Baroness Maclean of Redditch

Each application for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) is independently evaluated by the Gender Recognition Panel, underpinned by a range of required evidence. Certificates are only granted to those who meet the criteria, and not everyone who applies is granted one and circumstances are taken into account.

In order to be granted a GRC, an applicant must meet a high threshold of requirements:

• Be over 18
• Provide minimum of 2 years’ worth of evidence that they are living in their acquired gender
• Provide a medical report confirming a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a UK doctor
• Provide a medical report countersigning the diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a psychiatrist or another doctor
• Provide a signed statutory declaration that the applicant intends to remain in their acquired gender until death.

There are safeguards in place to ensure that the relevant authorities can manage the risk posed by sex offenders. These include a requirement for registered sex offenders to notify the police of any changes to their personal information such as change of name. Furthermore, as previously stated, the police can require registered sex offenders to notify them of an intended change of name at least seven days in advance of using it. If a person with any criminal record were to obtain a GRC, this would not remove or invalidate past sentences served in their previous gender.

We continue to monitor these arrangements to ensure they safeguard the public.

Each application for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) is independently evaluated by the Gender Recognition Panel, underpinned by a range of required evidence. Certificates are only granted to those who meet the criteria, and not everyone who applies is granted one and circumstances are taken into account.

In order to be granted a GRC, an applicant must meet a high threshold of requirements:

• Be over 18
• Provide minimum of 2 years’ worth of evidence that they are living in their acquired gender
• Provide a medical report confirming a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a UK doctor
• Provide a medical report countersigning the diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a psychiatrist or another doctor
• Provide a signed statutory declaration that the applicant intends to remain in their acquired gender until death.

There are safeguards in place to ensure that the relevant authorities can manage the risk posed by sex offenders. These include a requirement for registered sex offenders to notify the police of any changes to their personal information such as change of name. Furthermore, as previously stated, the police can require registered sex offenders to notify them of an intended change of name at least seven days in advance of using it. If a person with any criminal record were to obtain a GRC, this would not remove or invalidate past sentences served in their previous gender.

We continue to monitor these arrangements to ensure they safeguard the public.

Each application for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) is independently evaluated by the Gender Recognition Panel, underpinned by a range of required evidence. Certificates are only granted to those who meet the criteria, and not everyone who applies is granted one and circumstances are taken into account.

In order to be granted a GRC, an applicant must meet a high threshold of requirements:

• Be over 18
• Provide minimum of 2 years’ worth of evidence that they are living in their acquired gender
• Provide a medical report confirming a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a UK doctor
• Provide a medical report countersigning the diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a psychiatrist or another doctor
• Provide a signed statutory declaration that the applicant intends to remain in their acquired gender until death.

There are safeguards in place to ensure that the relevant authorities can manage the risk posed by sex offenders. These include a requirement for registered sex offenders to notify the police of any changes to their personal information such as change of name. Furthermore, as previously stated, the police can require registered sex offenders to notify them of an intended change of name at least seven days in advance of using it. If a person with any criminal record were to obtain a GRC, this would not remove or invalidate past sentences served in their previous gender.

We continue to monitor these arrangements to ensure they safeguard the public.

The For Women Scotland Ltd vs The Scottish Ministers judgment ruled that for the purposes of the Equality Act, “woman” is a biological woman. The ruling makes clear that a Gender Recognition Certificate does not change a person’s sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has submitted a draft Code of Practice to Ministers, and we are reviewing it with the care it deserves. The Code concerns how the Equality Act 2010 applies to services, associations and those exercising public functions.

There are significant safeguards built into the process for obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) under the Gender Recognition Act 2004; not everyone who applies is granted one. Additionally, there are safeguards in place to ensure that the relevant authorities can manage the risk posed by sex offenders. These include a requirement for registered sex offenders to notify the police of any changes to their personal information such as change of name. Alongside this, His Majesty’s Passport Office monitors high-risk offenders to ensure they cannot obtain a new passport without police consultation. Failure to comply with requirements in this area is a criminal offence.

The Crime and Policing Bill will introduce a range of legislative changes which will strengthen the management of registered sex offenders, including where they aim to change their name.

Where the police consider it necessary to protect the public or children or vulnerable adults from sexual harm, they will be able to serve a notice on offenders requiring them to seek the police’s authorisation before applying to change their name on a specified identity document (namely, a UK passport, driving licence or immigration document).

Police will also be able to require registered sex offenders to notify them of an intended change of name at least seven days in advance of using it, or if that is not reasonably practicable, as far in advance of their using it as it is reasonably practicable.

We continue to monitor these arrangements to ensure they safeguard the public.

Yes the answer was correct at the time of writing.

