Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with arm’s-length bodies regarding civil action being taken against their staff due to gender-critical views.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government cannot comment on individual cases of civil action within arm’s length bodies.
Sponsor departments are responsible for maintaining the relationship between the government and its arm’s length bodies. This includes ensuring appropriate discussions about ongoing issues are held.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether government departments give equal consideration and status to staff sex equality and equity networks as they do to LGBT+ and other diversity groupings.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
All formally recognised cross-government equality, diversity and inclusion networks are given equal consideration. The Cabinet Office oversees cross-government equality, diversity and inclusion networks. Management of departmental equality, diversity and inclusion networks is delegated to departments.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on Civil Service and other Government staff adding membership or support logos to their official email or correspondence signatures.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There is no central policy on email signatures in the Civil Service. Individual departments may choose to provide their civil servants with guidance on this matter. Civil servants should of course be mindful of the core values in the Civil Service Code, including ensuring anything included in their signatures maintains their commitment to impartiality.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are planning to amend the terms of reference of (1) the House of Lords Appointments Commission, (2) the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, (3) the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests, or (4) the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government is a government of service and it is committed to restoring trust and confidence in public life. We will establish a new independent Ethics and Integrity Commission, with its own independent Chair. We will ensure that this Commission has the powers and remit necessary to fulfil its responsibilities. The terms of reference of other public bodies are kept under review and updated in line with good practice.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to make regulations under section 2(5) of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 to amend section 2(3) of that Act to cover communications to a special adviser, as defined in that Act.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
With reference to PQ 1250 and PQ 1251 from 23rd July of this year, the Government is committed to establishing a new independent Ethics and Integrity Commission. As part of that, the government will consider whether any changes are required to improve transparency around lobbying and will update Parliament as necessary.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to revise the Ministerial Code.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As the Prime Minister has made clear, public service is a privilege. When meeting with his new Cabinet for the first time, the Prime Minister was clear about the standards he expects of all ministers.
The Prime Minister will issue a Ministerial Code in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the outcome of the Department of Health and Social Care consultation on patients' rights to request medical treatment (1) from someone of the same biological sex and (2) on single-sex wards, where "sex" refers to biological sex.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Earlier this year, there was a consultation on a series of updates to the NHS Constitution, which included a section on sex and gender, and which made commitments relating to same-sex accommodation, intimate care, and gendered language. Analysis of the responses to the consultation is currently in progress, and a decision on the outcome of this process will be made in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to undertake research on headlight glare, in response to the parliamentary petition on headlight dazzle.
Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Yes. The government is in the process of commissioning independent research to better understand the root causes of headlamp glare and help identify potential countermeasures.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether public money grants to bodies such as ParkRun are conditional on them adhering to the Public Sector Equality Duty; and whether particular funds to promote women’s activity rates then collect monitoring data by biological sex.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is a statutory duty set out in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, which applies to public authorities and other bodies who exercise public functions.
The monitoring and reporting criteria for funding programmes is determined by the awarding body based on an overall assessment of the fund objectives. If the funded organisation is a public authority or a body that exercises a public function, then that organisation will be legally obliged to comply with the PSED as a result of section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.
Parkrun does not provide participation data by sex or gender to Sport England.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Sport England about the options for children in responding to questionnaires of “Boy/ Girl/ Other/ Prefer not to say”.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government regularly discusses approaches to surveying with Sport England but has not held discussions on this topic specifically.