Baroness Grey-Thompson

Periods should never be a taboo subject. Women and girls should feel comfortable discussing their menstrual cycle, and how it affects their attitude to sport and their sporting performance.

We are determined to encourage more women and girls to get active and break down the barriers that prevent them from doing so, something we set out in our sport strategy Sporting Future. Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign was created to get more women active regardless of shape, size and ability, and aims to tackle head on the social barriers that can prevent women from feeling like they can join in. The latest phase of the campaign, launched earlier this year, addressed periods, showing a tampon string towards the end of the advert. The reaction to this in the press and in online discussion was overwhelmingly positive with a recognition that it shows the truth of women’s lives.

Sport England are also supporting the government taskforce to tackle period poverty, primarily around actions to tackle the stigma relating to women in sport, and particularly their impact on teenage participation in physical activity in schools.

In addition, we welcome the work that the English Institute of Sport is doing through their SMARTHer campaign to open up conversations amongst athletes, coaches and staff in high performance sport around athletes’ menstrual cycles in order to improve support.

Access to Work support is available for disabled people and those who have a health condition whose disability or health condition affects the way they do their job. To be eligible for Access to Work the customer must be aged 16 years or over and satisfy certain criteria. As volunteering does not satisfy all the eligibility criteria, volunteers are not eligible for Access to Work support. Where individuals are employed into paid roles, the government will assist applications to the Access to Work programme if requested.

The Rugby League World Cup 2021 Board has launched a volunteer programme called The Power Squad. This programme makes a commitment to celebrate the inclusive and diverse population of England as well as the rich history of host towns and cities.

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games provides a fantastic opportunity to accelerate employment and skills opportunities for residents of the West Midlands. A comprehensive volunteering programme is due to launch in 2021, with up to 1000 roles ring-fenced for West Midlands residents and with a focus on disadvantaged groups.

UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 will create a number of paid employment opportunities, plus a sizeable volunteer programme of stadium and host city volunteers. These paid and voluntary roles will be open to all and will enable as many people as possible to be part of the tournament.

Schools have a duty to provide nutritious, free meals to pupils that meet the eligibility criteria, including being a registered pupil of a state funded school. Free School Meal (FSM) provision should be made to eligible pupils either on the school premises or at any other place where education is being provided. The department expects schools to act reasonably in ensuring that their food provision accounts for medical, dietary and cultural needs. The department has published statutory guidance (attached), which describes steps a school may take, including the establishment of individual healthcare plans which may include special diets.​

Local authorities are funded to support children with special educational needs, including those who are unable to attend school on a long-term basis. The department has published guidance to provide more information, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/illness-child-education. The department continues to keep its guidance under review to ensure that free school meal eligibility supports those who most need them.

Schools have a duty to provide nutritious, free meals to pupils that meet the eligibility criteria, including being a registered pupil of a state funded school. Free School Meal (FSM) provision should be made to eligible pupils either on the school premises or at any other place where education is being provided. The department expects schools to act reasonably in ensuring that their food provision accounts for medical, dietary and cultural needs. The department has published statutory guidance (attached), which describes steps a school may take, including the establishment of individual healthcare plans which may include special diets.​

Local authorities are funded to support children with special educational needs, including those who are unable to attend school on a long-term basis. The department has published guidance to provide more information, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/illness-child-education. The department continues to keep its guidance under review to ensure that free school meal eligibility supports those who most need them.

Defra works closely with supermarkets to ensure that people who have registered with the Government as extremely clinically vulnerable, and have indicated that they need help to access food, are supported by offering them emergency food parcels provided by the Government.

Supermarkets have been working at pace to expand the total number of delivery and click and collect slots for people in the wider non-shielded vulnerable category.

Data has been made available to supermarkets on a strictly limited and controlled basis for the purpose of helping vulnerable people; supermarkets cannot contact anyone who does not have an account with them and individuals’ data will not be passed anywhere apart from to participating supermarkets. We have written agreements in place governing the sharing, use and retention of data. This precludes the sale of data that has been shared with them, or its use in any way contrary to the purpose under which it is shared.

In partnership with industry, the Rail Minister and department officials held roundtables with industry and accessibility stakeholders and passenger representative groups on 6 June and 18 July 2023 to discuss potential reforms. Over 20 different organisations were represented at the different roundtables.

