Baroness Stedman-Scott

Decisions regarding internal departmental roles are for departments to make. The Office for Equality and Opportunity does not hold records relating to such roles.

We established the Office for Equality and Opportunity to lead work to ensure that whoever you are, wherever you come from, and irrespective of your race or ethnicity, Britain is a country that will respect your contribution and give you a fair chance to get on in life.

Officials in the OEO are working across government to tackle race inequalities, including through our Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, announced in the King’s Speech, which will introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for larger employers and extend the right to make equal pay claims to ethnic minority and disabled people.

In our manifesto, we committed to modernising, simplifying, and reforming gender recognition law. We will remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance whilst retaining the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

We will set out our next steps on this work in due course, including on any consultation and the appropriate legislative vehicle for reform.

Yes. The Government uses the term LGBT+ to reflect the breadth and diversity of the community as well as the preferences of most LGBT+ people. This term also resonates with language used by international partners and institutions. Whilst this is the Government's standard terminology, there may be occasions where it is appropriate to utilise variations that reflect a narrower or wider focus.

The call for input, published under the previous Government, closed on 26 June. We are currently reviewing the responses and considering the next steps. We will share further details, including the number of valid responses, in due course.

Decisions on recruitment are delegated to departments. They are responsible for ensuring their policies are compliant with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles and any other relevant legislation such as, in this instance, the Equality Act 2010.

As was the case under the previous administration, there is no list of gender identities recognised by the Government People Group or Office for Equality and Opportunity.

Government departments and arm’s-length bodies are responsible for decisions about whether to buy services from third sector organisations to support equality, diversity and inclusion in their organisations. Currently no government department is a member of Stonewall.

The original date for final reporting was the end of August 2024. However, the review is ongoing to ensure that all stakeholders have been properly engaged, and to ensure the complex topics within the report are appropriately considered.

Upon final receipt of the full report, the government will consider next steps, including publication.

The Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education consultation received over 143,000 responses. These are currently being analysed and the findings, including analytics about the respondents, will be published once my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has had an opportunity to look at them carefully, alongside discussing with stakeholders and considering the relevant evidence, including the Cass Review which has since been published, before setting out next steps.

The consultation did not ask respondents to disclose the organisation they represent, and responses from organisations were only categorised by type, such as school, local authority, union or charity so we are unable to provide a comprehensive list.

Statistics published on 28 November, show that 150,000 Pension Credit claims were received between 29 July and 11 November Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2024 - GOV.UK

The total outstanding Pension Credit claims as at the end of week commencing 18^th November 2024 was 91,075. This includes 9,343 advanced claims where the application can be started up to 4 months before reaching State Pension age.

These figures are taken from data held on DWP’s Pension Credit system. This is collected for internal departmental operations use only and whilst it is the best source of information available, it is not intended for publication or quality assured to National Statistics standards.

The Department is significantly increasing the resource on Pension Credit to ensure it processes claims as quickly as possible, with around 500 additional staff to support the increase in applications generated from the successful Pension Credit take-up campaign.

If a claim is made by 21 December, Pension Credit can be backdated for three months if the entitlement conditions have been met throughout that period, and if the claimant was eligible, they would also receive a Winter Fuel Payment.

We are unable to advise how many claims for Pension Credit have been made and then awarded since 29 July 2024. This is because the Department currently reports clearance times by the week the claim was cleared, rather than the week the claim was made. As such this information is not currently available.

However, statistics published on 28 November, show that 42,500 Pension Credit Claims were awarded between 29 July and 11 November Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2024 - GOV.UK.

We are unable to provide information on how many claims made for Pension Credit in the calendar year of 2023 were subsequently awarded. This is because the Department currently reports awards numbers by the week the claim was cleared, rather than the week the claim was made.

The total number of Pension Credit awards made in the 2023 calendar year was 145,200.

Please note, the data shown is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.

We are unable to provide information on how many claims made for Pension Credit in the financial year of 2023 were subsequently awarded. This is because the Department currently reports awards numbers by the week the claim was cleared, rather than the week the claim was made.

The total number of Pension Credit awards made in the 2023–24 financial year was 133,500.

Please note, the data shown is unpublished management information, collected and intended for internal departmental use and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard.