Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Education to recruit young people into the armed forces.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

Cross-Departmental engagement is at the heart of delivering our mission-based Government, particularly where more support can be offered to enhance the delivery of Gatsby Benchmarks which serve as a framework for world-class careers provision in education.

The Armed Forces enjoy good relationships with schools, primarily in terms of engagement to support Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths curriculum areas but also in careers engagement. The Armed Forces only visit schools when invited to do so, usually in support of career events, citizenship talks, science and maths challenges and other exercises.

The Armed Forces do not target recruitment activity at under-16s, and no visits to schools by the Armed Forces are directly linked to recruitment, other than careers fairs which generally involve a range of employers. Presentations may be given highlighting Armed Forces careers, but no pupil is ever signed up or able to make a commitment to become a recruit during the course of a visit.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Albanian nationals have been deported in 2024; and whether any individuals deported in 2024 have since re-entered the UK.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)

Available statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders (FNOs) and their nationality are published on a quarterly basis in the Returns Detailed Datasets, which are available at: Immigration system statistics quarterly release - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The next update will be published on 28 November 2024.

Any foreign national who enters the UK in breach of a deportation order will be returned to custody to finish the remainder of their custodial sentence. Entering in breach of a deportation order is a criminal offence under section 24(1)(a) of the 1971 Act, with a maximum sentence of five years.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans the Government has for civil service (a) headcount levels and (b) budgets for the next five years.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

This government is committed to ensuring departments consider overall value for money in resourcing decisions.

To this end it has introduced a 2% target for reduction to administration budgets in financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26 and a stop to all non-essential spending on consultancy, with an aim to halve spending in future years.

As set out in the Budget, the government has committed to developing a long-term strategic plan for a more efficient and effective Civil Service, including bold options to improve skills, harness digital technology and drive better outcomes for public services.

Decisions relating to the size and cost of the Civil Service workforce will be considered as part of the Spending Review process. HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office will work closely with departments to develop plans that achieve the government’s reform objectives for the Civil Service.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS employees' contracts of employment were terminated for underperformance in each year since 2020.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

NHS England publish monthly statistics detailing information on National Health Service staff recorded within the Electronic Staff Record, the human resource system for the NHS. Each quarter, these statistics include data on ‘reasons for leaving’, where these have been recorded upon a member of staff leaving or moving employment. The published data is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-workforce-statistics

The attached table summarises the published information, providing details for 2011/12 to 2023/24 of the total number of assignments of NHS staff where a reason for leaving is recorded. Within the total number, the number recorded against the four categories available to define dismissals are also presented. We believe the category ‘dismissal – capability’ is the best proxy for the data requested.

Data is presented from 2011/12 as we know the pattern of staff leaving or moving roles in the NHS was impacted in 2020/21 and 2021/22 by the pandemic and so comparison with pre-pandemic levels is appropriate.

Any interpretation of data should be made with the understanding that not all assignments that finish in the NHS result in a ‘reason for leaving’ being recorded. Therefore, the data presented can be viewed as a minimum number of leavers in any giving category. From analysis of the records of staff who leave NHS employment entirely it is estimated around one third of leavers do not have a reason recorded. There is no data available to confirm the completeness of recording of reasons around dismissals.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many employee settlement agreements there were within the civil service in each year since 2020; and what the total value of such agreements was.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Full information on the use of settlement agreements is held by individual departments.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the time taken to (a) recruit and (b) train 3,000 additional staff in fraud and error.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Currently the time taken from the job advert being created to the individual being onboarded is between 7 to 20 weeks. Training time varies by function with the majority of new staff needing three to six months to fully consolidate learning, whereas special investigator roles can require up to 18 months – although these only make up a small proportion of the 3,000 specified.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a Pension Credit uptake target.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to ensuring that older people receive the support they are entitled to. That’s why we have been running a nationwide communications campaign to promote Pension Credit since September. The latest phase of the campaign takes a new approach targeting friends and family - asking them to tell people they know about Pension Credit, encourage them to check their eligibility, as well as help them make a claim. It is running on TV, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube and on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens.

As part of our wider stakeholder outreach campaign and in order to get the message out through as many channels as possible, we have engaged with key stakeholders and partners, including other government departments, local councils, housing associations, community groups, local libraries and service providers as well as charities and third sector organisations.

We have also directly targeted 120,000 pensioner households in receipt of Housing Benefit, identified as being potentially entitled to, but not currently claiming, Pension Credit.

We do not believe that setting targets for take-up of Pension Credit would be helpful or that they would work. However, we have committed to bringing together the administration of Pension Credit and pensioner Housing Benefit for new claimants as soon as operationally possible in order to ensure pensioners receive all the benefits to which they are entitled

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how long it takes to train a new staff member to process pension credit applications.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The current training for staff on Pension Credit New Claims is 10 days. The training includes focus on the steps to process an application, with more activities to help with engagement and understanding. The training has been designed using experience, advice, observations, and feedback from a wide range of stakeholders.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the cost of hiring 3,000 additional staff in fraud and error.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

His Majesty’s Treasury allocated DWP £110m to deliver on the fraud, error and debt Autumn Budget measures over the next financial year. As part of this, the Department is hiring an additional 3,000 staff to expand DWP’s Fraud, Error and Debt (FED) operations.

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