Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will make an estimate of the total number of years' experience held by all NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors in each year since 2010.
Answered by Will Quince
The information requested is not centrally collected.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been employed by his Department to investigate suspected benefit fraud in each year since 2017.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The table below provides the average staffing (full-time equivalent) utilised for investigating benefit fraud for the years requested.
Year | Average staff (full-time equivalent) investigating benefit fraud |
2017-18 | 1359.0 |
2018-19 | 1245.2 |
2019-20 | 1358.7 |
2020-21 | 128.9 |
2021-22 | 543.3 |
2022-23 | 1022.0 |
2023-24* | 1076.6 |
*Average (full-time equivalent) over April and May 2023 | |
For years 2020-21 and 2021-22, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted DWP’s Fraud Investigation Service, with large numbers of staff redeployed to support the unprecedented demand for financial support.
These numbers do not include our Compliance staff, who carry out robust and challenging interviews to ensure benefit claimants receive their correct entitlement, nor staff employed on preventative fraud work, for example our Enhanced Review Team, who are delivering significant savings for the Department as part of our shift to disrupting fraud at the outset.
Our fraud plan, ‘Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System’, published May 2022, sets out our plans to recruit additional staff into our counter-fraud teams, and we continue to recruit and train new fraud investigators in order to maximise our headcount post Covid. It should be noted that training an investigator can take anywhere between 12 and 18 months.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people worked on HMRC's High Risk Wealthy Programme in (a) financial year 2022-23 and (b) each financial year since that programme was created.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC’s High Risk Wealth Programme (HRWP) is just one of a range of approaches used by HMRC to tackle non-compliance.
Alongside staff in HMRC’s Wealthy teams, colleagues across HMRC are involved in HRWP including legal and policy specialists with oversight from a cross-directorate steering group.
Further information about the HRWP can be found on the GOV.UK Website here:
Information about the High-Risk Wealth Programme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the median level of student debt.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The median amount that full time undergraduate higher education students starting their studies in the 2021/22 academic year are expected to borrow over the course of their studies is £ 41,300. For part time students the corresponding median amount is £6,300.
This forecast covers borrowers who received loans as English domiciled students studying in the UK, or as EU domiciled students studying in England. Students who do not receive a student loan are not included in the median calculation. The forecast is based on Student Loan Company actual loan outlay data from August 2021 to April 2022. The median contains forecasted loan amounts from April 2022 to July 2028.
Students will accrue interest on their loans that is not included in the median figure. Repayments are made based on a borrower’s monthly or weekly earnings, not the interest rate or amount borrowed. If a borrower’s income is below the relevant repayment threshold, or a borrower is not earning, repayments will stop. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off at the end of the loan term with no detriment to the borrower.
Full details on the median amount coverage can be found in the table below. Previous forecasts for the mean average total loan amount can be found in Table 1.3 of the ’Student Loan Forecast for England’ publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/student-loan-forecasts-for-england. These forecasts will be updated to use the same data as described above at the end of June 2023.
| Median Loan Outlay Amount |
Full time Undergraduate | £41,300 |
Part time Undergraduate | £6,300 |
Foot notes:
1. Tuition fee cap has been frozen up to and including academic year 2024/25 in these forecasts
2. Coverage: Borrowers who received loans as English domiciled students studying in the UK or as EU domiciled students studying in England
3. Students who do not receive a student loan are not included in the median calculation
4. The forecast is based on actual Student Loan Company loan outlay data from August 2021 to April 2022. The median contains forecasted loan outlay from April 2022 to July 2028.
5. These figures are restricted to higher education undergraduate loans and do not include Advanced Learner Loans
6. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £100.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people are employed by the Government to investigate tax evasion of people with assets worth over £10 million.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to tackling tax avoidance, evasion, and all other forms of tax non-compliance. HMRC has considerable resources to tackle non-compliance in the tax system, including tax evasion.
Within HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group (CCG), HMRC have dedicated Wealthy Teams with responsibility for tax compliance in this customer segment. As part of their role, they are key to delivering HMRC’s compliance response to evasion.
Alongside the work of the Wealthy teams, the most serious non-compliance in the Wealthy customer segment is dealt with by specialist Offshore Corporate and Wealthy (OCW) colleagues in HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service.
For data on the full time equivalent (FTE) employees working in HMRC's Wealthy Teams, I refer the hon member to my answer of 30 January 2023 to PQ UIN 131454 : Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Government plans to continue to provide technical assistance to the (a) Ministry of Interior, (b) Ministry of Interior Ombudsman and (c) Special Investigations Unit of Bahrain through (i) the Gulf Strategy Fund and (ii) other means.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO supports Bahraini-led reforms in a range of areas, including security and justice. All assistance is delivered through implementing partners under the Gulf Strategy Fund. The latest list of projects in Bahrain for Financial Year 2022/23 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/official-development-assistance-oda-fcdo-international-programme-spend-objectives-2022-to-2023/fcdo-gulf-strategy-fund-gsf.
The FCDO will continue to support the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Interior's Ombudsman and the Special Investigation Unit of Bahrain in Financial Year 2023/24.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the real terms (a) percentage change and (b) change in pounds sterling of child benefit allowance for a (a) first child b) second child since 2010.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government has increased Child Benefit rates in line with inflation for four consecutive years and, from April 2023, rates were increased by the September 2022 rate of CPI (10.1%), to support families with the elevated cost of living. The Government took the difficult decision to limit increases to Child Benefit 2011 and 2019 to control welfare expenditure and to help place the public finances on a sustainable footing.
The Government publishes annual data on benefit rate changes. This includes data on the uprating history and real CPI value of Child Benefit, including rates for first children and additional children: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/abstract-of-statistics-for-benefits-national-insurance-contributions-and-indices-of-prices-and-earnings.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what was the cost to the public purse of the coronation on 6 May 2023.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla was a hugely important state occasion, which brought millions of people around the country together in celebration, and showcased the best of the United Kingdom to the world. The Government is delighted to have supported the Coronation to ensure that the events were safe and well-planned.
As with all events of this kind, we are unable to give costs until after the spend has been reconciled.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number of low-income houses which are unable to afford living essentials due to a lack of funds.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We do not collect this information; however, National Statistics on the number and percentage of people in poverty are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. This can be found here.
A family is in combined low income and material deprivation if they have a material deprivation score of 25 or more and a household income below the relevant threshold of contemporary median income, Before Housing Costs. See here.
The estimated number of children, working-age adults, and pensioners in combined low income and material deprivation can be found in tables 1_4d, 1_5d and 1_6c, respectively, in the summary-hbai-1994-95-2021-22-tables file.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, for what reason a ringfenced fund for research on the effect of plastic pollution on the human body has not been set up.
Answered by George Freeman
The Government is investing in R&D to address a range of emerging public health challenges, including the impact of nano- and microplastics. Through UKRI’s Medical Research Council, the MRC Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge and the MRC Centre for Environment and Health at Imperial College have a broad programme of activity to study exposure to these materials and their impact on human health.
The Government does not generally ringfence funding for particular areas of research. In line with the Haldane principle, UKRI and other Government funders award grants to the best proposals that are submitted through a process of expert peer review.