Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
Hold a parliamentary vote on whether to reject amendments to the IHR 2005
Gov Responded - 4 Jul 2023 Debated on - 18 Dec 2023 View Cat Smith's petition debate contributionsWe are concerned that Parliament has not discussed and will not have a say on the 307 proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations, AND the amendments to 5 Articles of the IHR that were ADOPTED by the 75th World Health Assembly on 27 May 2022.
Remain neutral in Israel-Palestine conflict and withdraw support for Israel
Sign this petition Gov Responded - 6 Nov 2023 Debated on - 11 Dec 2023 View Cat Smith's petition debate contributionsWe want the UK to be neutral in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and withdraw offers of support for Israel.
Seek a ceasefire and to end Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Sign this petition Gov Responded - 13 Nov 2023 Debated on - 11 Dec 2023 View Cat Smith's petition debate contributionsWe want the Government to seek a ceasefire and also seek to address the root cause of the current conflict by promoting dialogue and advocating for the end of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Urge the Israel Government to allow fuel, electricity and food into Gaza
Sign this petition Gov Responded - 10 Nov 2023 Debated on - 11 Dec 2023 View Cat Smith's petition debate contributionsThe UK Government should urge the Israeli Government to stop the blockade of Food, Fuel and Electricity to the already impoverished city of Gaza
These initiatives were driven by Cat Smith, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Cat Smith has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
A Bill to introduce a system of proportional representation for Parliamentary elections, for elections for directly-elected mayors in England, for local authority elections in England and for police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales.
A Bill to introduce a system of proportional representation for local authority elections in England and for parliamentary general elections; to alter the methods used for electing the Mayor of London, for electing other directly-elected mayors in England and for electing police and crime commissioners in England and Wales; and for connected purposes.
Public Sector Websites (Data Charges) Bill 2023-24
Sponsor - Simon Lightwood (LAB)
Social Energy Tariff (No. 2) Bill 2023-24
Sponsor - Marion Fellows (SNP)
Teenagers (Safety and Wellbeing) Bill 2022-23
Sponsor - Alex Norris (LAB)
Import of Dogs Bill 2022-23
Sponsor - Elliot Colburn (Con)
Automatic Electoral Registration (No. 2) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Jo Stevens (Lab)
Registration of Marriage (No. 2) Bill 2017-19
Sponsor - Caroline Spelman (Con)
For clergy across the Church of England, as officeholders they are paid a stipend rather than a salary. All bishops, male and female, receive the same stipend. All other clergy stipends are based on a national benchmark which is set by post, irrespective of the gender of the postholder.
The Church of England last measured its clergy gender pay gap on 1st April 2022. Across the 42 dioceses of the Church, the difference in average stipend for male and female full-time stipendiary clergy was 0.3% in favour of men (with the mean stipend for male clergy being £28,288 and for female clergy £28,205). The gap has been calculated for full-time stipendiary clergy alone. As clergy do not work standard hours there is a difficultly in calculating an hourly rate for clergy, which is the standard method for calculating gender pay gaps. There are also difficulties in standardising part-time clergy in terms of full time equivalents, as we do not have complete information about the proportion of a full-time post. This is unlikely to affect the overall figure significantly as only 8% of stipendiary clergy were part-time (less than 1 full-time equivalent) and women made up only a small majority of part-time stipendiary clergy (54% compared with 46% men).
The most recent Gender Pay Report from the National Church Institutions (NCIs) can be found here: national-church-institutions-2022-gender-pay-report-april-2023_0.pdf (churchofengland.org). 57% of the staff of the National Church Institutions (NCIs) are women. Since 2021 the representation of women has increased by 2% in the upper quartile, but the majority of women continue to be working in roles in the lower and mid-lower quartile. As the NCIs approached their pay negotiations in late 2022 and they considered the cost-of-living crisis effects on employees and affordability for the NCI charities, a focus was maintained on NCI values and on gender and ethnicity pay gaps.
