Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many staff in her Department have permission to work remotely outside the UK; and in which countries those staff are based.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

In line with wider Government policy, the Department policy allows spouses of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office officials to work abroad when their spouses have been posted overseas. The Department allows working abroad when officials are overseas on official business, typically to support Ministers.

If there is a clear business need, the Department allows officials to take equipment abroad to keep in touch whilst on leave. The Department also allows working overseas for up to two weeks for exceptional welfare reasons

The numbers of staff with equipment oversees varies during the year. On 9 July, seven officials were working overseas on official business in Italy. 10 officials had equipment overseas allowing them to work if there was a need to keep in touch in, variously, Belgium, Bulgaria, France (three), Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America (three).

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what proportion of departmental procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the 2024-2025 financial year.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero awarded 98.5% of its contracts to British Companies.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of departmental procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023 above £12,000 inc VAT are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service. This includes a note of the winning supplier. (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search).

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of procurement contracts were awarded to UK companies in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023 above £12,000 inc VAT are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service. This includes a note of the winning supplier. (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search).

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of departmental procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the last financial year.

Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

In the financial year 2024-25, the Department awarded 274 contracts, 239 (87.2%) of which were to UK companies.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of procurement contracts were awarded to UK companies in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)

The requested information is not held in a reportable format. To provide this information would require a manual review of contract records, which could only be done for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many and what proportion of departmental procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the last financial year.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder).

Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023 above £12,000 inc VAT are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service. This includes a note of the winning supplier. (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search).

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology awarded 95% of its contracts to British Companies.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of her Department's procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the last financial year.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Contracts are awarded in compliance with the relevant public procurement regulations to ensure value for money, and most go to UK firms.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information her Department holds on the proportion of local authorities that conduct (a) in-person interviews and (b) English language testing before issuing (i) taxi and (ii) private hire vehicle licences.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Policing and Crime Act 2017 enables the Secretary of State for Transport to issue statutory guidance to licensing authorities on exercising their taxi and private hire vehicle licensing functions to protect children and vulnerable adults. Statutory guidance was published in 2020 under these powers. This statutory guidance includes a recommendation that a licensing authority’s test of a driver’s English language proficiency should cover both oral and written English language skills to ensure that drivers have the ability to understand written documents, such as policies and guidance, relating to the protection of children and vulnerable adults and can identify and act on the signs of potential exploitation.

As of 1 April 2024, 81% of licensing authorities in England reported that they require the taxi drivers that they license to meet a minimum standard of proficiency for either written, oral or both written and oral English language. As of 1 April 2024, 82% of licensing authorities in England reported that they require the private hire vehicle drivers that they license to meet a minimum standard of proficiency for either written, oral or both written and oral English language. We are currently reviewing licensing authorities’ compliance with existing guidance and will hold those who do not follow it to account.

The Department does not hold any information about whether licensing authorities conduct in-person interviews for applicants for taxi or private hire vehicle driver licences.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of departmental procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the last financial year.

Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

From April 1st 2024, to March 31st 2025, a total of 135 agreements were executed. Out of these, 131 contracts were awarded to British companies, which equates to approximately 97% of contracts.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses have had a turnover below the VAT threshold in each of the past five years.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The total number of businesses in 2024 is estimated at 5.6 million (see Business population estimates 2024 - GOV.UK, detailed table 2). According to HMRC statistics, there were around 1.3 million business registered for VAT with turnover above the threshold in 2023-34 (see Value Added Tax (VAT) annual statistics - GOV.UK, Table T5). Thus the number of businesses with turnover below the threshold would be approximately the remainder of the 5.6 million, or 4.3 million.

It should be noted that some businesses with turnover below the threshold are voluntarily registered for VAT; there were around 0.9 million such businesses in 2023-24.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much of the funds raised through the apprenticeship levy was allocated directly to apprenticeships; and how much was redirected to general government revenue in each of the last ten financial years.

Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Apprenticeship Levy was introduced in 2017, and is paid by large employers with a total annual pay bill of over £3 million. Their contribution is 0.5% of their total annual pay bill.

HMT sets the Department for Education’s budget at each Spending Review. The apprenticeship budget funds all apprenticeship training in England – both existing and new apprenticeships – across all employers.

Underspends are returned to HMT as per the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance.

While the Apprenticeship Levy is raised UK wide, apprenticeship policy and spending is devolved. This means that the devolved governments receive funding through the Barnett formula in relation to apprenticeship spending in England, with the formula applying in the normal way, as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy, when the Department for Education’s budgets change. As set out in the Policy, the Barnett formula applies to overall changes in DfE’s settlement at Spending Reviews. This means it is not possible to identify the Barnett consequentials for individual programmes. It is the devolved governments’ responsibility to allocate their funding in devolved areas as they see fit, including investing in their skills programmes, and they are accountable to the devolved legislatures for those decisions.

The table below sets out the apprenticeship budget in relation to Levy receipts once Barnett consequentials are accounted for. This is an indicative profile based on a population-based share, rounded to the nearest £5 million.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of departmental procurement contracts were awarded to British companies in the last financial year.

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

There were 508 contracts awarded by Defra as the contract owner in financial year 2024/25 – 500 are to UK-based suppliers, which equates to 98.43% and excludes purchase orders raised for Defra below threshold.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether (a) migrants and (b) asylum seekers are checked for associations with Islamist terror organisations.

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

The first priority of Government is protecting national security and protecting UK citizens from terrorism. It would not be appropriate to comment in detail on operational security matters or specific cases but the Home Office uses various tools to detect and disrupt travel by those posing a national security risk, and all applications for UK immigration status, including asylum claims, are subject to comprehensive security checks.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her policy to allow people with pending deportation orders to change their name.

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

I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave him to Question 58408.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason new claimants from (a) Israel and (b) the Occupied Palestinian Territories will be exempt from the Habitual Residence Test for Universal Credit.

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

Given the circumstances in which British nationals and their eligible families have urgently travelled to the UK following the Government’s evacuations, DWP want to ensure that those arriving can access benefits as soon as possible (where they meet all other eligibility requirements).

This does not enable DWP to pay benefits to anyone who does not already have an underlying entitlement to benefits. For those who are not British or Irish citizens, they must have a valid immigration status that provides recourse to public funds to access benefits, on top of meeting other benefit-specific eligibility criteria.

More detail can be found in the explanatory memorandum for this amendment: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/884/memorandum/contents.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of sex offenders serving a custodial sentence in prison are foreign nationals, broken down by nationality.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, we are unable to provide the requested information at this time, as doing so would disclose a subset of data which is currently intended for future publication by the Ministry of Justice.

Data on the number of Foreign National Offenders in prison by offence group is due for publication on 31 July 2025 in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what guidance she has issued to (a) work coaches and (b) case managers on processing claims for new claimants from (i) Israel and (ii) the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

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

Guidance for DWP staff making benefit decisions is available on gov.uk. Specific guidance on new customers arriving in the UK from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories will be published in the usual way.

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