The UK is outward looking and welcomes international students who make a positive impact on the UK’s higher education (HE) sector, our economy and society as a whole.

Applicants to undergraduate courses usually have to have a minimum level of qualification in order to be considered. Where HE providers accept international qualifications, applicants can apply to the UK National Centre for the Recognition and Evaluation of International Qualifications and Skills for a Statement of Comparability. This compares overseas qualifications to the UK qualifications and framework levels.

HE providers are autonomous bodies, independent of government. As such, they are responsible for their own admissions decisions. Government works closely with the sector to ensure that admissions remain fair and the Universities UK / Guild HE Fair Admissions Code of Practice is adhered to when HE providers make admissions decisions.

Student visa applicants must demonstrate their English language ability in order to be granted a visa. The level required depends on the level of study, and the type of course provider.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Home Department has already confirmed that the government will continue implementing measures to reduce potential for abuse on the student visa route, including reviewing how the HE sector is currently assessing English language ability.

UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) publishes data on the number of full-time undergraduate acceptances by domicile and provider. However, around 40% of non-European Union international full-time undergraduate entrants enter outside of UCAS and this will vary by provider. The latest data covers the 2023 admissions cycle and is published here: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-end-cycle-data-resources-2023.

UCAS data for the 2024 admissions cycle will be published on 30 January.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes data covering all international undergraduate entrants. The latest HESA data covers the 2022/23 academic year and is available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/whos-in-he.

Where a decision has been taken to make a deportation order, appeals must usually be made to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), with onward rights of appeal to the Upper Tribunal and thence to the higher courts. Appeals involving national security or related grounds are heard before senior judges in the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

Individuals who receive Disability Living Allowance (DLA) higher rate mobility component, Personal Independence Payment (PIP) enhanced-rate mobility component, Armed Forces Independence Payment (AFIP) or War Pensioners' Mobility Supplement (WPMS) are eligible to join the Motability Scheme. In exchange for part or all of their mobility component they receive a leased car, wheelchair or powered chair/scooter. The Department for Work and Pensions facilitates the transfer of the DLA, PIP and AFIP to Motability. WPMS is transferred by the Ministry of Defence.

Recipients of these benefits may be employed or not and can have both physical and mental health conditions.

We do not hold figures on the numbers of vehicles provided in the year to April 2024. There is no cost to the public purse for the Motability Scheme.

The number of deaths of prisoners[1][2][3][4] serving custodial sentences[5][6] in England and Wales, 2014 to 2023

Data Sources and Quality

These figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database.

1. Figures include incidents during contracted out escorts. Figures include England and Wales only and not the whole UK as we only hold detailed data for England and Wales.

2. Figures do not include incidents at Medway STC. For more information on Secure Training Centres, please see Youth justice annual statistics at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/youth-justice-annual-statistics.

3. Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.

4. In addition to deaths in prison custody, the figures include deaths in custody that occur in hospitals, hospices or nursing homes, and a small proportion will occur while in an ambulance on the way to hospital, while on escort.

5. Figures includes deaths of sentenced prisoners only, they do not include deaths of prisoners on remand, immigration detainees or non-criminal prisoners.

6. A breakdown of deaths by sentence type is published within the annual deaths tables, the latest annual deaths detailed data includes deaths up to 2023. Figures for 2024 deaths, including a breakdown by sentence type, will be published in January 2025.

The Home Office publishes statistics on detected small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ statistics release on gov.uk. Data on asylum applications from small boat arrivals and initial decisions on these applications (including refusals) is published in tables Irr_D02 and Irr_D03 respectively of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’. The latest data covers January 2018 to June 2024.

Subsequent to the answer to question 14475, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) have been in contact with the Serbian authorities and provided consular support to Alexei Zimin's family following his death in Belgrade. It is for the Serbian authorities to decide whether to conduct investigations following deaths in Serbia. UK police do not have jurisdiction to investigate deaths overseas unless invited to by the relevant overseas authority.