There are two types of reasonable adjustment duty under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) - the first is the reasonable adjustment duty on employers and the second is the ‘anticipatory’ duty on service providers (that is businesses that provide services to the public or which exercise public functions), which requires such providers to consider reasonable adjustments even before an individual disabled person accesses their services.
The Act requires employers to make reasonable adjustments in relation to the disabled employee’s job. These adjustments ensure that disabled employees are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to their non-disabled colleagues. The failure of an employer to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled employee or job seeker, or discounting a job application simply because the applicant is disabled could amount to direct disability discrimination under the Act.
However, the 2010 Act also recognises the need to strike a balance between the needs of disabled employees and the circumstances of their employers. What is ‘reasonable’ will therefore vary from one employer to another because of factors such as the practicality of making the adjustment, the cost of the adjustment to the employer and the resources available to different employers. There are no plans to modify these provisions.
Tighter restrictions continue to reduce the number of pregnancies exposed to sodium valproate and support women to make informed choices. The MHRA and Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) has announced it will introduce tighter restrictions to reduce pregnancies exposed to sodium valproate, including the recommendation for no new patients under 55 years of age to be prescribed valproate unless two specialists independently consider and document that no other medicine is effective or tolerated.
Period poverty is an issue the government takes very seriously and has taken a number of steps to address the problem.
Since January 2020, a Department for Education scheme provides free period products in schools and 16-19 education institutions in England. 94% of eligible secondary schools had accessed this scheme by December 2021. We are pleased to confirm that the continuation of free period products in schools in England for all learners who need them until 2024. We have expanded the range of products included to ensure more environmentally friendly and sustainable products, based on user feedback.
Additionally, from 1 January 2021, the ‘tampon tax’ has been abolished - with a zero rate of VAT applying to all period products. Prior to the abolition of the tax, a Tampon Tax Fund was in place to allocate the funds generated from the VAT on period products, to projects which improve the lives of disadvantaged women and girls. A final round of £11.25 million in grant funding was awarded in November 2021 to distribute the VAT collected on period products in the final nine months of the 2020/21 financial year, before the tax ended.
As well as these steps, in 2019, NHS England announced that it would offer period products to every hospital patient who needs them and the Home Office changed the law to ensure that all people in custody are provided with health and hygiene products for free, to include period products.
In March 2020, in light of COVID-19, the work of the Period Poverty Taskforce was paused to free up resources to focus on the pandemic.
Period poverty is an issue the Government takes very seriously and has taken a number of steps to address the problem.
Since January 2020, a Department for Education scheme provides free period products in schools and 16-19 education institutions in England. 94% of eligible secondary schools had accessed this scheme by December 2021.
Additionally, from 1 January 2021, the ‘tampon tax’ has been abolished – with a zero rate of VAT applying to all period products. Prior to the abolition of the tax, a Tampon Tax Fund was in place to allocate the funds generated from the VAT on period products, to projects which improve the lives of disadvantaged women and girls. A final round of £11.25 million in grant funding was awarded in November 2021 to distribute the VAT collected on period products in the final nine months of the 2020/21 financial year, before the tax ended.
As well as these steps, in 2019, NHS England announced that it would offer period products to every hospital patient who needs them and the Home Office changed the law to ensure that all people in custody are provided with health and hygiene products for free, to include period products.
In March 2020, in light of COVID-19, the work of the Period Poverty Taskforce was paused to free up resources to focus on the pandemic. Further announcements on the plans and the work of the Taskforce will be made in due course.
Woking Borough Council issued 24 free local elector cards in 2019, as part of its participation in the UK Government's voter ID pilot. It issued 63 cards in a similar trial held in 2018.
This information was collated as part of the Commission's independant evaluations of the pilot schemes conducted in 2018 and 2019.
The Commission carries out research studies on the accuracy and completeness of the electoral registers. These are based on an established, robust methodology involving house-to-house interviewing across the UK. The most recent study, published in 2019, found that 83% of people eligible to appear on a local government register in Great Britain were correctly registered.
