financial transactions support the retention of critical sovereign manufacturing capabilities and support our strategic objectives. As an integral part of the UK's national security they are included in the NATO qualifying defence spending figures.
Asked by: Mel Stride (Conservative - Central Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make it her policy to publish the total business rates receipts from all pubs for each financial year from 2023-24 to 2029-30.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Local Authorities do not report to Central Government how much business rates revenue they raise from different types of businesses. The Government therefore does not have this data to publish and nor did the previous Government.