The UK condemns the persecution of religious minorities, including Christians, in Pakistan. Minister Falconer underlined the importance of promoting religious tolerance and harmony when he met with Pakistan's Human Rights Minister Azam Tarar on 4 September. Officials at BHC Islamabad regularly raise our concerns surrounding the mistreatment of minorities with the Pakistani authorities, including law enforcement officials. We continue to support projects promoting the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan, including facilitating interfaith dialogue and protecting marginalised communities from hate speech online.

The Daily Allowance rate was introduced on 1 October 2010 at £300 per day. Retail Price Index (RPI) figures for October 2024 are expected to be released by the Office for National Statistics on 20 November 2024. It is therefore not yet possible to calculate a figure for the Daily Allowance adjusted for inflation by RPI for the month of October 2024.

Based on September 2024 RPI figures, if the Daily Allowance rate had been adjusted annually for inflation, it would be £515 oer day from 1 September 2024.

For security reasons, the Houses do not publish capital expenditure on security mitigating projects as providing this level of detail could enable an individual to infer the extent and nature of the works, and thus the vulnerabilities which they were intended to mitigate.

Suffolk County Council is developing a Full Business Case for a scheme to improve junctions between the A12 / A14 Seven Hills and the A12 Woods Lane and provide dualling between the B1438 and the B1079. The Council plans to submit this to the Department in summer 2025. This will be considered in the light of the current Spending Review and the Department’s review of capital projects.

It is for the Council to identify any further improvement proposals on the A12 and to bid for Government funding as and when future funding opportunities arise

The Department is committed to assisting customers with advice on Winter Fuel payments and the best way to seek advice is by contacting the Winter Fuel payment centre helpline on:

Telephone - 0800 731 0160; or

Textphone - contact Relay UK on 18001 then 0800 731 0160

Customers can also use the British Sign Language (BSL) video relay service to contact the department.

Customers may also contact the Winter Fuel payment centre through Gov.uk.

https://secure.dwp.gov.uk/contact-winter-fuel-payments-centre/contact-form

For those customers who wish to write to the department, the postal address is:

Winter Fuel Payment Centre
Mail Handling Site A
Wolverhampton
WV98 1LR

In the last twenty years there have been 24 Home Office officials who have been convicted of Misconduct in Public Office. All received a custodial sentence, and all were convicted before 2015. Since then, the Crown Prosecution Service have moved towards using more specific charges such as theft, assisting unlawful immigration and bribery.

A breakdown for each year is provided below:

The Home Office conducts robust pre-appointment checks in accordance with the HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standards prior to employment being offered. The Home Office also carries out National Security Vetting on all its employees, which considers both spent and unspent convictions for this and all other offences.

All Civil Service recruitment is subject to the Baseline Personnel Security Standard. The Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard check is not a formal security clearance but is a recognised standard for pre-employment screening. These checks ensure departments comply with current legislation (e.g. Right to Work in the UK) and are essential to assure the integrity of our organisation and the safety of staff and individuals.

Once a job offer is made a Basic Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is undertaken. The certificate will contain details of convictions and conditional cautions that are considered to be unspent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

If the DBS check is returned with a positive marker (an unspent convention in a basic check, any conviction in a standard check), the vacancy holder/department undertakes a risk assessment to decide whether to make a final offer.

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) were made aware of a potential issue affecting Polycom telephone handsets, used with the Microsoft telephone service (MS Teams) on Friday 12th April 2024. Following a thorough investigation, a root cause was identified and resolved on Tuesday 16th April 2024. Restoration of service following a major telephony incident depends on third parties. The Voice Programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure with a streamlined and less complex support arrangement. PDS are expecting to rollout the service over the summer 2024.