The findings from this research can be used, with the Office for National Statistic's population estimates, to estimate that between 8.3 and 9.4 million people in Great Britain were not correctly registered. This estimate includes people not on a register, and people on a register but not at their current and therefore correct address. It is not possible, however, to provide a specific estimate for each category seperately.
Companies based in the United Kingdom and which recruit here are subject to British laws, including those which protect people from discrimination because of their sex or any other protected characteristic. Conversely, employers based overseas who recruit British workers for overseas work are subject to the laws of the country in which they are based, and similar arrangements apply to work on ships where the ship’s ownership is outside the UK and the ship is to operate outside UK territorial waters.
This general legal position in no way excuses companies, as recently reported, which deny British women job opportunities on ships registered or owned abroad, especially where the company in question is seeking to recruit in this country. It is unacceptable to see this sort of blatant sex discrimination in 2020 if there is no genuine occupational requirement for a position to be filled by a man. The Department for Transport will be reviewing regulations on the treatment of seafarers and will be looking at this issue as part of the review.
The spends made between 5 October 2022 and 19 December 2022 were related to COP26 events. The team that incurred these costs has now been disbanded. To provide this information would exceed the threshold and incur a disproportionate cost to the Cabinet Office.
The spends made between 5 October 2022 and 19 December 2022 were related to COP26 events. The team that incurred these costs has now been disbanded. To provide this information would exceed the threshold and incur a disproportionate cost to the Cabinet Office.
The spends made between 5 October 2022 and 19 December 2022 were related to COP26 events. The team that incurred these costs has now been disbanded. To provide this information would exceed the threshold and incur a disproportionate cost to the Cabinet Office.
The spends made between 5 October 2022 and 19 December 2022 were related to COP26 events. The team that incurred these costs has now been disbanded. To provide this information would exceed the threshold and incur a disproportionate cost to the Cabinet Office.
The spends made between 5 October 2022 and 19 December 2022 were related to COP26 events. The team that incurred these costs has now been disbanded. To provide this information would exceed the threshold and incur a disproportionate cost to the Cabinet Office.
Regarding the payment of £804.22 listed on 14 November 2022, that is, in fact, the date the final transaction was settled by the Cabinet Office. The payment was made in September 2022 and refers to accommodation purchased at the Capitol Hotel in Tokyo for one official for 3 nights. The purpose was to attend UK-Japan bilateral discussions.
The spend of £536.15 made on the 14th December was cancelled and the department was not charged.
No10’s digital content is produced in-house as part of the wider communications team output. Civil servants are not required to fill out time sheets.
A range of digital content is published on No10’s digital channels on a regular basis.
The video is available to the public at: https://www.facebook.com/100069280206756/videos/982077386441926
No10’s digital content is produced in-house as part of the wider communications team output. Civil servants are not required to fill out time sheets.
A range of digital content is published on No10’s digital channels on a regular basis.
The video is available to the public at: https://www.facebook.com/100069280206756/videos/982077386441926
I refer the Honourable Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood to the answer provided on 6th May PQ 186920.
(a) The payment made on the government procurement card on 16 February was for one member of the Incident Response and Coordination team attending the Strategic Emergency Management course delivered by the Emergency Planning College at The Hawkhills in York on 23 and 24 March 2023. The cost covered the Emergency Planning College’s two day residential Strategic Emergency Management training and accommodation, as published in their course prospectus.
This course is available to all organisations with a role in strategic emergency management and is not specifically for Cabinet Office staff. The delegate attended to further develop their skills and abilities to provide strategic management to critical incidents in line with their job role.
(b) The event at the Bristol Beacon was aimed at 47 members of the Government Property Agency (GPA). The purpose was to launch the GPA South West and South Wales Community Group. The event was important given the essential role of the community in:
Supporting the Levelling up agenda and connecting with Head of Place activities
Delivering the GPA strategic objectives within the region
Driving cross-organisational working to enable GPA to best support its customers - civil servants working in GPA offices in the area
Happy or Not Ltd provides digital evaluation services, and were part of a pilot to evaluate Leadership College for Government events in a new way. The pilot was unsuccessful and the Cabinet Office will receive a full refund.
