Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of current counter-extremism programmes; and whether she plans to introduce further measures to tackle extremist activity and protect public safety.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
This Government takes extremism seriously and we are committed to ensuring we have the required tools and powers needed to address this issue.
Efforts to counter extremism span a broad range of Government and law enforcement activity and we must persist in our efforts to challenge extremist narratives, disrupt the activity of radicalising groups, and directly tackle the causes of radicalisation.
We are progressing activity to challenge extremist narratives including working to ensure dangerous overseas hate preachers and extremists are unable to enter the UK to spread their divisive rhetoric.
The Prevent programme plays a fundamental role in protecting the public from the threat of terrorism and remains a vital tool for early intervention. Prevent is continuously improving to ensure it has the capabilities it needs to reduce terrorism risk.
In December 2024, the Government created a dedicated permanent oversight function, the Independent Prevent Commissioner, to provide continuous independent scrutiny of Prevent legislation, policy and delivery to maximise Prevent’s effectiveness.
The interim Independent Prevent Commissioner, Lord Anderson, published his ‘Lessons for Prevent’ in July 2025 identifying past failings and where further improvements are required.
The Home Office has also commissioned an independent evaluation of Channel, Prevent’s multi-agency early intervention programme, to assess whether it is effective at reducing individuals’ susceptibility to radicalisation. The evaluation is expected to report findings in 2026.
Finally, the Desistance and Disengagement Programme, which helps to manage the risk of individuals who have already been involved in terrorism or terrorism related activity, has been independently evaluated. The majority of recommendations from that evaluation have already been implemented.
As set out in its manifesto, this Government is committed to redoubling efforts to counter extremism and adapting to this evolving threat, including online, to stop people being radicalised and drawn towards hateful ideologies.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of espionage have been identified in British universities since 2015, broken down by (a) year, and (b) nationality of identified suspects.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The National Security Act 2023 provides the security services and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to deter, detect, and disrupt state threats including new espionage offences. The Government is committed to transparency on the operation of these new powers and is considering a recommendation made by Jonathan Hall KC, in his first annual report as Independent Reviewer of State Threats Legislation, calling for publication of official statistics on use of state threat powers. The Government will respond formally to this recommendation in due course.
The Government supports the Higher Education sector in managing security risks through the Research Collaboration Advice Team, and the NPSA and NCSC’s Trusted Research and Secure Innovation guidance. The UK also has a comprehensive package of legislative and regulatory measures in place – including the Academic Technology Approvals Scheme, Export Controls and the National Security and Investment Act.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the time taken to obtain national passports on the access by refugees to regulated professions; and what steps she plans to take to ensure that refugees with the right to work can access roles for which they are qualified.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Refugees do not automatically hold British nationality. Instead, they are typically granted refugee status or humanitarian protection, which allows them to live and work in the UK but does not confer British citizenship.
Refugees are not required to hold a British passport in order to work in the UK. Identity checks, including those for regulated professions, can be satisfied using alternative documentation such as a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP).
Where international travel is required for work purposes, refugees may apply for a Refugee Travel Document rather than a national passport.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trains have been cancelled on the South Western Railway network since it was nationalised.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on train cancellations and punctuality is published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The relevant links are below.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trains were (a) cancelled and (b) delayed on the South Western Railway network in August 2025.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on train cancellations and punctuality is published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The relevant links are below.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many trains have been delayed on the South Western Railway network since nationalisation.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on train cancellations and punctuality is published by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR). The relevant links are below.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications submitted under the Super-Priority Visa Service have exceeded the 24-hour decision standard in the last 12 months; and what the longest waiting time has been.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
While the Home Office does not produce stand along statistics to fully answer this question, some of the information requested can be found here: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK
Asked by: Anneliese Midgley (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what proportion of research funding is allocated to epilepsy research; and if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of this proportion.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Medical Research Council (MRC), which is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has committed a total of over £25.5 million since 2018/19 on epilepsy research, including over £9.5 million in 2024/25. This research spans discovery science and fundamental understanding of the disease, through to new approaches for diagnosis and intervention. MRC also supports epilepsy research within its portfolio of larger investments. For example, this includes a new MRC Centre of Research Excellence (CoRE) in Restorative Neural Dynamics which aims to develop brain stimulation devices to treat a range of conditions including childhood epilepsy, and the UK data platform for Traumatic Brain Injury research (TBI-REPORTER) which includes post-traumatic epilepsy as one of the areas of focus.
The Department of Health and Social Care also funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has funded a range of ongoing epilepsy research and has awarded £12.8 million to studies in the last five financial years. The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including alternative treatments for epilepsy.
Asked by: Lord Bates (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of UK Official Development Assistance was spent in the UK in (1) 2023, (2) 2024, and (3) 2025.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
Data on Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend for 2023 and 2024 is published in Statistics on International Development (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-oda-spend-2024), including breakdowns by country, sector, and type of aid.
Table 1 below shows UK ODA funding provided to Sudan through bilateral humanitarian assistance in 2023 and 2024. Table 2 shows ODA spent in the UK in the same years. Figures for 2025 and 2026 will be published in the usual way in due course.
Table 1. Humanitarian ODA to Sudan, 2023 and 2024
2023 £ million | 2024 £ million | |
Humanitarian ODA to Sudan | 35.8 | 121.3 |
Source: Statistics on International Development: Final UK ODA spend 2024
Table 2. ODA Spent in the UK, 2023 and 2024
2023 % of total UK ODA | 2024 % of total UK ODA | |
In-donor Expenditure [Note 1] | 33.3% | 26.0% |
Note 1. In-donor expenditure includes an estimate of the ODA-eligible part of FCDO's and other departments' administration costs, refugees living in the UK spend, raising development awareness and costs of UK experts and UK scholarships.
Source: Statistics on International Development: Final UK ODA spend 2024.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what engagement her Department has had with the British Standards Institute’s review of BS AU 145e; and what assessment she has made of proposals to ban raised 3D and 4D number plates.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) is part of the British Standard Institute committee that has recently reviewed the current standard for number plates. The committee has put forward proposed amendments which are intended to stop the production of number plates with raised characters often referred to as 3D or 4D number plates and will prevent easy access to plates with ‘ghost’ characteristics. The proposals will also prevent suppliers from adding acrylic letters and numbers to the surface of the number, meaning any finished number plate must be flat. The proposed changes have been subject to a public consultation which closed on 13 December 2025.
The Government has set out its intention in the Road Safety Strategy to consult on addressing the growing problem of illegal number plates, including ‘ghost’ number plates.