Baroness Lister of Burtersett

Every child, regardless of their background or family circumstances, deserves the opportunity to progress and succeed in school and beyond. There is no place for hate or prejudice in our education system.

Under the Equality Act 2010, schools must not discriminate against a pupil in a number of respects because of a characteristic protected by the Act.

The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies, including maintained schools and academies, to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the Act; advance equality of opportunity for people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and foster good relations across all characteristics.

The department has published guidance for schools on how to comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010, which is attached and can also be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.

The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Curriculum and Assessment Review will seek to deliver a curriculum that reflects the issues and diversities of our society, ensuring all children and young people benefit from a curriculum that represents them and their families. When the reforms coming out of the review are implemented, the department intends that all schools will be required to teach the core National Curriculum.

The review group has recently launched a call for evidence, setting out a number of key questions and themes where it would particularly welcome evidence and input.

The department respects the autonomy of schools and teachers in terms of what resources they choose to use or recommend to their individual pupils, based on individual need in their own educational context and circumstances.

School Initial Teacher Training (ITT) courses must be designed so that trainee teachers can demonstrate that they meet all of the Teachers’ Standards at the end of their course.

Part Two of the Teachers’ Standards covers personal and professional conduct and specifically includes "not undermining fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs".

The Equality Act 2010 requires accredited ITT providers to ensure that they are not discriminating against applicants on the basis of any protected characteristics.

The government is determined that the higher education (HE) funding system should deliver for the economy, for universities and for students and will look carefully at all options and come forward with proposals.

Funding plans for the HE sector will be set out at the relevant fiscal event, in line with the approach to public spending commitments across government. ​​

All HE providers registered with the Office for Students (OfS), that intend to charge higher fees, must have an Access and Participation Plan (APP) approved by the OfS. These need to set out the underrepresented groups they will support and the ways that they will do so. Interventions can include tutoring disadvantaged students in the local area, but also activities such as academy sponsorship, outreach, summer schools and student bursaries. HE providers are expected to evaluate their interventions to demonstrate effectiveness.

There have been no further publications since 2019 on the gender of the bank account holder for UC.

A flag was developed to identify lead carers in our administrative data in July 2023, to enable us to monitor the rollout of the 2023 changes to lead carer conditionality. Based on data from October 2024, there were around 825,000 lead carers in receipt of UC with a couple claim: 87% are female, 13% are male. The tables below provide a breakdown of some further characteristics:

Characteristics of lead carers who are part of a couple claim on Universal Credit, October 2024

Note: totals may not sum to 100% due to rounding. These figures are from DWP administrative data.

We are committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to do. We have begun this work with the announcement of the Fair Repayment Rate in the Budget and we will continue to work with stakeholders closely as the review progresses. We will regularly update Parliament on progress.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of benefits and State Pensions, based on a review of trends in prices and earnings growth in the preceding year. The Secretary of State announced her decisions to Parliament on 30 October.

The basic and new state pensions, and the standard minimum guarantee in pension credit, will be increased by 4.1%, in line with the increase in average weekly earnings in the year to May-July 2024. Other state pension and benefit rates covered by the statutory review will be increased by 1.7%, in line with the increase in the consumer prices index in the year to September 2024. The full list of proposed State Pension and benefit rates for 2025/26 will be published in November.

This increases expenditure on state pensions and benefits by £6.9 billion in 2025/26 compared with not uprating in 25/26, of which, £4.7 billion will be from state pensions and pensioner benefits, £0.9 billion from disability and carers benefits, and £1.2 billion from working-age benefits.

Statistics on the number and type of families and individuals in families benefitting from the uprating of benefits, were also made available on 30 October. Further detail can be found here Benefit uprating: estimated number and type of families and individuals in families benefitting from the uprating of benefits in financial year 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

No estimate has been made of what the total cost for all types of benefits available to working age adults and children would be for each 0.1 per cent increment increase in April 2025.

In the latest year [2022-23] of the Family Resources Survey approximately 11% of adults were black or minority ethnic individuals. This sample is large enough to provide income and poverty data breakdowns by ethnicity.

The Family Resources Survey sample is drawn by address with stratification of postcode areas by economic standing, such that the achieved sample is representative by economic status. The FRS sample is not drawn by any family characteristic, protected or otherwise, because only the address is known at the point of draw; the address’ occupants are unknown until the later stage of interview. Thus, there is no direct mechanism to alter the issued sample to increase the number of black or minority ethnic families.

