Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will publish a breakdown of student loan recipients by nationality in each of the last five years.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

Attached is a table that breaks down unique students in receipt of tuition fee loans and/or student support scheme income contingent loans (such as maintenance loans) by nationality for the 2019/20 to 2023/24 academic years.

Nationality is an optional field for borrowers to fill out when they are applying for student finance, which is why the data contains ‘unknown’ records. The department has seen a downward trend in the number of ‘unknown’ records in recent years, which could be due to people moving towards digital rather than paper applications, as the digital application has a drop-down menu for nationality making it easier for applicants to select the relevant option.

Please note, when compared to published figures, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-support-for-higher-education-in-england-2024, total numbers of borrowers in receipt of tuition fee and maintenance loans will differ to this dataset as we are counting unique borrowers. Furthermore, the data is not fully static and data can be updated or re-categorised over time.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much has been written off for the treatment of chargeable overseas visitors in real terms since the National Health Services (Charges to Overseas Visitors) Regulations 2015 were introduced.

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

The Department publishes data on the income identified from chargeable overseas visitors in England in its Annual Report and Accounts. The consolidated NHS provider accounts published cash payments received in-year by the National Health Service from overseas visitors.

NHS charges can be recovered up to six years from the date of invoice, and therefore the amount recovered in a year does not necessarily mean it was identified in the same financial year. The Department does not hold information in the format requested regarding real terms data for written off debt.

The following table shows aggregate income identified and cash payments received between 2019-2024:

Source: The Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts and Consolidated NHS provider accounts.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, of the aggregate income identified for chargeable overseas visitors in financial year 2018-19 what (a) the total amount recovered for the subsequent six financial years is and (b) the total amount of aggregate income identified for that financial year that was written off is.

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

The Department publishes data on the income identified from chargeable overseas visitors in England in its Annual Report and Accounts. The consolidated NHS provider accounts published cash payments received in-year by the National Health Service from overseas visitors.

NHS charges can be recovered up to six years from the date of invoice, and therefore the amount recovered in a year does not necessarily mean it was identified in the same financial year. The Department does not hold information in the format requested regarding real terms data for written off debt.

The following table shows aggregate income identified and cash payments received between 2019-2024:

Source: The Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts and Consolidated NHS provider accounts.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the total cost to the public purse was of supporting the modernisation of the Albanian prison system.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

In addition to work to disrupt Organised Immigration Crime and address the long-term drivers of migration, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Home Office and the Ministry of Justice work together to enable the return of eligible Albanian foreign national offenders to serve the remainder of their sentence in Albania. As part of an arrangement signed under the previous government in 2023 to implement the 2021 Prisoner Transfer Agreement, £4.3 million was committed over three years to support the modernisation of the Albanian prison system. We are reviewing the operation of the Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania signed by the previous Government to understand how more prisoners can be sent back to serve their time in Albanian prisons. During 2024,1,610 Albanian FNOs were removed from England and Wales - the highest number of any nationality and up 7% from the previous year.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost to the public purse is of the Supervised Toothbrushing Programme.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Department is investing a total of £11.4 million in 2025/26. This includes £11 million to local authorities in England to implement supervised toothbrushing schemes.

£400,000 is being retained nationally to support development of implementation resources and evaluation. Funding for subsequent years will be determined through the Spending Review.

The programme has been launched in collaboration with Colgate-Palmolive who are providing 23 million free toothbrushes and toothpastes which will reach up to 600,000 children each year.

Every £1 spent on supervised toothbrushing is expected to save £3 in avoided treatment costs, amounting to over £34 million over the next five years that can instead be spent on treating other patients.

Tooth decay remains the most common reason for hospital admissions in children aged between five and nine years old. The costs to the National Health Service of hospital admissions for tooth extractions in children aged between zero and 19 years old have been estimated based on the latest NHS national cost collection data, which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/

The costs were £74.8 million for all tooth extractions and £45.8 million for decay-related tooth extractions in 2023/24.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the value was of student loans that were written off in 2024; and what this was as a proportion of all outstanding student loans.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The table below shows the amount that has been cancelled or written off during the most recent financial year, (2023/24) and the proportion that write offs or cancellations make out of the starting balance.

The reasons for cancelled or written off loans are the following: death of borrower, age of borrower, disability, trivial balances, losses through fraud, including phishing, and other.