Through the industry-led Ticketing and Settlement Agreement process train operating companies have put forward proposals to change the opening hours or closure of station ticket offices and recently consulted on these. The consultation closed on 1 September and the independent passenger bodies, Transport Focus and London TravelWatch, are currently assessing the proposals and consultation responses.

We expect train operators to work collaboratively with the passenger bodies in the coming weeks, to listen to the concerns raised and to refine their proposals accordingly.

The Department continues to engage with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and other accessibility and transport groups.

The Department hosted roundtable discussions with industry and accessibility and transport groups to discuss this matter prior to the Rail Delivery Group's consultation launched on 5 July. We continue to engage with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and other accessibility and transport groups.

When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours – including closures – train operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of passengers who are disabled; and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups. We would also expect operators to consider other equality related needs and make this clear in the notice sent to other operators and passenger groups.

When proposing major changes to ticket office opening hours, including closures, operators are required to take into account the adequacy of the proposed alternatives in relation to the needs of passengers who are disabled, and to include this in the notice of the proposal sent to other operators and passenger groups.

Under the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement process, train operators are required to put notices at stations advising passengers of any proposals and what changes could mean for them. Train operators have also made information relating to their consultations available on their websites. We would expect train operating companies to make sure their consultations are accessible.

While compliance with Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 1899, published by the British Standards Institution (BSI) last year, is voluntary, the Government is actively encouraging relevant parties to adopt its specifications.

The Government will continue to work with industry and other parties to ensure effective implementation of PAS 1899 and inform the 24-month review of the standard, which will be led by the BSI.

The Local EV Infrastructure Fund provides Local Authorities with funding to deliver a public chargepoint network that best suits the needs of the local area. Through the Local EV Infrastructure Support Body, the Government provides Local Authorities with expert advice to develop these projects, including guidance on accessibility.

The Government will continue to monitor whether further intervention is needed on accessibility over time.

Gynaecology services will be included within the recovery of elective care. This will be funded by £2 billion this year and an additional £8 billion over the next three years, which could deliver the equivalent of approximately nine million more checks, scans and procedures. The delivery plan for tackling the elective care backlog will be published later this year.

We will publish the Women’s Health Strategy in due course. We are currently analysing the responses to the call for evidence which will inform the priorities, content and actions in the Strategy. Within the call for evidence, the online survey included questions on menstrual health.

The evidence gathered through the call for evidence will inform the priorities, content and actions in the new Women’s Health Strategy for England. The online survey within the call for evidence seeks information on menstrual health and gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis.

The Government has made no formal assessment of these studies, nor of the relationship between the legislation of assisted suicide and the rate of suicide in the general population.

Vaccination centres are subject to the same standards to support people with accessibility needs as all health care services. The national booking letters are sent in size 16 font as standard as defined by RNIB as large print. As well as providing an option to book online, the national booking letters also provide 119 as an option. British Sign Language (BSL) and text relay services are also available from 119. Booking information for vaccination appointments will be available in braille, audio, larger print and easy read shortly. We are currently also translating this booking information into 16 different languages.

NHS Test and Trace have a BSL video relay service for deaf and hearing-impaired people visiting a testing site, so they can receive instructions on how to take a test via a video call with a BSL interpreter, facilitated by a testing assistant. Live BSL translation is also available via 119.

Non digital users can access the service by contacting the 119 call centre and book a test at all sites across the network.

We have provided specific advice to the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations, including in respect of security, Chinese law and society, to ensure Team GB and Paralympics GB are as well prepared as possible for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing. We wish our athletes every success and they will continue to have our full support throughout the games. Officials in Beijing stand ready to provide consular assistance if needed.

The Government’s response to the consultation on Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (PEEPs) will be published shortly, once the views of all individuals and organisations who contributed have been carefully considered.

There were 97 sexual assaults in female establishments between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2019 and 7 of these assaults involved a transgender prisoner. Of those, 6 were assaults where a transgender individual was identified as the assailant or suspected assailant. One incident was recorded as a transgender prisoner having ‘active involvement’, which means they did not necessarily start the assault.

These figures have been drawn from the HMPPS Incident Reporting System. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Although the figures are shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.

All sexual assaults in prison are referred to the police and HMPPS have strong safeguards in place to manage risks to all those in custody, regardless of their gender. HMPPS has robust processes in place to care for and manage transgender individuals in custody. The safety of all those in our care is of paramount importance. All known risks, both towards or presented by a transgender person in prison, will always be taken into account in their care and management. Individuals will be cared for and managed in the gender with which they identify, regardless of their location in a male or female prison.