The Government has published 29 Impact Assessments representing a comprehensive package of analysis on the impact of the Employment Rights Act: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments. Each Impact Assessment considers how impacts may vary depending on business size and includes an estimation of the potential compliance costs.

On Wednesday 7 January, the Government published the Enactment Summary Impact Assessment for the Employment Rights Act 2025. This forms part of a comprehensive package of 29 Impact Assessments analysing the impact of the Act: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments. As per our Better Regulation requirements, each Impact Assessment includes a small and micro business assessment.

The Government has published 29 Impact Assessments representing a comprehensive package of analysis on the impact of the Employment Rights Act: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments. As per our Better Regulation requirements, each Impact Assessment includes a small and micro business assessment.

The Government will be publishing an Enactment Impact Assessment on the impacts of the Employment Rights Act. This assessment can be found here when published: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments

My department has published a robust set of Impact Assessments that provide a comprehensive analysis on the potential impact of the Employment Rights Act, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments

This analysis includes consideration of increases in labour costs for businesses and the subsequent effects, as well as assessments on how the proposed zero hour contract measures could affect different groups in the labour market. The impact on younger people and students will depend on the regulations following consultation, however it is important to note the measures will focus on exploitative zero hours contracts to ensure people are able to access guaranteed hours. For those who want to remain on a zero hours contract, for example many students, they will still be able to.

A greater proportion of our school children are educated in special schools than at any time in the past fifty years.

For the first time in 2023, the school capacity survey asked local authorities to provide data on the capacity of special schools and the capacity of special education needs (SEN) units and resourced provision in mainstream schools, as well as their forecast future demand for specialist provision. This is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/school-capacity-in-england-academic-year-2023-to-2024.

Since 2015/16, the number of children in all types of special schools has increased from 115,000 to 200,000 in 2024/25. The number of specialist placements overall is expected to continue to increase based on current trends.

The department also collects numbers of pupils on roll with SEN through the school census with data from 2025/26 onwards. Data is published by type of provision and can be accessed here at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/special-educational-needs-in-england-january-2025.

Every child deserves an education that meets their needs, is academically stretching, where they feel like they belong, and that sets them up for life and work

As part of the government’s Plan for Change, we are determined to fix the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system and restore the trust of parents. We will do this by ensuring schools have the tools to better identify and support children before issues escalate.

The department has improved data by disaggregating the SEN2 data collection from 2023. This change enabled more detailed, pupil level analysis of education health and care (EHC) plans and the processes associated with it, providing deeper insights into specific patterns and trends to support decision-making. The annual EHC plan statistics report provides information on the numbers of children and young people with an EHC plan

International evidence indicates that the number of children and young people with SEN is also increasing in comparable countries. Although definitions and systems vary considerably between countries, the key drivers include improved understanding and diagnosis of need, as well as social and medical factors.

The government remains committed to providing opportunities to study and work abroad, especially for those participants from disadvantaged backgrounds. We expect that over 100,000 people could benefit from mobility and partnership opportunities from Erasmus+ participation in 2027/28. Placement totals will depend on the length of each placement and grant rates. The Erasmus+ Work Programme sets out budget thresholds for education by sector. Thresholds for 2027 will be published in the 2027 Erasmus+ Work Programme.

The department does not collect data on the religion of the parents of children in Elective Home Education (EHE).

Full details about the consultation including timelines, how long the consultation will last, and how to be involved, will be announced in due course.

The Home Office is the department responsible for assessing migration trends – including pull factors for migration. The Home Office report ‘Asylum seeker decision-making in journeys to the United Kingdom (2022)’ explores the decision-making process for asylum seekers choosing to come to the UK.

Most migrants with temporary visas cannot access the benefit system. Access to public funds and benefits is usually at the point of settlement, which for most people will be after they have lived in the UK legally for five years, and the Home Office Earned Settlement policy consultation is looking at increasing this to ten years.

The Home Office are also consulting on changing the default position to maintain No Recourse to Public Funds at settlement and lifting this only at the point of British citizenship, in addition to increasing times for path to settlement from five to ten years.

The Department does not produce forecasts of the impact of removing the two child limit on families or children by immigration status, and the estimate requested is not available. To produce such an estimate would incur disproportionate cost.

As our published information shows, in 2026/27, we estimate around 510,000 and in 2027/28, we estimate 520,000 Universal Credit Households will benefit from this policy change.

Table 5: Estimated number of households benefitting from the policy change

Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament - Regulatory impact assessment template (2023 reforms)

Most migrants with temporary visas cannot access the benefit system. Access to public funds and benefits is usually at the point of settlement, which for most people will be after they have lived in the UK legally for five years, and the Home Office Earned Settlement policy consultation is looking at increasing this to ten years. The Home Office is also consulting on changing the default position to maintain No Recourse to Public Funds at settlement and lifting this only at the point of British citizenship.