Write-offs do not include trivial balance write-offs. Trivial balance write-offs occur if there is a +/- balance on an account of £25 or less and no contact can be established with the borrower. Customers can request for this to be reversed. In the context of these figures, these borrowers are considered fully repaid and are therefore not included. Cancellations involve the clearance of the remaining debt in line with the terms of the loan, for example, when reaching a specific age or becoming permanently disabled. Write-offs for bankruptcy, Individual Voluntary Arrangement or a trust deed, are no longer allowed against Student Loans balances. Any figures arise from retrospective clear up exercises.

These figures have been taken from Student Loans Company’s Student loans in England publication, which is updated in June each year. The publication, ‘Student loans in England: 2023 to 2024’ can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2023-to-2024.

Information on the 2024/25 financial year will be available in the June 2025 publication.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with the Food Standards Agency on the labelling of (a) halal and (b) kosher meat products in food outlets.

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

The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter and would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter, but we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.

It is for religious authorities to decide if meat is halal or kosher. A significant proportion of halal meat comes from animals that are stunned before slaughter. There are no regulations that require labelling of meat to include the method of slaughter, but where any information of this nature is provided it must be accurate and must not be misleading to the consumer. The Government respects religious freedoms and expects the industry, whether food producer or food outlet, to provide consumers with all the information they need to make informed choices.

A consultation on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory method of production labelling was undertaken last year by the previous government. The consultation sought views on options for the production standards behind the label. We are now carefully considering all responses before deciding on next steps.

The Department engages regularly with the Food Standards Agency on a range of topics.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to encourage (a) public institutions and (b) restaurants to label halal meat to consumers.

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

The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter and would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter, but we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.

It is for religious authorities to decide if meat is halal or kosher. A significant proportion of halal meat comes from animals that are stunned before slaughter. There are no regulations that require labelling of meat to include the method of slaughter, but where any information of this nature is provided it must be accurate and must not be misleading to the consumer. The Government respects religious freedoms and expects the industry, whether food producer or food outlet, to provide consumers with all the information they need to make informed choices.

A consultation on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory method of production labelling was undertaken last year by the previous government. The consultation sought views on options for the production standards behind the label. We are now carefully considering all responses before deciding on next steps.

The Department engages regularly with the Food Standards Agency on a range of topics.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will introduce mandatory labelling on meat products to indicate whether animals were stunned prior to slaughter.

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

The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter and would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter, but we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.

It is for religious authorities to decide if meat is halal or kosher. A significant proportion of halal meat comes from animals that are stunned before slaughter. There are no regulations that require labelling of meat to include the method of slaughter, but where any information of this nature is provided it must be accurate and must not be misleading to the consumer. The Government respects religious freedoms and expects the industry, whether food producer or food outlet, to provide consumers with all the information they need to make informed choices.

A consultation on proposals to improve and extend current mandatory method of production labelling was undertaken last year by the previous government. The consultation sought views on options for the production standards behind the label. We are now carefully considering all responses before deciding on next steps.

The Department engages regularly with the Food Standards Agency on a range of topics.

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 effectiveness of abattoirs in enforcing welfare standards during the production of halal meat.

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

The Government encourages the highest standards of animal welfare at slaughter and would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter, but we respect the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs. A significant proportion of halal meat comes from animals that are stunned before slaughter.

Legislation sets out strict requirements to protect the welfare of animals when slaughtered and there are additional rules that apply when animals are slaughtered by either the Jewish or Muslim method to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, suffering, or distress during the slaughter process. Official Veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are present in all approved slaughterhouses in England and Wales to monitor and enforce animal welfare requirements. The FSA has a zero-tolerance policy to animal welfare breaches and will take appropriate action where these occur.

In addition to the Official Veterinarian presence, the FSA conduct regular audits to ensure that the animal welfare controls in slaughterhouses are effective. The frequency of these audits are risk based and the results are communicated to Defra. The Department engages regularly with FSA officials on a range of animal welfare topics.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of medical school places are occupied by non-UK nationals.

Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is responsible for collecting and publishing data on the UK higher education sector. These data are shared with the department and include a wide range of information on students in UK higher education providers (HEPs), including their legal nationality.

In the 2022/23 academic year, there were 84,230 student enrolments in medicine and dentistry subjects at UK HEPs, of which 19,990 held a legal nationality other than British or dual-British nationality, representing 24.7% of those with known legal nationality.

Found: 14 _NC8 Jack Rankin Sarah Bool Ben Obese-Jecty Jim Shannon Sir Desmond Swayne Mary Glindon Rupert Lowe

Found: _NC8 Jack Rankin Sarah Bool Ben Obese-Jecty Jim Shannon Sir Desmond Swayne Mary Glindon Rupert Lowe