Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Prime Minister, or the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, undertook an equality impact assessment, and considered the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010, when deciding to remove the portrait of the first female Prime Minister from the Downing Street study.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The portrait continues to hang in 10 Downing Street.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 7 August (HL346), whether this clothing policy applies to all staff in the Department for Work and Pensions.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The DWP’s standards of behaviour statement requires employees to dress in a professional and business-like way. Professional and business-like has a normal, everyday meaning.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the then Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office on 14 May (HCWS464), whether they will place in the Library of the House a list of every diversity network recognised (1) across government, and (2) within individual departments, broken down by department.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are no current plans to place a list of every diversity network recognised (1) across government, and (2) within individual departments, broken down by department in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the motion proposed at the PCS Union’s annual conference 2023 requesting the establishment of a staff support network for Bondage, Domination, Sadism, and Masochism; and what representations, if any, they have received from PCS Union in this regard.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The PCS union has not made any representations to the Cabinet Office with regard to this matter and therefore we have not made any assessment of the motion.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consider Bondage, Domination, Sadism, and Masochism to be a protected characteristic within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Equality Act (2010) contains nine protected characteristics, which include age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Section 12 defines sexual orientation as being an orientation toward people of the same, oppositie, or either sex. The Equality Act protects orientation – sexual acts such as those described are not included within that definition.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to make it a criminal offence to misgender an individual.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has no such plans.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy on civil servants wearing fetish clothing in the workplace.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Within the Civil Service, workplace dress code is delegated to individual departments to decide as part of their terms and conditions of service.
Civil Servants are required to dress appropriately for work and this would not include fetish clothing.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of sobriety tagging schemes, particularly for those convicted of serious assaults or domestic violence where alcohol was a factor.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
In advance of legislating for the introduction of the Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) for community based sentences to tackle alcohol related offending, the Government contributed to funding for two pilots to ensure robust evaluation of the effectiveness of the measure. The pilots were carried out in London and in the North East of England and findings informed the introduction of AAMR in 2020. AAMR enables courts to impose an alcohol ban of up to 120 days on adult offenders who are not alcohol dependent, compliance is monitored using an alcohol tag.
Alcohol monitoring on licence was introduced in 2021 and enables probation to include an additional licence condition banning or restricting the consumption of alcohol, where a criminogenic need related to alcohol misuse is identified as an increase to risk. Funding has been allocated for evaluation of the processes, impact and value for money. A process and interim impact evaluation are expected to be published by the end of 2025. A full reoffending analysis and value-for-money assessment are expected by the end of 2026.
Evaluations published to date can be accessed via the links below:
MOPAC’s AAMR Final Impact Evaluation Report, December 2020 - aamr_final_impact_report_100521.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: A review of process and performance from Year 2, July 2018 - aamr_final_process_performance_y2_report_final.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement The pan London roll out: A review of process and performance from year 1, July 2017 - AAMR Interim Report (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: South London Pilot Indicative Impact Report, April 2017 - Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (london.gov.uk).
HNLY Pilot Process Evaluation Report, October 2019 - Evaluation-of-the-AAMR-tagging-pilot.pdf (northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk).
The AAMR pilot in the North-East focused on domestic abuse perpetrators, the process evaluation shows that 31% of wearers were convicted of a domestic violence offence. Compliance with the alcohol ban shows that the devices did not register a tamper or alcohol alert on 97.4% of the days worn. The impact evaluation (including for reoffending) is underway for this pilot and is also intended to be published.
The evaluations to date and published statistics have shown a strong uptake of alcohol monitoring by courts and probation. The number of individuals fitted with an alcohol monitoring (AM) device as at 31 March 2024 was 2,862, a 27% increase over the previous 12 months. There were 12,506 new alcohol monitoring orders imposed across England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2024. Overall, 24,305 new alcohol monitoring orders have been imposed since their introduction against an ambition of 12,000 by 2025 and compliance with the alcohol ban has remained consistent at over 97% for the total of days monitored. Electronic Monitoring Statistics Publication, March 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of sobriety tagging schemes.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
In advance of legislating for the introduction of the Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) for community based sentences to tackle alcohol related offending, the Government contributed to funding for two pilots to ensure robust evaluation of the effectiveness of the measure. The pilots were carried out in London and in the North East of England and findings informed the introduction of AAMR in 2020. AAMR enables courts to impose an alcohol ban of up to 120 days on adult offenders who are not alcohol dependent, compliance is monitored using an alcohol tag.
Alcohol monitoring on licence was introduced in 2021 and enables probation to include an additional licence condition banning or restricting the consumption of alcohol, where a criminogenic need related to alcohol misuse is identified as an increase to risk. Funding has been allocated for evaluation of the processes, impact and value for money. A process and interim impact evaluation are expected to be published by the end of 2025. A full reoffending analysis and value-for-money assessment are expected by the end of 2026.
Evaluations published to date can be accessed via the links below:
MOPAC’s AAMR Final Impact Evaluation Report, December 2020 - aamr_final_impact_report_100521.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: A review of process and performance from Year 2, July 2018 - aamr_final_process_performance_y2_report_final.pdf (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement The pan London roll out: A review of process and performance from year 1, July 2017 - AAMR Interim Report (london.gov.uk).
Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement: South London Pilot Indicative Impact Report, April 2017 - Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (london.gov.uk).
HNLY Pilot Process Evaluation Report, October 2019 - Evaluation-of-the-AAMR-tagging-pilot.pdf (northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk).
The AAMR pilot in the North-East focused on domestic abuse perpetrators, the process evaluation shows that 31% of wearers were convicted of a domestic violence offence. Compliance with the alcohol ban shows that the devices did not register a tamper or alcohol alert on 97.4% of the days worn. The impact evaluation (including for reoffending) is underway for this pilot and is also intended to be published.
The evaluations to date and published statistics have shown a strong uptake of alcohol monitoring by courts and probation. The number of individuals fitted with an alcohol monitoring (AM) device as at 31 March 2024 was 2,862, a 27% increase over the previous 12 months. There were 12,506 new alcohol monitoring orders imposed across England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2024. Overall, 24,305 new alcohol monitoring orders have been imposed since their introduction against an ambition of 12,000 by 2025 and compliance with the alcohol ban has remained consistent at over 97% for the total of days monitored. Electronic Monitoring Statistics Publication, March 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Food Data Transparency Partnership’s decision not to make reporting on health data mandatory, what steps they are taking to ensure enforcement of and consistency in the voluntary scheme.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Food Data Transparency Partnership’s (FDTP) Health Working Group (HWG) has been testing the effectiveness and quality of potential standardised metrics that food and drink companies can use to report on the healthiness of their sales. This is an important part of government’s strategy to address poor diet and reduce obesity and was restated in the Major Conditions Strategy interim report August 2023.
Once a recommended set of metrics and reporting guidance has been produced and approved by Ministers, the expectation is that businesses who voluntarily report will all follow this standardised approach.
A key commitment of the HWG is timely and transparent communication so that wider food sector stakeholders can input into each stage of the process in order to ensure recommendations around comparability and enforcement will be as viable and effective as possible. Alongside engagement with industry, the FDTP also regularly engages civil society organisations and investor groups to gather and integrate wider feedback into discussions. Summaries of these HWG discussions are published online on the FDTP GOV.UK page.