Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many illegal immigrants who left asylum hotels in the past 5 years have not since been accounted for.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary has set out the most sweeping changes to our asylum system in a generation to restore order and control to our borders.
This includes speeding up removals of illegal migrants from the UK – with almost 50,000 people removed since July 2024.
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many convicted foreign nationals awaiting deportation have been released from HMP Huntercombe in the last 2 years owing to the Home Office's failure to provide the necessary deportation documents on time.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Foreign national offenders (FNOs) are referred to the Home Office for deportation immediately following sentencing. The timeliness of criminal court proceedings and extensive periods on remand means many prisoners will reach their Early Removal Scheme (ERS) window immediately, or very soon after they are sentenced. It is therefore not always possible for the Home Office to carry out all the case working and administrative processes as soon as an FNO becomes eligible for removal under ERS, even when they wish to return voluntarily.
HMPPS (HM Prisons and Probation Service) are working closely with the Home Office to ensure the ERS process runs as efficiently as possible focusing on operational improvements and more robust data.
Latest published information shows that between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025 2,632 FNOs were removed directly from prison under ERS, which is a 10% increase compared to the 2,385 in the same period 12 months prior.
We make every effort to ensure that a FNO’s removal by deportation coincides with their release from prison upon completion of their custodial sentence. Legal or re-documentation barriers can frustrate immediate deportation. Despite the barriers we face, we remain resolute in our commitment to deport those who would abuse our hospitality and make our communities safer for everyone.
The information requested is not available from published statistics.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their definition of a net contributor to the tax system.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
There is no set definition of a net contributor to the tax system. All taxpayers contribute to the public finances, supporting the provision of our public services.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what were the total income tax receipts for taxpayers aged 16–17 years old in each of the past three financial years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Estimates for the total income tax liabilities for taxpayers aged 16-17 years old for the three latest available financial years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 are set out below. Information after the financial year 2022-23 is not currently available.
Year | Tax liabilities of 16-17 year olds (Millions) (£) |
2020-21 | 9 |
2021-22 | 12 |
2022-23 | 13 |
Source: Survey of Personal Incomes, tax years 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23
Notes on the table
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the percentage of free prescriptions in England that remain uncollected by patients and are subsequently destroyed by the NHS; and what is the average cost of uncollected and destroyed prescriptions to the Exchequer.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold information on the number of prescriptions that are uncollected. The majority of uncollected prescriptions can be disassembled, and the medicines returned to the pharmacy’s stock, ready to be used to fill other prescriptions.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the Universal Credit overpayment rate for the financial years (1) 2022–23, and (2) 2023–24; and how these figures compare to the forecasted rate used in the Spring Budget 2023 and Spring Budget 2024.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Universal Credit (UC) overpayment rate was 12.7% of expenditure in the financial year 2022-23, and 12.4% of expenditure in the financial year 2023-24.
At Spring Budget 2023, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that the UC overpayment rate would be 12.1% in 2022/23, an underestimate of 0.6ppts from actual 2022-23 outturn (12.7%).
At Spring Budget 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that the UC overpayment rate would be 13.2% in 2023/24, an overestimate of 0.7ppts from actual 2023-24 outturn (12.4%).
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to page 138 of the Department of Work and Pensions Annual Report and Accounts 2023–24 (HC 62) published on 22 July 2024, what proportion of the total £9.4 billion debt stock held by Debt Management at the end of 2023–24 is deemed irrecoverable.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Impaired debt as a proportion of the £9.4bn debt stock reported in the 23/24 Annual Report and Accounts is: | ||
Impairment Value | £1.958bn |
|
Impairment as a % of Debt Stock | 21% |
|
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many contracts managed by the Cabinet Office under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 meet the financial thresholds for key performance indicator reporting set out in section 52 of the Procurement Act 2023 but are exempt from such reporting under the Act's transitional provisions; and what is the total value of those contracts.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The guidance on the transitional and saving arrangements, which determine how the changeover from the previous legislation to the Procurement Act 2023 (Act) is managed and effected by contracting authorities. The guidance states that contracting authorities are not required by the Act to set or publish KPIs for contracts that were awarded under the previous legislation, even where those contracts are above the threshold set out in section 52 of the Act.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many government contracts with a value above £20 million excluding VAT have been re-awarded to incumbent suppliers without a competitive tendering process by central government in each of the last five years; and what is the total value of those contracts in each of those years.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Details of all Government contracts, including the procurement procedure used, are published on the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender services above certain thresholds. Details can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder(opens in a new tab).
In certain limited circumstances, it may be possible for a procuring body to make a direct award of a contract, without going through the competition stages set out in PCR 2015. The specific circumstances where this is permitted are set out in regulation 32 of PCR 2015 and the grounds for using the procedure are limited to those listed in the regulation. They include:
where an open or restricted procedure generates no suitable tenders or no suitable requests to participate
where the works can be supplied only by a particular operator
in an extreme urgency
More information is available at Procurement Policy Note 01/21: Procurement in an Emergency.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the Get Britain Working White Paper (CP 1191), what assessment they made of the value of partnering with cultural and arts organisations, and in particular of the levels of pay and employment rights offered by such organisations.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government will work in partnership with organisations at the national and local level to join up, enhance and champion their efforts as part of our new Youth Guarantee. Our first partnerships will be developed with Channel 4, the Royal Shakespeare Company and leading sports organisations including the Premier League.
These sports, culture and arts organisations play a vital role in our economy, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and contributing to growth. This work has become even more important since the Covid-19 pandemic, which harmed the chances and choices of so many young people.
We have partnered with these organisations on the basis that they already have a track record of building trusted relationships with young people from all walks of life, including those in schools and those from areas of socio-economic disadvantage. As well as being heavily involved with young people in schools they all have a particular interest in young people who are not earning or learning.
We plan to expand into other sectors and organisations who also play a vital role in youth education, employment and training.
DWP does not hold data on pay by individual organisations.
The Good Work Review, published in February 2023 by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, was co-funded by DCMS and is the first sectoral deep dive of its kind into job quality and working practice in the creative industries.
DCMS is working closely with the sector as it responds to these recommendations. The review set out a number of priorities, including driving improvements in workplace and management practices in the Creative Industries.
Statistics on median annual gross pay in the Creative Industries and subsectors (vs. UK as a whole) in Economic Estimates: Earnings 2023 and Employment October 2022 to September 2023 for the DCMS Sectors and Digital Sector - GOV.UK