We already publish accredited official statistics, including poverty data broken down by ethnicity, in the annual Family Resources Survey-based Households below average income (HBAI) statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)(opens in a new tab).

In addition, we use the Family Resources Survey data to publish additional low income data by ethnicity in the Ethnicity Facts and Figures portal - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk_ (opens in new tab).

Statistics on the ethnic group of those who have received a Universal Credit (UC) adverse sanction decision from April 2023 to April 2024, are available in section 4.2 of the latest release of the Benefit Sanction Statistics publication and in table 7.1 on the latest data tables on the GOV.UK website.

However, these statistics are descriptive and as such do not facilitate consideration of disparities. To measure any disparities would require analysis of the sanction rate, which is calculated by dividing the number of claimants undergoing a sanction by the number of UC claimants who are in conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied, at a point in time.

The level of ethnicity declarations for those claimants included within the sanction rate measure, which would be needed to assess any disparities, has not reached the minimum level of 70% in any month. The Department will continue to monitor the level of ethnicity declarations in relation to the sanction rate with the goal of publishing statistics on sanction rate and ethnicity once the 70% threshold is reached.

No estimates have been published.

While we cannot commit to changing the two child policy at this time, tackling child poverty is at the heart of the Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and improve the life chances of every child. This is why the child poverty taskforce will look at all available levers to reduce child poverty, including social security reforms, before publishing a strategy in Spring 2025.

The taskforce will engage external experts throughout the strategy development process including through a rolling programme of meetings, with sessions built thematically to bring together a broad range of experts on specific topics.

The Government also recognises the importance of capturing the experiences of those living in poverty which is why the taskforce will also draw on findings from wider external engagement events in all regions and nations of the UK. These events will convene a broader range of voices, including bringing in the perspectives of families and children themselves.

No assessment has been made.

Our Back to Work Plan will provide further support and help to improve the lives of working people. People who are working and earning money are much less likely to be affected by the benefit cap.

Customers can apply to their local authority to be considered for additional financial support through Discretionary Housing Payments or the Household Support Fund.

The Government has announced funding to extend the Household Support Fund (HSF) for a further 6 months, from 1 October 2024 until 31 March 2025.

An additional £421 million will be provided to enable the extension of the HSF in England, plus funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion, as usual.

As with previous HSF schemes, the Fund will be made available to County Councils and Unitary Authorities in England to provide discretionary support to those most in need.

The HSF scheme guidance and individual Local Authority funding allocations for the forthcoming extension will be announced as soon as possible ahead of the scheme beginning on 1 October 2024.

DWP is conducting an evaluation of the fourth iteration of the Household Support Fund. This includes research with a selection of representative Local Authority case study areas, consisting of interviews with Local Authority officials and their delivery partners, and surveys and interviews with recipients of the HSF. This evaluation will provide key evidence on how Local Authorities are delivering the scheme, and their experiences of doing so, as well as the effectiveness of the funding for recipients.

The new Ministerial Taskforce will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of our ambitious new strategy in line with the Opportunity Mission.

We will continue to engage with leading organisations, charities, campaigners and parents to shape and inform these plans. After initial engagement, the formal work to develop the new child poverty strategy will begin, and the Taskforce terms of reference will be published in the coming weeks. Recognising the wide-ranging causes of child poverty, we will explore how we can use all the available levers we have across government and wider society to drive forward the change our children need.

No recent estimates have been published but external estimates are available. Tacking child poverty is at the heart of this Government's mission to break down barriers to opportunity. Our new Ministerial Taskforce will oversee the development of an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty, tackle its root causes, and give every child the best start to life.

The new Ministerial Taskforce will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of our ambitious new strategy in line with the Opportunity Mission.

We will continue to engage with leading organisations, charities, campaigners and parents to shape and inform these plans. After initial engagement, the formal work to develop the new child poverty strategy will begin, and the Taskforce terms of reference will be published in the coming weeks. Recognising the wide-ranging causes of child poverty, we will explore how we can use all the available levers we have across government and wider society to drive forward the change our children need.

The new Ministerial Taskforce will drive cross-government action on child poverty, starting with overseeing the development of our ambitious new strategy in line with the Opportunity Mission.

We will continue to engage with leading organisations, charities, campaigners and parents to shape and inform these plans. After initial engagement, the formal work to develop the new child poverty strategy will begin, and the Taskforce terms of reference will be published in the coming weeks. Recognising the wide-ranging causes of child poverty, we will explore how we can use all the available levers we have across government and wider society to drive forward the change our children need.

