Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 99790 on Free Schools, if she will make it her policy to undertake a new assessment against the (a) selection criteria and (b) geographical context on Swift Academy.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The criteria for the mainstream free schools pipeline review were set out in the Written Ministerial Statement laid on 22 October 2024. The department assessed the local need for school places, value for money and whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.

The department has offered feedback to local authorities, trusts and MPs with a related pipeline free school project.

We keep all pipeline projects under review to ensure that they meet a need for places and represent value for public money. This includes the use of annually published pupil place planning data, which informs ministerial decision‑making.

In 2016, the previous government ran a central free school programme application wave, which was open to all trusts to submit proposals for new free schools. All applications received were assessed against the published selection criteria in the How To Apply Guidance.

Local consultation is also undertaken prior to the opening of any new free school, enabling residents and other interested parties to provide their views on the proposal.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 99790 on Free Schools, which trusts her Department invited in 2016.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The criteria for the mainstream free schools pipeline review were set out in the Written Ministerial Statement laid on 22 October 2024. The department assessed the local need for school places, value for money and whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.

The department has offered feedback to local authorities, trusts and MPs with a related pipeline free school project.

We keep all pipeline projects under review to ensure that they meet a need for places and represent value for public money. This includes the use of annually published pupil place planning data, which informs ministerial decision‑making.

In 2016, the previous government ran a central free school programme application wave, which was open to all trusts to submit proposals for new free schools. All applications received were assessed against the published selection criteria in the How To Apply Guidance.

Local consultation is also undertaken prior to the opening of any new free school, enabling residents and other interested parties to provide their views on the proposal.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 99790 on Free Schools, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the surplus of school places in Walsall and Bloxwich constituency on the decision whether to proceed with the Swift Academy.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The criteria for the mainstream free schools pipeline review were set out in the Written Ministerial Statement laid on 22 October 2024. The department assessed the local need for school places, value for money and whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.

The department has offered feedback to local authorities, trusts and MPs with a related pipeline free school project.

We keep all pipeline projects under review to ensure that they meet a need for places and represent value for public money. This includes the use of annually published pupil place planning data, which informs ministerial decision‑making.

In 2016, the previous government ran a central free school programme application wave, which was open to all trusts to submit proposals for new free schools. All applications received were assessed against the published selection criteria in the How To Apply Guidance.

Local consultation is also undertaken prior to the opening of any new free school, enabling residents and other interested parties to provide their views on the proposal.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 99790 on Free Schools, what steps her Department is taking to assess the (a) need for places and (b) value for money of the Swift Academy; and if she will publish that assessment.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The criteria for the mainstream free schools pipeline review were set out in the Written Ministerial Statement laid on 22 October 2024. The department assessed the local need for school places, value for money and whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.

The department has offered feedback to local authorities, trusts and MPs with a related pipeline free school project.

We keep all pipeline projects under review to ensure that they meet a need for places and represent value for public money. This includes the use of annually published pupil place planning data, which informs ministerial decision‑making.

In 2016, the previous government ran a central free school programme application wave, which was open to all trusts to submit proposals for new free schools. All applications received were assessed against the published selection criteria in the How To Apply Guidance.

Local consultation is also undertaken prior to the opening of any new free school, enabling residents and other interested parties to provide their views on the proposal.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 99790 on Free Schools, if she will publish the criteria used to determine which free schools should be proceeded with.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The criteria for the mainstream free schools pipeline review were set out in the Written Ministerial Statement laid on 22 October 2024. The department assessed the local need for school places, value for money and whether projects would provide a distinctive local offer or risk negatively impacting other local schools.

The department has offered feedback to local authorities, trusts and MPs with a related pipeline free school project.

We keep all pipeline projects under review to ensure that they meet a need for places and represent value for public money. This includes the use of annually published pupil place planning data, which informs ministerial decision‑making.

In 2016, the previous government ran a central free school programme application wave, which was open to all trusts to submit proposals for new free schools. All applications received were assessed against the published selection criteria in the How To Apply Guidance.

Local consultation is also undertaken prior to the opening of any new free school, enabling residents and other interested parties to provide their views on the proposal.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has assessed the potential impact of the proposed changes to business rates on small independent bookshops.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.

To respond to those who are seeing large increases, Government has already acted to limit increases in bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion package at the Budget.

The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.

The Government published information on the effects of the changes to business rates made at Budget 2025 here: Effects of the business rates retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers and high-value multiplier - GOV.UK

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2026 to Question 99790 on Free Schools, how much funding her Department has provided to Swift Academy in each financial year since 2016-17.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The department provides and retains responsibility for capital funding for the acquisition of sites/land and construction of free schools. A site has not yet been acquired for this project. When a site is secured, details and costs of the acquisition will be set out on the Land Registry website. We also publish details and costs for all free school construction contracts on Contracts Finder.

The department also provides revenue funding (via project development grants) directly to proposers to cover essential non-capital costs prior to each school opening. A one-off project development grant of £30,000 was paid to the trust in July 2017 following the approval of the project.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to outline funding arrangements for the Oak National Academy in 2026-2029.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is providing grant-in-aid of up to a maximum of £17.412 million for Oak National Academy (Oak) for financial year 2025/26. The level of funding for Oak for financial years 2026/27 to 2027/28, as with other programmes, will be confirmed through the department’s business planning process. Funding from 2028/29 onward will be subject to the 2027 Spending Review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the funding for the Oak Academy is in the 2025-2026 financial year.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

The department is providing grant-in-aid of up to a maximum of £17.412 million for Oak National Academy (Oak) for financial year 2025/26. The level of funding for Oak for financial years 2026/27 to 2027/28, as with other programmes, will be confirmed through the department’s business planning process. Funding from 2028/29 onward will be subject to the 2027 Spending Review.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proposed changes to the retail business rates multiplier on the non-domestic rating valuation of different retail property types.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year, and will benefit over 750,000 properties.

We are paying for this through higher rates on the top one per cent of most expensive properties. This includes many large distribution warehouses, such as those used by online giants. The high value multiplier is 33% more than the multiplier for small RHL properties.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many students have claimed asylum (a) while studying in the UK and (b) after completing their studies in each of the last three years.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of people claiming asylum after holding a study visa as their most recent category of leave prior to claiming asylum is published in table Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2025. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.

There is no published breakdown available on whether an individual claimed asylum before or after their visa expired.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints she has received on the new electronic visa system.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office has received 1888 complaints about the electronic visa system from 1 July 2024 when it first categorised this issue to 31 January 2026.

This comprises 1785 Stage 1 and 103 Stage 2 complaints.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visitors from (a) India, (b) Pakistan, (c) Bangladesh and (d) Nepal were refused visas in 2024.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa route, including Visitor visas, and nationality in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on visa applications refused are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of September 2025.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will make a statement on the recent ministerial visit to Yemen.

Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

I updated the House on my visit to Yemen in November in my oral statement on 5 January, and my responses to oral questions on 20 January.

British couple detained in Iran

Marking the 60th anniversary of the University of the Air White Paper

UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons

Support for early years and the National Literacy Trust