Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what the average financial award was to residential non-commercial consumers under the Non-Domestic Alternative Fuel Payment scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Non-Domestic Alternative Fuel Payment (NDAFP) scheme targeted non-domestic consumers including businesses and voluntary organisations. In some cases, residential consumers were able to benefit from the scheme, where their energy supply was provided through an intermediary who has a non-domestic energy contract (such as a landlord). In these cases, the intermediary was required to pass through support to end users. The Department does not hold information on the average financial award to residential consumers in this instance.
In total the Government provided just under £67 million of support under the NDAFP scheme. Further data on payments under the scheme were published on 18th July 2023 and can be found here:
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what estimate his Department has made of average amount of financial payment applied to consumers under the energy bill discount scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) discount is applied directly to the energy bills of eligible consumers by their energy providers. The Department does not hold information on the average payment made per consumer.
The Government has provided just under £26 million of support under the EBDS so far and will continue providing support until March 2024. Further data on payments made under the scheme was published on 18th July 2023 and is available here:
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether visa application centres in countries neighbouring Sudan will be able to provide the visas dispatched to the Sudanese embassy and visa application centre in Khartoum following their closures due to the outbreak of war.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Where our records confirm that a customer’s passport is being held in the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum, UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers that have been issued or refused visa applications in our VAC in Khartoum and offering them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport, that may help support their travel out of Sudan and into a third country.
Where the passport is held in Nairobi or Pretoria and a named individual (either the applicant or a designated 3rd party) is identified to return the passport to outside of Sudan, the passport can be sent (to the named individual) by courier or for collection from another visa application centre. For customers that have been able to exit Sudan, processes are in place to re-direct printing of their visa and endorsement on a Form for affixing a visa (FAV) to another VAC location of their choice for collection.
UK Visas and Immigration are currently operating within their global customer service standards across all of the main legal migration routes for customers who make an entry clearance application from overseas. If exceptional compelling and compassionate circumstances are raised, these will be considered in the usual way.
Details of current performance against these customer service standards are updated regularly and can be found at:
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Customers are able to contact the UK Visas and Immigration contact centre, telephone: 0300 790 6268, Monday to Thursday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:45pm and Friday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:30pm.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what process is in place for dispatching visas to people who have been successful in applying for Entry Clearance who were in Sudan but have had to flee due to the outbreak of war.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Where our records confirm that a customer’s passport is being held in the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum, UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers that have been issued or refused visa applications in our VAC in Khartoum and offering them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport, that may help support their travel out of Sudan and into a third country.
Where the passport is held in Nairobi or Pretoria and a named individual (either the applicant or a designated 3rd party) is identified to return the passport to outside of Sudan, the passport can be sent (to the named individual) by courier or for collection from another visa application centre. For customers that have been able to exit Sudan, processes are in place to re-direct printing of their visa and endorsement on a Form for affixing a visa (FAV) to another VAC location of their choice for collection.
UK Visas and Immigration are currently operating within their global customer service standards across all of the main legal migration routes for customers who make an entry clearance application from overseas. If exceptional compelling and compassionate circumstances are raised, these will be considered in the usual way.
Details of current performance against these customer service standards are updated regularly and can be found at:
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Customers are able to contact the UK Visas and Immigration contact centre, telephone: 0300 790 6268, Monday to Thursday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:45pm and Friday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:30pm.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department will take to process applications for individuals waiting for a decision on entry clearance from Sudan following the closures of the visa application centres.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Where our records confirm that a customer’s passport is being held in the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum, UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers that have been issued or refused visa applications in our VAC in Khartoum and offering them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport, that may help support their travel out of Sudan and into a third country.
Where the passport is held in Nairobi or Pretoria and a named individual (either the applicant or a designated 3rd party) is identified to return the passport to outside of Sudan, the passport can be sent (to the named individual) by courier or for collection from another visa application centre. For customers that have been able to exit Sudan, processes are in place to re-direct printing of their visa and endorsement on a Form for affixing a visa (FAV) to another VAC location of their choice for collection.
UK Visas and Immigration are currently operating within their global customer service standards across all of the main legal migration routes for customers who make an entry clearance application from overseas. If exceptional compelling and compassionate circumstances are raised, these will be considered in the usual way.
Details of current performance against these customer service standards are updated regularly and can be found at:
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Customers are able to contact the UK Visas and Immigration contact centre, telephone: 0300 790 6268, Monday to Thursday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:45pm and Friday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:30pm.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what process is in place for individuals asking for information on a family member’s application for entry.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Where our records confirm that a customer’s passport is being held in the Visa Application Centre (VAC) in Khartoum, UK Visas and Immigration have contacted all those customers that have been issued or refused visa applications in our VAC in Khartoum and offering them a letter confirming that their passport is securely stored and attaching a digital copy of their passport, that may help support their travel out of Sudan and into a third country.
Where the passport is held in Nairobi or Pretoria and a named individual (either the applicant or a designated 3rd party) is identified to return the passport to outside of Sudan, the passport can be sent (to the named individual) by courier or for collection from another visa application centre. For customers that have been able to exit Sudan, processes are in place to re-direct printing of their visa and endorsement on a Form for affixing a visa (FAV) to another VAC location of their choice for collection.
UK Visas and Immigration are currently operating within their global customer service standards across all of the main legal migration routes for customers who make an entry clearance application from overseas. If exceptional compelling and compassionate circumstances are raised, these will be considered in the usual way.