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. In 2016, a procurement process was completed adhering to EU procurement regulations (OJEU) for a unified communications solution to replace the previous telephone system which was end of life and could no longer be supported or maintained. This restricted OJEU process was open to all vendors. Siemens (Unify) made an initial application but were not taken through to stage two of the process to tender.

The cost of the Skype for Business Programme, which included key steps in Parliament’s transition from a copper wire telephone system to Voice over Internet Protocol, was £8.3 million and included the cost of the Polycom handsets currently in use. Implementation of the Polycom handsets began in November 2017.

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The Voice Programme has been set up to address service quality and user experience priorities regarding telephony in Parliament. The programme’s high-level benefits include increasing business resilience and value for money and improving customer experience across telephony services. The programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure (a combination of on premise MS Teams and Skype for Business) and has completed procurement of a unified communications service, to be implemented later this year, that will deliver resilient telephony. Initially, the new service is expected- to re-utilise the existing Polycom telephone handsets, however, replacement telephone handsets will be introduced as part of product lifecycle replacement.

The House of Lords Services Committee, the House of Commons Administration Committee and the Business Resilience Board are being consulted on implementation plans for the new service.

The Investment Committee and Accounting Officers have approved a business case for the Voice Programme which has an approved whole life cost of £6.37m. These costs cover implementation, programme resources, licences, and support costs until FY28/29.

FCDO delivers its aid in Gaza through trusted partners with a proven record of delivery. Thorough due diligence assessment of all aid donations is carried out and the FCDO ensures partners have procedures in place to manage the main risks of aid diversion from activities it funds, including specific controls to ensure that cash/food assistance goes direct to the intended beneficiaries. Additionally, FCDO humanitarian assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories operates with an enhanced sensitivity and existing additional safeguards to protect against any possibility of aid diversion. These safeguards include measures on verification and mapping of downstream partners, non-payment of local taxes and enhanced due diligence processes. The Actual Spend for Occupied Palestinian Territories for the last three financial years:

2020/2021 - £79.7 million

2021/2022 - £29.8 million

2022/2023 - £25.7 million.

In 2016, the Government negotiated the Contract for Difference for Hinkley Point C which fixes the cost of electricity provided by Hinkley Point C. There is no cost to the consumer until Hinkley Point C starts to produce electricity. The strike price is £92.50 per Megawatt-hour. The household bill impact depends on a variety of factors such as the future electricity generation mix, wholesale gas price, wholesale electricity price and decarbonisation pathway.

The Government is a co-shareholder in the Sizewell C project company with EDF. The Government has committed to invest c.£1.2bn in Sizewell C’s development. The project has been designated to benefit from the new Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for nuclear, which will entail a levy on all licensed electricity suppliers in Great Britain; suppliers may choose to pass those costs to their consumers. The RAB model will include incentives on cost and schedule control, with the exact details finalised at the project’s Final Investment Decision.

The capital costs for Sizewell C are commercially sensitive, and subject to ongoing development and a live equity raise. We are therefore unable to discuss this further at this time.

In 2016, the Government negotiated the Contract for Difference for Hinkley Point C which fixes the cost of electricity provided by Hinkley Point C. There is no cost to the consumer until Hinkley Point C starts to produce electricity. The strike price is £92.50 per Megawatt-hour. The household bill impact depends on a variety of factors such as the future electricity generation mix, wholesale gas price, wholesale electricity price and decarbonisation pathway.

The Government is a co-shareholder in the Sizewell C project company with EDF. The Government has committed to invest c.£1.2bn in Sizewell C’s development. The project has been designated to benefit from the new Regulated Asset Base (RAB) model for nuclear, which will entail a levy on all licensed electricity suppliers in Great Britain; suppliers may choose to pass those costs to their consumers. The RAB model will include incentives on cost and schedule control, with the exact details finalised at the project’s Final Investment Decision.

The capital costs for Sizewell C are commercially sensitive, and subject to ongoing development and a live equity raise. We are therefore unable to discuss this further at this time.