Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the number of serving police officers taking their own lives is recorded.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not currently collect information centrally on the number of police officer suicides. The Office for National Statistics publishes data on the number of suicides registered in England and Wales by occupation. The latest available data can be found here: Suicide by occupation in England and Wales: 2023 and 2024, provisional - Office for National Statistics
This Government has been clear that the health and wellbeing of our police workforce is a priority, and we are committed to making improvements in wellbeing support for officers and staff. This includes exploring options to improve the current monitoring and data recording processes for police officer suicides.
The National Police Wellbeing Service has created a national suicide action plan which aims to educate and support the workforce, reduce stress and improve data recording. In addition, the Service has put in place a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Support Line to provide urgent support for our police when they need it the most.
Asked by: Lord Harper (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government on the basis of what evidence they have estimated that the extension of the soft drinks industry levy, announced on 25 November, could prevent almost 14,000 cases of adult obesity and nearly 1,000 cases of childhood obesity.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The changes to the Soft Drinks Industry Levy announced in the 2025 Autumn Budget are:
These changes will apply from 1 January 2028. They are designed to encourage producers to reformulate their products to reduce sugar levels and avoid paying the levy, thus reducing calories consumed from the drinks in scope.
Evidence shows that energy dense diets such as those that are high in sugar can contribute to excess calorie intake, which if sustained leads to weight gain and obesity. Population-level policies therefore aim to create a healthier food environment to reduce excess calories and obesity prevalence across the entire population.
The Department carried out a health benefit assessment to estimate the calorie reduction from these changes through reformulation and substitution to alternative drinks. Together, these changes reduce sugar and calorie intake from drinks across all age groups.
The analysis used nutrition data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, sales data from Worldpanel by Numerator, formerly Kantar WorldPanel, and a series of assumptions to estimate the sugar and calories removed from diets due to the changes. The approach, data sources, and assumptions are set out in detail in the published assessment.
This analysis estimates per person per day calorie reductions of 0.3 kcal in five to 10 year olds, 0.4 kcal in 11 to 18 year olds, 0.3 kcal in 19 to 64 year olds, and 0.2 kcal in those aged 65 years old and over.
The BMI Prevalence Model was then used to simulate the change in obesity prevalence from the estimated change in calorie intake at a population level. This model is based on weight loss equations by Henry (2005), a sample of height and weight data from Health Survey for England, and population data from Office for National Statistics.
This modelling estimates that a calorie reduction of this scale could translate into reducing cases of adult obesity by almost 14,000 and childhood obesity by almost 1,000.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the latest figures for the number of trainee welders in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt. Hon the Lord Spellar
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
09 December 2025
Dear Lord Spellar
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the latest figures for the number of trainee welders in the UK are (HL12585).
The ONS uses the Annual Population Survey (APS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK, to estimate information on apprentices and the number of people in different occupations. We classify people’s occupations using the Standard Occupational Classification 2020 (SOC20), based on their own description of their occupation. For this question we have used SOC20 group 5213, welding trades.
Table 1 contains APS estimates of the number of apprentices in occupation 5213, welding trades, resident in the UK, for APS periods from July 2021 to June 2022, until July 2024 to June 2025, the latest APS dataset available. All estimates in Table 1 are based on a small sample size. This may result in less precise estimates, which should be used with caution. The ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting approach mean that labour market statistics based on the Annual Population Survey (APS) are subject to increased volatility and are considered ’official statistics in development’ until further review.
Table 1: Number of apprentices in the Welding Trades (SOC20 5213), UK, not seasonally adjusted
Period | Level (000s) |
July 2021 to June 2022 | 3 |
July 2022 to June 2023 | 6 |
July 2023 to June 2024 | 4 |
July 2024 to June 2025 | 4 |
Source: Annual Population Survey
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many NEET young people (a) live with their parents or guardians and (b) live independently.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Office for National Statistics and the Department for Education – who both produce official statistics publications on young people who are NEET – do not publish a breakdown of young people who are not in employment, education or training broken down by whether they live with parents/guardians or live independently.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many NEET young people are parents, broken down by month since January 2020.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Office for National Statistics and the Department for Education – who both produce official statistics on young people who are NEET – do not publish a breakdown of young people who are not in employment, education or training broken down by parental status.