People who are not British or Irish can only access Universal Credit with a valid immigration status that grants them access to public funds. The majority of temporary migrants are subject to a No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) condition which restricts them from accessing certain public funded benefits and services.

The proportion of Universal Credit claimants with an immigration status recorded as ‘other’ or where there is no immigration status recorded on the digital system has decreased in the latest statistics (January 2026) compared with January 2025. There are no plans to change how this data is collected, although analysts are continuously looking at how we can improve the statistics.

Entitlement to health and disability benefits is determined by the eligibility criteria for the respective benefits. Each case is assessed individually based on the evidence provided.

We have also launched the Timms Review to ensure Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is fair and fit for the future. It is the ever first full review of PIP and will include consideration of whether the assessment effectively captures the impact of long-term health conditions and disability in the modern world.

As a point of clarification, the Every Mind Matters (EMM) website remains live on the National Health Service digital domain for anyone to access free of charge. Between 2019 and 2023, the EMM website and its digital tools were promoted via intermittent paid for marketing campaigns to encourage the use of the site to enable the public to take simple self-care actions to improve their mental health.

A total of £21.93 million was spent on these campaigns. Since 2024 no funding has been available to promote the site to the public. However, as noted in the response to HL14010, a campaign launched over the new year and is running until the end of March 2026 to encourage people to do the new NHS Healthy Choices Quiz which asks questions about six health topics, including mental health and sleep. People whose answers to the Quiz indicate mental health difficulties will be signposted to appropriate help, including Every Mind Matters, NHS Talking Therapies, or other NHS mental health services.

Any future budget for the Every Mind Matters campaigns is yet to be agreed by the Cabinet Office, which determines the health issues which will be supported by paid marketing campaigns and how much should be spent on them.

The review will be chaired by Professor Peter Fonagy, and supported by Professor Sir Simon Wessely and Professor Gillian Baird as vice‑chairs. A multidisciplinary Advisory Working Group will directly shape the recommendations and scrutinise the evidence comprehensively.

The review will seek to understand the factors behind trends in prevalence, the impact of clinical practice, including social and cultural factors and the risks and benefits of medicalisation, and ways to promote the prevention of mental ill health, create resilience, and improve early intervention. The review will examine evidence on prevalence, trends, and inequalities associated with mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism.

The NHS Healthy Choices Quiz was designed and built at every stage with user research and engagement with policy experts to ensure it is both accurate and effective in supporting people to make healthy changes in six areas: movement; eating; sleep; mental health; smoking; and alcohol consumption. As part of our campaign evaluation, the Quiz will be assessed to explore how many of those who completed the Quiz took action to improve their health, including their mental health.

At the end of the Quiz, people are sign-posted to appropriate help including Better Health - Every Mind Matters, NHS Talking Therapies, or directed to their general practice or 111. The Better Health - Every Mind Matters digital resources offer a range of simple, National Health Service-approved, self-care tips and tools that everyone can use and incorporate into daily routines to help manage common early-stage mental health concerns.

Historic Every Mind Matters (EMM) campaigns have been evaluated according to the process specified by the Government Communications Service’s Evaluation Cycle for all Government paid-for campaigns, following end of each campaign period, the last of which was in 2023.

Data in relation to the EMM campaign was referred to in evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee on 21 February 2023. Text from page 11 of the transcript is as follows:

“The Every Mind Matters campaign includes a health and wellbeing plan – the Mind Plan - that can be personalised, downloaded and followed to enable people to take active steps to look after their wellbeing, and 4.6 million people have done that since October 2019. Every Mind Matters also offers a follow up email programme and two out of three of its users report that it has led to improvements in their health and wellbeing.”

To the current date, 5.4 million Mind Plans have been completed.

We know that the nation’s mental health has deteriorated over the last decade. The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2023/24 shows that the proportion of 16 to 64 year olds with a common mental health condition increased from 17.6% in 2007 and 18.9% in 2014, to 22.6% in 2023/24.

Total mental health spending for 2025/26 is expected to amount to £15.6 billion, which is a significant increase of £688 million compared to the previous financial year. However, demand has outstripped supply as a result of rising prevalence. That is why we have launched the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and autism. The review will look at prevalence, early intervention and treatment, and the current challenges facing clinical services.

The Government has already taken significant steps to stabilise and improve National Health Service mental health services. This includes NHS Talking Therapies services, which provide evidence-based interventions recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. More than 670,000 people completed a course of treatment last year. We are expanding Talking Therapies services so that 915,000 people can complete a course of treatment by March 2029.

NHS Talking Therapies have a recovery target that at least 50% of people who complete treatment should move to recovery, which is generally met or close to being met. Information released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that completion of Talking Therapy treatment has a positive impact on pay and employment status. Further details are available on the ONS website.