We are determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly. Clearing the asylum backlog is our priority.

It is a financial necessity to start clearing the asylum backlog so that those costs do not continue to mount up at the expense of the taxpayer. The Home Secretary changed the law to remove the retrospective application of the Illegal Migration Act. This allows decision-makers to decide asylum claims from individuals who have arrived in the UK from 7 March 2023. Asylum interviews have commenced, and asylum claims are now being decided for individuals who arrived in the UK from 7 March 2023.

The Home Office continues to invest in a programme of transformation and business improvement initiatives to speed up and simplify decision making, reduce the time people spend in the asylum system and decrease the number of people who are awaiting an interview or decision.

In line with the duties introduced by the Equality Act 2010, the Home Office undertakes an equality impact assessment whenever decisions are taken on policy relating to registering statutory rights to British citizenship. Most recently, equality impact assessments were undertaken when changes were made to Section 3(1) British Nationality Act 1981 and on the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.

There are various provisions within the British Nationality Act 1981 that allow for children born in the UK to register as British citizens. The Home Office has published clear and easy to follow guidance for applications under each of these sections. Home Office caseworkers are trained to carry out their duties to ensure that those who apply and meet the statutory requirements are granted citizenship.

In line with the duties introduced by the Equality Act 2010, the Home Office undertakes an equality impact assessment whenever decisions are taken on policy relating to registering statutory rights to British citizenship. Most recently, equality impact assessments were undertaken when changes were made to Section 3(1) British Nationality Act 1981 and on the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.

There are various provisions within the British Nationality Act 1981 that allow for children born in the UK to register as British citizens. The Home Office has published clear and easy to follow guidance for applications under each of these sections. Home Office caseworkers are trained to carry out their duties to ensure that those who apply and meet the statutory requirements are granted citizenship.

In line with the duties introduced by the Equality Act 2010, the Home Office undertakes an equality impact assessment whenever decisions are taken on policy relating to registering statutory rights to British citizenship. Most recently, equality impact assessments were undertaken when changes were made to Section 3(1) British Nationality Act 1981 and on the introduction of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.

There are various provisions within the British Nationality Act 1981 that allow for children born in the UK to register as British citizens. The Home Office has published clear and easy to follow guidance for applications under each of these sections. Home Office caseworkers are trained to carry out their duties to ensure that those who apply and meet the statutory requirements are granted citizenship.

The Home Office regularly engages with local authorities to support them in ensuring that children in local authority care, who are not already British citizens, can make an appropriate application for registration for citizenship. Children in local authority care are not required to pay an application fee when applying for registration as a British citizen.

In most cases, local authorities have access to the information needed to establish the citizenship rights and apply for registration for children in their care. Where there are evidence gaps, the Home Office will assist any applicant by checking information held in its records to confirm a claim.

Following the implementation of the British Nationality Act 1981, a range of explanatory material was prepared to support those affected by changes made by the Act. This material has been maintained and now forms part of the content of the relevant GOV.UK pages. The Home Office maintains published customer guidance for every British citizenship and nationality route, and also provides a British nationality status confirmation service.

The Home Office regularly engages with local authorities to support them in ensuring that children in local authority care, who are not already British citizens, can make an appropriate application for registration for citizenship. Children in local authority care are not required to pay an application fee when applying for registration as a British citizen.

In most cases, local authorities have access to the information needed to establish the citizenship rights and apply for registration for children in their care. Where there are evidence gaps, the Home Office will assist any applicant by checking information held in its records to confirm a claim.

Following the implementation of the British Nationality Act 1981, a range of explanatory material was prepared to support those affected by changes made by the Act. This material has been maintained and now forms part of the content of the relevant GOV.UK pages. The Home Office maintains published customer guidance for every British citizenship and nationality route, and also provides a British nationality status confirmation service.

The Home Office regularly engages with local authorities to support them in ensuring that children in local authority care, who are not already British citizens, can make an appropriate application for registration for citizenship. Children in local authority care are not required to pay an application fee when applying for registration as a British citizen.

In most cases, local authorities have access to the information needed to establish the citizenship rights and apply for registration for children in their care. Where there are evidence gaps, the Home Office will assist any applicant by checking information held in its records to confirm a claim.

Following the implementation of the British Nationality Act 1981, a range of explanatory material was prepared to support those affected by changes made by the Act. This material has been maintained and now forms part of the content of the relevant GOV.UK pages. The Home Office maintains published customer guidance for every British citizenship and nationality route, and also provides a British nationality status confirmation service.