Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance she has issued to her Department's press office on answering queries from student journalists.

The Home Secretary has not issued any guidance to the press office on dealing with student journalists.The press office receives between 100 and 200 calls a day from accredited regional, national, international and specialist journalists from both print and broadcast media. Any student journalist who contacts the Home Office press office in relation to a student publication is advised that statistics, departmental announcements,
ministerial speeches and quotes, which may assist their enquiries, are available on the government website, gov.uk. We do not have the resources to deal with any student request related to their studies.This is a common approach adopted by other government departments and organisations of a similar size which receive significant media interest.