Details of current performance against these customer service standards are updated regularly and can be found at:
Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Customers are able to contact the UK Visas and Immigration contact centre, telephone: 0300 790 6268, Monday to Thursday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:45pm and Friday (excluding bank holidays), 9am to 4:30pm.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of further education (a) arts, (b) vocational, (c) science and (d) technical courses that have been discontinued in the last two years.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government’s qualifications reforms are designed to ensure that qualifications at level 3 and below are necessary, high quality, and have a clear purpose. A levels and T Levels should be at the heart of level 3 study programmes going forward. We do allow for other small, alternative academic qualifications in strategically important areas, and additional technical qualifications in areas not covered by T Levels, in specialist occupations and in cross cutting areas, such as health and safety. Our new system places the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education occupational standards at the heart of technical education, because these have been designed by employers and will give young people the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers need.
The number of further education qualifications from which the department has removed funding approval in the last two years is 5,768 (2021/22 and 2022/23 funding years).
This includes qualifications where funding approval has been removed as a result of the qualification having no or low publicly funded demand, or where qualifications have been reformed and newer qualifications developed in their place, for instance the introduction of new Essential Digital Skills Qualifications, which replaced older ICT qualifications.
This does not cover where an awarding organisation decides to discontinue one of its qualifications or where a college, or other education and training provider, decides to stop offering a qualification.
The department has not removed funding approval from any higher-level qualifications in the last two years.
Where the department intends to remove funding approval from qualifications, further education (FE) colleges or other education and training providers are made aware through the publication and communication of initial lists of qualifications in scope. There is a process for awarding organisations to appeal the decision to remove funding approval, and FE colleges or other education and training providers are encouraged to work with awarding organisations to submit evidence for appeals.
It is also important to point out that the department has and continues to consult on broader qualifications reform with colleges and other education and training providers.
In the last two funding years, 450 arts qualifications and 36 science qualifications have had funding approval removed. 5,282 other vocational and technical qualifications have also had funding approval removed during this period.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of (a) further and (b) higher education courses that have been discontinued in England in the last two years.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government’s qualifications reforms are designed to ensure that qualifications at level 3 and below are necessary, high quality, and have a clear purpose. A levels and T Levels should be at the heart of level 3 study programmes going forward. We do allow for other small, alternative academic qualifications in strategically important areas, and additional technical qualifications in areas not covered by T Levels, in specialist occupations and in cross cutting areas, such as health and safety. Our new system places the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education occupational standards at the heart of technical education, because these have been designed by employers and will give young people the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers need.
The number of further education qualifications from which the department has removed funding approval in the last two years is 5,768 (2021/22 and 2022/23 funding years).
This includes qualifications where funding approval has been removed as a result of the qualification having no or low publicly funded demand, or where qualifications have been reformed and newer qualifications developed in their place, for instance the introduction of new Essential Digital Skills Qualifications, which replaced older ICT qualifications.
This does not cover where an awarding organisation decides to discontinue one of its qualifications or where a college, or other education and training provider, decides to stop offering a qualification.
The department has not removed funding approval from any higher-level qualifications in the last two years.
Where the department intends to remove funding approval from qualifications, further education (FE) colleges or other education and training providers are made aware through the publication and communication of initial lists of qualifications in scope. There is a process for awarding organisations to appeal the decision to remove funding approval, and FE colleges or other education and training providers are encouraged to work with awarding organisations to submit evidence for appeals.
It is also important to point out that the department has and continues to consult on broader qualifications reform with colleges and other education and training providers.
In the last two funding years, 450 arts qualifications and 36 science qualifications have had funding approval removed. 5,282 other vocational and technical qualifications have also had funding approval removed during this period.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department consulted with Further Education colleges on the discontinuation of courses.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The government’s qualifications reforms are designed to ensure that qualifications at level 3 and below are necessary, high quality, and have a clear purpose. A levels and T Levels should be at the heart of level 3 study programmes going forward. We do allow for other small, alternative academic qualifications in strategically important areas, and additional technical qualifications in areas not covered by T Levels, in specialist occupations and in cross cutting areas, such as health and safety. Our new system places the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education occupational standards at the heart of technical education, because these have been designed by employers and will give young people the knowledge, skills and behaviours that employers need.
The number of further education qualifications from which the department has removed funding approval in the last two years is 5,768 (2021/22 and 2022/23 funding years).
This includes qualifications where funding approval has been removed as a result of the qualification having no or low publicly funded demand, or where qualifications have been reformed and newer qualifications developed in their place, for instance the introduction of new Essential Digital Skills Qualifications, which replaced older ICT qualifications.
This does not cover where an awarding organisation decides to discontinue one of its qualifications or where a college, or other education and training provider, decides to stop offering a qualification.
The department has not removed funding approval from any higher-level qualifications in the last two years.
Where the department intends to remove funding approval from qualifications, further education (FE) colleges or other education and training providers are made aware through the publication and communication of initial lists of qualifications in scope. There is a process for awarding organisations to appeal the decision to remove funding approval, and FE colleges or other education and training providers are encouraged to work with awarding organisations to submit evidence for appeals.
It is also important to point out that the department has and continues to consult on broader qualifications reform with colleges and other education and training providers.
In the last two funding years, 450 arts qualifications and 36 science qualifications have had funding approval removed. 5,282 other vocational and technical qualifications have also had funding approval removed during this period.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether houses of multiple occupation that are housing asylum seekers will be exempt from local authority selective and additional licensing schemes following the approval of The Houses in Multiple Occupation (Asylum-Seeker Accommodation) (England) Regulations 2023.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Details of the proposed legislation are available here.