Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, with reference to his answer to question 106583, if he will publish a breakdown of the £2bn in capital spending by his Department in 2024-25 in rows 2578, 2579, 9185 and 9197 of the OSCAR Annual Data 2024-5 (Outturn) spreadsheet, under the PESA Economic Group Codes (a) Capital Support for Local Government (net), (b) Capital Support for Public Corporations, (c) Capital Grants to Private Sector Companies (net) and (d) Capital Support for Public Corporations.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It is not possible to provide a breakdown for individual rows within the dataset due to the way the OSCAR system shows monthly data collected during the year from departmental management accounts on a separate line to adjustments made at year-end to align final outturn with the published annual report and accounts.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the operation of the household benefit cap relies on manual administration; and how many people in his Department work on its administration.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The benefit cap is calculated automatically as part of the UC calculation on the UC administrative system and no manual processing is involved. A small number of households (340, as of August 2025) are capped via Housing Benefit (HB). The calculations relating to these capping decisions are completed by 1.6 FTE staff in post (SIP) within the department.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people started apprenticeships who were aged a) 16, b) 17, c) 18, d) 19, e) 20, f) 21, g) 22, h) 23, i) 24 in each year since 2017-18.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Apprenticeship starts in England for the individual ages requested are available in the accompanying file.
Further information on apprenticeship starts can be found in the department’s apprenticeships statistics publication, which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the (a) number of staff and (b) operating expenditure have increased at the Animal Plant Health Agency since April 2017.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The increase in expenditure is mainly due to variable costs for the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s (APHA) response to exotic disease outbreaks, principally avian influenza.
When the UK left the EU, staff and costs increased in APHA to resource additional trade and border responsibilities including the management of Sevington which transferred from Defra to APHA in 2025.
APHA required additional operational resource to support the introduction of the new ‘green lane’ schemes, as part of the Windsor Framework in 2023, to simplify requirements for moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the (a) number of staff and (b) and operating expenditure have increased at the Environment Agency since April 2017.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The increase in both staffing levels and operating expenditure at the Environment Agency since April 2017 reflects the expansion of its responsibilities, operational activity, and its role in supporting the Government’s growth agenda. Staff numbers have grown to support increased flood and coastal erosion risk management, strengthened environmental regulation and enforcement, and delivery of additional functions following EU Exit.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his answer of 28 January 2026 to Question 107450, if he will publish a breakdown of the administration and programme expenditure for 2024/5 in the categories of "Subsidies to private sector companies" and "Current grants to persons and non-profit (net)".
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The requested breakdowns are below:
CURRENT GRANTS TO PERSONS AND NON-PROFIT (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) | 180,149 | - | 180,149 |
Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) | 68,688 | 116 | 68,804 |
Citizens Advice | - | 42,317 | 42,317 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 26,044 | 1,915 | 27,959 |
Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) | 24,356 | 531 | 24,887 |
Help to Grow | - | 20,913 | 20,913 |
Consumer advocacy for Energy, Post and cross-sector | - | 19,502 | 19,502 |
National Trading Standards (NTS) | - | 12,518 | 12,518 |
Global Centre of Rail Excellence | 6,865 | - | 6,865 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 3,000 | 2,651 | 5,651 |
Music Export Growth Scheme | - | 2,983 | 2,983 |
Materials Processing Institute | 2,042 | - | 2,042 |
The British Standards Institution | - | 1,896 | 1,896 |
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities | - | 1,301 | 1,301 |
Other | 2,053 | 6,480 | 8,533 |
| 313,197 | 113,123 | 426,320 |
SUBSIDIES TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Energy Intensive Industries (EII) Compensation Scheme | - | 141,679 | 141,679 |
Postmaster Horizon redress-Suspension Renumeration Review-Provision utilisation | - | 8,979 | 8,979 |
Other | - | 23 | 23 |
| - | 150,681 | 150,681 |
CAPITAL GRANTS TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Movement on financial guarantee liabilities-Growth Guarantee Scheme | 62,332 | - | 62,332 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 34,766 | - | 34,766 |
Steel infrastructure | 15,263 | - | 15,263 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 7,930 | - | 7,930 |
Called financial guarantees-Enterprise Financial Guarantee Scheme | 6,099 | - | 6,099 |
| 126,390 | - | 126,390 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his answer of 28 January 2026 Question 107135, if he will publish a breakdown of the £126m in CDEL outturn for 2024/5 in the category of "Capital grants to private sector companies (net)".
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The requested breakdowns are below:
CURRENT GRANTS TO PERSONS AND NON-PROFIT (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) | 180,149 | - | 180,149 |
Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) | 68,688 | 116 | 68,804 |
Citizens Advice | - | 42,317 | 42,317 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 26,044 | 1,915 | 27,959 |
Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) | 24,356 | 531 | 24,887 |
Help to Grow | - | 20,913 | 20,913 |
Consumer advocacy for Energy, Post and cross-sector | - | 19,502 | 19,502 |
National Trading Standards (NTS) | - | 12,518 | 12,518 |
Global Centre of Rail Excellence | 6,865 | - | 6,865 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 3,000 | 2,651 | 5,651 |
Music Export Growth Scheme | - | 2,983 | 2,983 |
Materials Processing Institute | 2,042 | - | 2,042 |
The British Standards Institution | - | 1,896 | 1,896 |
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities | - | 1,301 | 1,301 |
Other | 2,053 | 6,480 | 8,533 |
| 313,197 | 113,123 | 426,320 |
SUBSIDIES TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Energy Intensive Industries (EII) Compensation Scheme | - | 141,679 | 141,679 |
Postmaster Horizon redress-Suspension Renumeration Review-Provision utilisation | - | 8,979 | 8,979 |
Other | - | 23 | 23 |
| - | 150,681 | 150,681 |
CAPITAL GRANTS TO PRIVATE SECTOR COMPANIES (NET)
Description | Capital DEL (£000) | Resource DEL (Programme) (£000) | Total (£000) |
Movement on financial guarantee liabilities-Growth Guarantee Scheme | 62,332 | - | 62,332 |
Exceptional Regional Growth Fund (eRGF) | 34,766 | - | 34,766 |
Steel infrastructure | 15,263 | - | 15,263 |
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) | 7,930 | - | 7,930 |
Called financial guarantees-Enterprise Financial Guarantee Scheme | 6,099 | - | 6,099 |
| 126,390 | - | 126,390 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Answer of 12 January 2026 to WPQ 101070, of the over 100,000 people that the Government estimates could benefit from mobility and partnership opportunities from Erasmus+ participation in 2027-8, how many he expects to be UK students.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Erasmus+ is open to learners, trainees and staff in higher education, further education, vocational education and training, schools, adult education, youth programmes and sport programmes. The department will have detailed information on the UK’s Erasmus+ beneficiaries after our first year of participation.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) convicted for a violence against the person offence and b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by year of conviction and number of previous occassions the offender has been convicted for a violence against the person offence.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is provided in the attached excel tables. These tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on the number of offenders who were convicted of a specified offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions for that specified offence.
This data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent judiciary. When deciding what sentence to impose, courts must consider the circumstances of the case, including the culpability of the offender, the harm they caused or intended to cause, and any aggravating and mitigating factors, in line with any relevant sentencing guidelines, developed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) convicted for burglary and b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by year of conviction and number of previous occasions the offender has been convicted for burglary.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is provided in the attached excel tables. These tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on the number of offenders who were convicted of a specified offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions for that specified offence.
This data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent judiciary. When deciding what sentence to impose, courts must consider the circumstances of the case, including the culpability of the offender, the harm they caused or intended to cause, and any aggravating and mitigating factors, in line with any relevant sentencing guidelines, developed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.