The Department for Education do publish an estimate of the proportion of young people aged 16-24 who are economically inactive for the primary reason of looking after family/home – which shows that in 2024 1.5% of 16-24 years where economically inactive due to looking after family/home – down from 1.7% in 2023. See here for more the annual series back to 2020: Create your own tables on neet age 16 to 24 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of job vacancies in key professions within her Department’s responsibilities, including contractor organisations.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes information on the number of vacancies at UK-level, by industry, and by size of business as part of the vacancies and jobs in the UK release. Using that data, we see that in August to October 2025 there were 15,000 vacancies in arts, entertainment and recreation, 33,000 vacancies in information and communication and 76,000 vacancies in accommodation and food service activities. Parts of these industries are included in DCMS sector definitions.
Compared to August to October 2024:
Arts, entertainment and recreation vacancies are down 14.0%
Accommodation and food service activities vacancies are down 16.5%
Information and communication vacancies are down 13.5%
DCMS uses a more granular industry classification (4-digit Standard Industrial Classification codes) to define our sectors and ONS vacancy data is not publicly available at this level.
DCMS publishes official statistics in development estimating the number of vacancies, alongside skills shortages and skills gaps, based on the Department for Education’s (DfE) Employer Skills Survey. Two regular data releases have been published so far: DCMS Sectors Skills Shortages and Skills Gaps: 2019 and DCMS Sector Skills Shortages and Skills Gaps: 2022, UK, as well as additional analysis for the Creative Industries. The 2022 data showed that 25.5% of DCMS Sectors businesses in the UK had at least one vacancy open at the time of the survey. This was significantly higher than All Sectors (23.2%).
Further insights into labour demand are provided in the ONS’s Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2020), UK dataset, which includes official statistics in development sourced from Textkernel data. DCMS has published additional estimates by SOC code for the Creative Industries using the DfE’s Employer Skills Survey.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the British Transport Police's crime-screening policy introduced in August 2024, if she will publish the formal guidance for pedal-cycle theft (J13) and the operational factors used to determine when an offence is progressed to investigation; and if she will publish quarterly data showing the number of (a) pedal-cycle thefts reported, (b) investigated, and (c) closed without investigation, broken down by (i) cycle value and the (ii) availability of (A) CCTV and (B) witness evidence.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The British Transport Police (BTP), like their Home Office force counterparts, are operationally independent and decisions on whether to release guidance are for the Chief Constable to make.
Crime figures for the BTP are collated by the Home Office and published on the Office for National Statistics website.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including data for a Latin American ethnic group in national statistics.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 8th of December is attached.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of publishing asylum expenditure data by constituency.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The department publishes asylum expenditure data at national or regional level, which is more robust and meaningful for policy and operational purposes.
All available information on asylum expenditure is published in the Home Office Annual Report and accounts at Home Office annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK (opens in a new tab). Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including hotels, and by local authority can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of a pub vaping ban on the viability of local pubs which are designated as local community assets.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We plan to consult on making most indoor settings, that are subject to existing smoke-free legislation, vape-free. This would include inside pubs and other hospitality venues. Many businesses and enclosed public places, including pubs, already have voluntary schemes in place to prohibit vape usage inside their premises.
An impact assessment will be prepared and published in advance of secondary legislation, which will consider the economic impacts of the proposed regulations.
It is useful to note that the tobacco industry opposed previous indoor smoke-free legislation arguing that it would be disastrous for the hospitality industry. However, a year after implementing smoke-free places, 40% of businesses reported that the ban had a positive impact on their business, compared to only 3% reporting a negative impact. Office for National Statistics survey data shows that 69% of respondents visited pubs about as often as before, while 17% visited more often than before smoking restrictions.