Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that goods produced through forced labour are not purchased within the framework of government contracts.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Abhorrent practices such as forced labour and modern slavery have no place in government contracts or in wider society. This Government is determined to stamp this out.
The Procurement Act 2023 provides contracting authorities with stronger powers to exclude suppliers from public procurements where there is compelling evidence of modern slavery within their supply chains.
In February 2025, the Government updated Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 009 ‘Tackling Modern Slavery in Government Supply Chains’, advocating a risk based approach to identifying and managing modern slavery risks, and encourages departments to conduct due diligence using a range of tools, such as the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT), and approaches to support decision making.
The MSAT is a modern slavery risk identification and management tool. This tool has been designed to help public sector organisations work in partnership with suppliers to improve protections and reduce the risk of exploitation of workers in their supply chains.
This government has also made the Anti-Slavery Risk Tiering Tool (ARTT) available for public sector buyers in October 2025. This tool enables faster risk assessments and clear next steps to mitigate modern slavery risks across the commercial lifecycle.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what mechanism his Department has in place on utilising Deaf-led expertise on British Sign Language in AI procurement.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The procurement of Artificial intelligent tools as a result of a new or amended digital service requires compliance with the GDS Service Manual (https://www.gov.uk/service-manual) and a service assessment. This manual includes the inclusion of accessibility and assisted digital and user research, to ensure procurement decisions cover a range of accessibility needs, based on user feedback.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether procurement policy notes issued by his Department provide guidance on British Sign Language AI commissioning.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The procurement of Artificial intelligent tools as a result of a new or amended digital service requires compliance with the GDS Service Manual (https://www.gov.uk/service-manual) and a service assessment. This manual includes the inclusion of accessibility and assisted digital and user research, to ensure procurement decisions cover a range of accessibility needs, based on user feedback.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department incorporates (a) Deaf-led infrastructure investment and (b) linguistic inclusion in social value assessments for procurement.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office, in compliance with the Social Value Act 2012 and Procurement Policy Note 002 utilises the Government’s social value model toolkit to apply social value to all above-threshold procurements.
In practice, this involves selecting one out of eight Social Value Outcomes which is then evaluated as part of a procurement exercise. One of the choices which can be selected is 'Fair Work,' which, when selected, allows us to require suppliers to demonstrate benefits in deaf-led infrastructure investment and linguistic inclusion.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the document entitled Draft terms of reference for the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, what updates his Department has provided on relevant developments in its area of work to that group since 2019.
Answered by John Glen
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities over a range of issues. More broadly, I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 1 March 2024, Official Report, PQ 16019 on tackling anti-Muslim hatred.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil service job advertisements included information on salary band in (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Data on Civil Service Job advertisements which included information on salary bands is available below. This is presented on an annual basis, as Civil service jobs information is available on an annual basis rather than by tax year.
2021 - 59,413 (95.82%) of jobs listed on civil service jobs in 2023 include salary data*.
2022 - 64,928 (95.90%) of jobs listed on civil service jobs in 2023 include salary data.
2023 (up to 30 May 2023) - 27,644 (96.87%) of jobs listed on civil service jobs in 2023 include salary data.
* salary data is defined as either salary banding (min to max) or where it shows the starting salary only
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Department is taking to ensure that the Covid-19 inquiry hears views from people with protected characteristics including (a) ethnicity, (b) disability and (c) sex.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Covid-19 inquiry's terms of reference require it to consider any disparities evident in the impact of the pandemic on different protected characteristics including (a) ethnicity, (b) disability and (c) sex, and to listen to the experiences of those most affected by the pandemic. The inquiry’s process and procedure for fulfilling its terms of reference are a matter for its independent chair.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that statistics with sufficient sample sizes on the pay gap for women by ethnicity are published on an annual basis; and what steps he will take to ensure those statistics are used to aid understanding of pay discrepancies and inform government action.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 11 October is attached.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the availability of ONS data relating to pay gaps, including reference tables produced on an annual basis showing the (a) median hourly pay and (b) percentage difference between hourly earnings by (i) gender, (ii) ethnicity and (iii) age.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 11 October is attached.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress has been made towards the appointment of a chair of the independent review into the impact of the pre-2000 ban on LGBT+ personnel in the military.
Answered by Leo Docherty
The Lord Etherton Kt PC QC has been appointed as Chair of the Independent LGBT Veterans Review.