The Leadership College for Government, which sits within the Government Skills and Curriculum Unit, equips public and Civil Service leaders with the skills, knowledge, and networks to solve today's most complex problems. This includes designing, convening learning and networking opportunities. A key method of tracking how successful we are in reaching these aims is through robust and innovative evaluation.
The Government fully recognises the need to remember those who have died during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 12 May, the Prime Minister announced the establishment of a UK Commission on Covid Commemoration to consider the most appropriate way to remember those who have lost their lives and to recognise those involved in the unprecedented response. The Government will set out the Commission membership and terms of reference in due course.
Yes. As set out in Schedule 1, Paragraph 15 of the Elections Bill, provisional licences will be accepted as a valid form of photographic identification for the purpose of voting at polling stations. The Bill outlines that a licence to drive a motor vehicle granted under Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 will be considered acceptable, and this includes provisional driving licences.
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 3021 on 25 May 2021.
No.9 Downing Street is the south wing of 70 Whitehall and forms part of the Cabinet Office Estate.
The rooms are used for offices, storage and also the Broadcast Suite. The space is occupied and used by Cabinet Office and its immediate suppliers.
A broad range of documents already in use will be accepted as identification for voting purposes - it will not be limited to UK passports or driving licences. This will include, for example, various concessionary travel passes, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) cards, and photocard parking permits issued as part of the Blue Badge scheme. In addition, expired photographic identification will be accepted as long as the photograph is of a good enough likeness to allow polling station staff to confirm the identity of the holder.
We recognise that, notwithstanding this broad approach, a small minority of electors may not currently hold one of the required forms of photographic identification. For those people, a free, local Voter Card will be available from their local authority. A fixed address will not be a requirement to receive a Voter Card, in the same way that it is not a requirement to register to vote.
We will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including Local Authorities and a wide range of charities and civil society organisations, to make sure that voter identification is rolled out in a way that is inclusive for all eligible voters, including those who are homeless and those who are LGBT+.
A broad range of documents already in use will be accepted as identification for voting purposes - it will not be limited to UK passports or driving licences. This will include, for example, various concessionary travel passes, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) cards, and photocard parking permits issued as part of the Blue Badge scheme. In addition, expired photographic identification will be accepted as long as the photograph is of a good enough likeness to allow polling station staff to confirm the identity of the holder.
We recognise that, notwithstanding this broad approach, a small minority of electors may not currently hold one of the required forms of photographic identification. For those people, a free, local Voter Card will be available from their local authority. A fixed address will not be a requirement to receive a Voter Card, in the same way that it is not a requirement to register to vote.
We will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including Local Authorities and a wide range of charities and civil society organisations, to make sure that voter identification is rolled out in a way that is inclusive for all eligible voters, including those who are homeless and those who are LGBT+.
An Equality Impact Assessment was published alongside the Elections Bill: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3020/publications
The Cabinet Office will continue the detailed planning ahead of implementation nationally, working closely with those who will be responsible for delivery including Local Authorities, the Electoral Commission, Association of Electoral Administrators and Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.
An Equality Impact Assessment was published alongside the Elections Bill: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3020/publications
The Cabinet Office will continue the detailed planning ahead of implementation nationally, working closely with those who will be responsible for delivery including Local Authorities, the Electoral Commission, Association of Electoral Administrators and Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.
The Elections Bill will deliver this Government's manifesto commitments to strengthen the integrity of our elections and ensure that our democracy remains secure, fair, modern and transparent. It also delivers on Government commitments made in response to consultations and Select Committee recommendations.
The legislation has benefitted from extensive engagement with the Devolved Administrations as well as the input and expertise of those working in the electoral sector.
We will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including charities and civil society organisations to make sure that voter identification works for all voters.
The proposal to introduce voter identification is for reserved elections only.
The Elections Bill will deliver this Government's manifesto commitments to strengthen the integrity of our elections and ensure that our democracy remains secure, fair, modern and transparent. It also delivers on Government commitments made in response to consultations and Select Committee recommendations.
