Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what national framework contractors have been appointed for flood management; and how and on what criteria they were appointed.

Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The information requested can be found in the attached document.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been deported (a) in total and (b) by nationality in each month since July 2024.

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

The Home Office routinely publishes data on returns in the “Immigration Systems Statistics” quarterly release. Data on quarterly returns of individuals since July 2024 can be found in table Ret_D01 of the “returns detailed datasets”. The latest data is for September 2024, with data up to December 2024 to be published on 27 February.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what contingency measures his Department has should negotiations with Jingye on the future of steel blast furnaces collapse.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government is in negotiations with British Steel’s shareholder regarding the company’s commercial plans to transition to productive and efficient methods of steel production.

As with any responsible Government, we continue to consider all possible outcomes, and we stand ready to support local workers and local communities as needed.

The steel industry declined more than 50% in the last decade because there was no strategy to protect and grow this strategically important sector. We are developing a Steel Strategy which we will publish in Spring 2025, and we have committed up to £2.5bn of investment to rebuild the UK steel industry.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of SEN pupils expected to transition to the state sector as a result of the introduction of VAT on independent school fees and (b) the cost to the state education system of those children moving from private to state schools.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) is responsible for VAT policy. HMT has published its assessment of the impacts of removing the VAT exemption that applied to private school fees, which can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/ac8c20ce-4824-462d-b206-26a567724643#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.

This overall assessment considers special educational needs and disability (SEND) but does not provide a separate assessment broken down by SEND.

Overall, the government predicts that, in the long-term steady state, there will be 37,000 fewer pupils in the private sector in the UK as a result of the removal of the VAT exemption applied to school fees. This represents around 6% of the current private school population. This movement is expected to take place over several years, and most moves will occur at natural transition points. Of this number, the government estimates an increase of 35,000 pupils in the state sector in the long-term steady state, with the other 2,000 consisting of international pupils who do not move into the UK state system, and domestic pupils moving into homeschooling. This state sector increase represents less than 0.5% of total UK state school pupils, of which there are over nine million.

The government expects the revenue costs of pupils entering the state sector in England to steadily increase to a peak of around £0.3 billion per annum after several years. However, the government expects to raise around £1.8 billion per annum by 2029/30 from this VAT policy and from removing private schools’ eligibility for business rates charitable rate relief.

Longer term impacts on those who move schools may be lessened by revenue raised by this measure being used to help the 94% of children who attend state schools.

It is important to note that pupils who need a local authority-funded place in a private school will not be impacted by the changes. The majority of pupils who have special educational needs (SEN) are educated in mainstream schools, whether state-maintained or private, where their needs are met. The overwhelming majority attend state schools. To protect pupils with SEN that can only be met in a private school, local authorities that fund these places are able to reclaim the VAT they are charged on those pupils’ fees.

The department supports local authorities to provide suitable school places for children and young people with SEND through annual high needs capital funding. This can be used to deliver new places in mainstream and special schools, as well as other specialist settings. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the government announced a £2.3 billion increase to the core schools' budget in 2025/26, increasing per pupil funding in real terms. This included a £1 billion uplift to high needs funding in 2025/26, providing additional support for the more than one million children in the state sector with SEND.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many first-cousin marriages were recorded in each of the last three years, broken down by the nationalities of the parties involved.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

This information is not collected or held.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of long-term health concerns associated with the use of 3-Nitrooxypropanol in cattle feed.

Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

3-Nitrooxypropanol is the active ingredient in a methane suppressing feed product commercially known as Bovaer.

The Food Standards Agency has advised milk from cows given Bovaer, an authorised feed additive used to reduce methane emissions, is safe to drink. Bovaer has undergone a rigorous safety assessment and is approved for use in Great Britain.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many birth defects were reported among children born to couples who are first cousins in each of the last three years, broken down by the nationality of the parents.

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

The Government does not hold this data. We continue to work with the National Health Service as it delivers its three-year maternity and neonatal plan to grow our maternity workforce, develop a culture of safety, and ensure that women and babies receive safe, personalised, and compassionate care.

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