Question

To ask His Majesty's Government on how many occasions ministers have met representatives of Stonewall, and on what dates, since 4 July 2024.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Ministers’ meetings are a matter of public record, and are published periodically on gov.uk.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to concerns expressed by the president of the British Rabbinical Union’s on the potential impact of clauses 25 and 26 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill on Jewish and other religious education.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)

The department respects the work of yeshivas and other institutions in providing education to the Jewish community.

Parents are legally allowed to educate their children at home, providing this education is suitable. However, the department is aware of rising numbers of children not on a school roll due to them either being home educated, attending full-time non-school alternative provision or missing education completely, and we are concerned that some of these children may not be receiving a suitable education or known to the local authority at all.

As part of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the government will introduce compulsory Children Not in School registers in every local authority in England. These measures will help authorities to identify children that need support and to take prompt, appropriate action when needed.

The government’s proposal to require registration with the local authority will not interfere with parents’ right to educate their child in a way and with methods as they think best and appropriate, provided that the education being received by the child is suitable.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to expand the recording of non-crime hate incidents.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Secretary has been clear that a consistent and common-sense approach must be taken with non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs). The Government has also been clear that its top priority for policing is delivering on the Safer Streets mission to rebuild neighbourhood policing and making progress on its ambition to halve knife crime and violence against women and girls.

The Home Office has agreed that the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), supported by the College of Policing, will conduct a review on the use and effectiveness of non-crime hate incidents.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assistance they have offered the Catholic community in Loikaw, Myanmar, following the military occupation of Christ the King Cathedral in 2023; and what assessment they have made of the humanitarian needs of religious communities affected by the conflict.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK Government is committed to defending religious freedom for all in Myanmar. We continue to raise our concerns about discrimination of religious minorities in multilateral fora, including through our co-sponsorship of a UN Human Rights Council resolution on Myanmar in April, which underscored the importance of addressing the root cause of violations against religious minorities, including Christians. Additionally, we provide funding to the UN's Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar and have established the Myanmar Witness programme to collect and preserve evidence of violations and abuses, including atrocities against religious minority groups within Myanmar.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of mandatory training for NHS England employees Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Human Rights Skills, published in August 2024; and whether they will place a copy of any training materials in the Library of the House.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Human Rights Skills training has been withdrawn by NHS England. There are currently no plans to have a copy of the training materials in the Library of the House.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for the Department of Health and Social Care on 22 October 2024 (4235), what their policy is on the use of the phrase "pregnant people" by the NHS, in place of sex-specific language such as “pregnant women” or “pregnant women and girls”.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The National Health Service website aims to provide health advice and guidance that is clear and easy to understand, and that helps everyone who uses the website find the information they need, so they can make informed decisions about their own health.

This Government believes in an approach to equality that benefits all groups, not some groups at the expense of others. As part of this, we understand the need for health information to be as clear as possible and to use language that is grounded in biological sex. Using the right language is crucial to ensure patients, including women, receive the dignity and inclusion they should expect when accessing services. However, we recognise that for some people, their gender identity is different from their biological sex.

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the policy of the Government People Group and the Office for Equality and Opportunity on central government bodies affiliating to Stonewall using public funds.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

I refer the noble Lord to the answer given to the Rt Hon Claire Coutinho MP on 30 January 2025 by Minister Gould which states that:

‘Government departments 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’.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office on 7 February (HC27716), what is the timetable for publishing the diversity dataset from the Civil Service equality, diversity and inclusion review; and why it cannot yet be published.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The data from the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Expenditure Review will be published in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Collins of Highbury on 4 November 2024 (HL1875), what the policy is of (1) the Department for Health and Social Care and (2) NHS England, on recognising species dysphoria, in relation to (a) cats, (b) dogs, and (c) llamas.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Neither the Department nor NHS England has a specific policy on recognising species dysphoria.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 16 September 2024 (HL694), what funding the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has allocated to Stonewall in 2024 and 2025, broken down by each individual programme; what is the rationale for any funding; whether the funding was subject to competitive tender; and what assessment has been made of the appropriateness of government funding for Stonewall overseas.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office collaborates closely with a variety of civil society organisations to advance His Majesty's Government's commitment to defending the human rights and freedoms of LGBT+ people globally.

Following an open call for proposals in June 2023, Stonewall was awarded £649,979 to deliver programme activities in 2024 and 2025. This funding was used to support the most vulnerable LGBT+ people who were victims or at risk of violence or even death due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.

A breakdown of funding for each individual programme is provided in the table below.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 5 December (HL1878) and the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office on 12 February (HC28577), whether they have decided to discontinue the review on equality, diversity and inclusion training in the Armed Forces.

Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave him on 19 December 2024, to Question HL3228, in which I stated that following the review into Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), Defence has accelerated work to restructure and consolidate its staff networks into a smaller number, is conducting an audit of our training programmes to ensure that they deliver high-quality, valuable content, and will ensure that future partnerships and consultancy spend on EDI projects have a clearer focus on return on investment.

The Ministry of Defence remains committed to making the step changes required to create a more inclusive environment, enabling everyone, irrespective of background, to deliver our Defence outputs and enhance our operational effectiveness.

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Found: St Johns; Baroness Ashton of Upholland; Lord Frost; Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town; Lord Jackson of Peterborough

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