Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government plans to change the law or guidance around Freedom of Information requests.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to Freedom of Information (“FOI”) and continues to monitor the performance and implementation of the FOI Act to ensure it is operating as intended by Parliament.
Any changes to FOI legislation will be subject to Parliamentary scrutiny.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to sheet Ret_04 of the data release entitled 'Returns summary tables, year ending December 2025', updated on 26 February 2026, if she will publish a further breakdown of the nationalities currently grouped under "Other” for asylum-related returns in 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
As you are aware, the Home Office publishes statistics on the number of returns from the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. The latest data on returns from the UK, by nationality and asylum and non-asylum is published in table Ret_04 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The latest data goes up to the end of December 2025.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum-related returns there were in 2025 for people from (a) Bangladesh, (b) Afghanistan, (c) Iran and (d) Sri Lanka.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
As you are aware, the Home Office publishes statistics on the number of returns from the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. The latest data on returns from the UK, by nationality and asylum and non-asylum is published in table Ret_04 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The latest data goes up to the end of December 2025.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
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, of the households exempt from the Benefit Cap due to receipt of the Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity (LCWRA) element of Universal Credit, how many contain a second working age adult who is not in receipt of LCWRA.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the estimated capital cost for a new prison place in England and Wales, broken down into categories A, B, C and D.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As set out in the 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, we are committed to delivering an additional 14,000 prison places and aim to do so by 2031. Our build programme consists of the construction of four new prisons, including HMP Millsike, as well as the expansion and refurbishment of the existing estate. These places are being delivered at category B, C and D sites and therefore no cost estimate has been made for category A places.
As per the ‘Independent Review of Prison Capacity’ (published in August 2025) as of March 2025, the updated capital cost per place for the remainder of the 14,000 additional prison places is £600,000 (in 2025/26 prices). Due to commercial sensitivities, this figure cannot be broken down any further.
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, how much was spent on the housing element of UC in each region and local authority in 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information about the amount of Universal Credit Housing Element expenditure is available by country and financial year here: Benefit expenditure and caseload tables 2025 - GOV.UK (see the ‘Housing_Benefits’ tab). However, information about Universal Credit Housing Element expenditure by region and local authority for 2025 is not available and to produce this would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national offenders in the UK are currently living in the community while liable for deportation after completing prison sentences.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Latest published information shows that at the end of Q4 2025 there were 19,470 foreign national offenders (FNOs) living in the community having completed their custodial sentences and subject to deportation or administrative removal. The published information can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK.
Any FNO convicted of a crime who receives a custodial sentence in the UK is referred to the Home Office for deportation consideration following sentencing. We are focussing resource on those cases currently serving custodial sentences to maximise removals directly from prison.
Where removal is not immediately possible, electronic monitoring can be used to manage FNOs.
We will pursue deportation action against individuals living in the community rigorously, actively monitoring and managing cases through the legal process and negotiating barriers to removal.
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, what was the average number of Working Days Lost per staff year was in each jobcentre in the most recent year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please see link to published Average Working Days Lost figures: Civil Service sickness absence, 2025: report - GOV.UK.
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, with reference to SOPS 1.1. in the Department's 2020-21 Annual Report, if she will publish a breakdown of the £2,402,602 in gross spend on Programme Resource Outturn in A: Operational Delivery in 2020-21.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please see attached.
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, with reference to SOPS 1.1 in the Department's 2024-25 Annual Report, if she will publish a breakdown of the £1,030,869,000 in gross spend on Programme Resource Outturn in H: Other Benefits in 2024-25; and for what reasons that figure has increased from £343,956,000 in the equivalent SOPS 1.1 table in the 2020-21 Annual Report of the Department.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Please see attached Annex.
We can confirm that the increase in recent years compared to 2020-21 is primarily due to the Household Support Fund. The Household Support Fund came in October of 2021 so is not included in the 2020-21 ARA.