Asked by: David Reed (Conservative - Exmouth and Exeter East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the long-term fiscal impact of replacing RPI with CPI for Plan 2 student loan interest.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Interest rates on student loans have been consistently linked to a widely recognised and adopted measure of inflation. Interest rates are set in legislation in reference to the Retail Price Index (RPI) (from the previous March) and are applied annually on 1 September until 31 August.
The Office for National Statistics has undertaken a substantial programme of work over the past two years to enhance how inflation is measured and this will be carried over into student loans. The Office for Budget Responsibility has confirmed that from 2030 (at the earliest), movements in RPI will be aligned with Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers' housing costs as viewed here: https://obr.uk/box/the-long-run-difference-between-rpi-and-cpi-inflation/.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the consistency of current policy to count the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) reserves towards the Public Sector Net Fiscal Liability with the statutory purposes of the Pensions Act 2004; and whether they have sought legal advice on whether treating PPF assets as part of the public sector balance sheet for fiscal rule purposes is compatible with the statutory framework.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Office for National Statistics (ONE) is the independent body responsible for economic classification decisions in the UK. Following international statistical guidance, the ONS has classified the PPF as a public pension fund, while the levies to fund the PPF are classified as taxes.
The way the PPF Board’s assets and liabilities are treated within the public finances does not affect the legal separation of the property of the Crown and Board as set out in the Pensions Act 2004.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what representations they have made, if any, to the Office for National Statistics about the classification of Pension Protection Fund assets.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Office for National Statistics (ONE) is the independent body responsible for economic classification decisions in the UK. Following international statistical guidance, the ONS has classified the PPF as a public pension fund, while the levies to fund the PPF are classified as taxes.
The way the PPF Board’s assets and liabilities are treated within the public finances does not affect the legal separation of the property of the Crown and Board as set out in the Pensions Act 2004.
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, and what data they have collected, on the rate of the development of long covid among children and adults of working age.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The most recent data from the Winter COVID-19 Infection Study, a joint study carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK Health Security Agency, show that, for the period 6 February 2024 to 7 March 2024, an estimated 1,140,000 people, or 1.9% of the population, in private households in England and Scotland, reported experiencing long COVID symptoms more than twelve weeks after a COVID-19 infection. This includes 66,000 people aged three to 17 years old, and 840,000 people aged 18 to 64 years old.
Data for the four-week period ending 5 March 2023 from the Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK ONS dataset shows that the estimated number of people living in private households in the United Kingdom with self-reported long COVID who first had, or suspected they had, COVID-19 at least 12 weeks previously, was 1.7 million. This includes 59,000 people aged from two to 16 years old, and 1.5 million people aged 17 to 69 years old.
Data for the four-week period ending 5 March 2022 from the Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK ONS dataset shows that the estimated number of people living in UK private households with self-reported long COVID who first had, or suspected they had, COVID-19 at least 12 weeks previously, was 1.2 million. This includes 99,000 people aged from two to 16 years old, and one million people aged 17 to 69 years old.
Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what consideration he has given to publishing annual data on suicides among armed forces veterans.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Any suicide is a tragedy and is one too many. Our thoughts remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those affected.
In 2024, for the first time ever, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published annual suicide rates (year 2021) for the veteran population in England and Wales using Census 2021 and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Service Leaver Database (SLD). This analysis was conducted based on a collaboration between ONS and the MOD.
The Government is committed to developing annual statistics for publication, which will provide a clearer picture of the issue and help inform targeted interventions to improve mental health support for veterans.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of local highways maintenance funding allocated by her Department has been received by predominantly rural local authorities in each of the last three years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A full explanation of how highways maintenance funding is allocated is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations. Local highway authorities can choose to spend Highways Maintenance Block funding on all parts of their highway network. Funding is not specifically for potholes.
Rural-urban classification at the level of local highway authorities is published by the Office for National Statistics and can be found online at https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/datasets/ons::rural-urban-classification-2021-of-upper-tier-local-authorities-2023-in-ew/about. Local highway authorities are usually large geographies, most of which include a mix of both rural and urban areas, so the rural-urban classification at this level can only give a broad indication of the overall classification of an area.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the average pothole funding per mile of road is in each local authority.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A full explanation of how highways maintenance funding is allocated is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/highways-maintenance-funding-allocations. Local highway authorities can choose to spend Highways Maintenance Block funding on all parts of their highway network. Funding is not specifically for potholes.
Rural-urban classification at the level of local highway authorities is published by the Office for National Statistics and can be found online at https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/datasets/ons::rural-urban-classification-2021-of-upper-tier-local-authorities-2023-in-ew/about. Local highway authorities are usually large geographies, most of which include a mix of both rural and urban areas, so the rural-urban classification at this level can only give a broad indication of the overall classification of an area.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department was invited by the Office for National Statistics to provide evidence or input into its review of the ethnicity harmonised standard.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.
A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including government departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. This was supplemented by a programme of engagement activity, including with representatives of all government departments.
The Office for National Statistics have committed to providing an initial response to the public consultation in April, and a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026 will include more detailed information on the departments that responded to the consultation.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evidence her Department submitted to the Office for National Statistics' review of the ethnicity harmonised standard, including in relation to the recording of Sikhs and Jewish people as ethnic groups.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.
A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including government departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. This was supplemented by a programme of engagement activity, including with representatives of all government departments.
The Office for National Statistics have committed to providing an initial response to the public consultation in April, and a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026 will include more detailed information on the departments that responded to the consultation.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to confirm how many child sex offenders have been deported in each year since 2020, broken down by the number of previous convictions.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information you have requested on foreign national offenders (FNOs) returned from the UK (of which ‘deportation’ is a legal subset) who have been convicted of sexual offences against a child is not available from published statistics.
Work is currently underway to improve the quality of information held by the department on FNOs. The Home Office intends to publish more detailed information on FNOs returned. Further information on this work can be found at: Statistics on foreign national offenders and the immigration system - GOV.UK.
A breakdown by the number of previous convictions is not centrally held, and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced and, where appropriate, we will pursue their deportation.
Between this Government coming to power and January 2026, over 8700 FNOs have been returned either voluntarily or by enforced means. This is a 32% increase on the number of FNOs returned in the same period 19 months prior. Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.