Immigration
Two UK schemes have resettled 11,000 Syrian refugees
The government has a target to take in 23,000 refugees by 2020 from the Middle East and North Africa. Read
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Fact checks
From false health claims to misleading statements on immigration, politics and conflict—our expert team delivers impartial, evidence based fact checks.
Education
6% of young first-time students drop out of university after their first year
Overall, mature students are more likely to drop out of full-time degrees than younger students, and disadvantaged students are more likely than their peers to drop out. Read
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Education
About 17% of students are forecast to fully pay back their loans
Most students won’t back their loans in full. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that around 83% of graduates will see at least part of their debt written off. Read
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Health
How much meat do we eat?
A range of surveys suggest 2-3% of the UK is vegetarian, and household consumption of meat has fallen in recent years. Read
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Health
Could 18 million GP appointments be seen by pharmacists?
A survey of around 60 GPs found that 6% of appointments could have been dealt with at home or at a pharmacy, but we can’t say if it’s an accurate estimate for all GP appointments. Read
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Education
Spending for adult skills fell by 40% between 2010 and 2015
This funding pays for “further education” such as classroom and workplace learning for people aged 19 and over. Read
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Education
Exam stress for school children
Exam stress clearly affects children in the UK, and there’s some evidence from counselling services and school leaders that it’s a growing problem. Read
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Economy, Business & Finance
Government defence spending is 2% of GDP
In 2015, the Conservative government pledged to spend 2% of GDP on the armed forces budget in every year that decade. It has never been below this level on record. Read
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Education
Nearly 2 million more children are in good or outstanding schools since 2010
An increasing proportion of children are in ‘good’ schools, while a decreasing proportion are in ‘requires improvement’ schools. Read
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Economy, Business & Finance
Falsely claiming to live alone accounts for around 9% of benefit fraud
Benefit claimants saying they were single, when in fact they lived as a couple with another person, was probably the fourth most common type of benefit fraud in 2016/17. Read
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Fact checking claims made by politicians, public figures and viral online content can give you the full picture backed by the evidence.
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