The legislation has benefitted from extensive engagement with the Devolved Administrations as well as the input and expertise of those working in the electoral sector.
We will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders, including charities and civil society organisations to make sure that voter identification works for all voters.
The proposal to introduce voter identification is for reserved elections only.
I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to PQ7856 on 7 June 2021 and PQ HL14191 on 23 April 2021.
I refer the hon. Member to my response on 28 June 2021.
I refer the hon. Member to my response on 28 June 2021.
Everyone who is eligible to vote will have the opportunity to do so.
Those whose appearance has significantly changed in comparison to their existing identification documents can apply for a free, local Voter Card that matches their current appearance.
Polling station staff will be given appropriate training and there will be a requirement for privacy screens to allow electors who wish to have their form of identification viewed in private able to do so.
Everyone who is eligible to vote will have the opportunity to do so.
Those whose appearance has significantly changed in comparison to their existing identification documents can apply for a free, local Voter Card that matches their current appearance.
Polling station staff will be given appropriate training and there will be a requirement for privacy screens to allow electors who wish to have their form of identification viewed in private able to do so.
The Clearing House function does not have full time members of staff, and its work is done by a small team of people in the FOI team, including the Deputy Director of Freedom of Information and Transparency, alongside their other day to day responsibilities. There is no separate budget for the Clearing House.
The Cabinet Office does not routinely capture data on the number of requests which are referred to the Clearing House. However, in 2020, Clearing House gave advice on 516 aggregated ‘round robins’ (requests made to more than one department and that have repeat characteristics); a small proportion of over 30,000 requests received by government departments in the same time period.
The Cabinet Office has referred requests to the Clearing House where appropriate and in line with the published criteria, which is available on gov.uk here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-and-freedom-of-information.
Information on Freedom of Information statistics is also published on gov.uk here - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer by my noble friend, Lord True (Minister of State at the Cabinet Office), to PQHL14191 on 23 April 2021.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer by my noble friend, Lord True (Minister of State at the Cabinet Office), to PQHL14191 on 23 April 2021.
Works funded personally by the Prime Minister were contracted privately; there has been no cost to taxpayers.
Under successive administrations, it has been the case that spending funded personally by the incumbent Prime Minister is a private matter.
In the same way, MPs’ expenses which are funded by taxpayers are made public and rightly subject to public scrutiny; however, how Hon. Members spend their earned income is a private matter for them.
Showing proof of identification is something people of all walks of life already do everyday. It is a reasonable and proportionate approach to extend this practice to voting and give the public confidence that their vote is theirs, and theirs alone.
Of the broad range of documents that will be accepted, including, for example, various concessionary travel passes, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) cards, and photocard parking permits issued as part of the Blue Badge scheme, many do not contain a voter’s address. An address will not need to be included on identification in order to vote. In addition, expired photographic identification will be accepted as long as the photograph is of a good enough likeness to allow polling station staff to confirm the identity of the holder.
Works funded by the Cabinet Office have been undertaken by Mitie. Mitie has a framework agreement with the Cabinet Office for works on the Downing Street estate.
Works funded personally by the Prime Minister were contracted privately.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer by my noble friend, Lord True (Minister of State at the Cabinet Office), of PQ HL14191, on 23 April 2021.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer by my noble friend, Lord True (Minister of State at the Cabinet Office), of PQ HL14191, on 23 April 2021.
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer by my noble friend, Lord True (Minister of State at the Cabinet Office), of PQ HL14191, on 23 April 2021.
As legislation is brought forward to enable the national roll out of voter identification, appropriate impact assessments, which include information on costs, will be provided for Parliament in the normal way.
Showing identification to prove who they are is something people of all walks of life already do everyday. It is a reasonable and proportionate approach to extend this practice to voting and give the public confidence that their vote is theirs, and theirs alone.
As legislation is brought forward to enable the national roll out of voter identification, appropriate impact assessments, which include information on costs, will be provided for Parliament in the normal way.
Showing identification to prove who they are is something people of all walks of life already do everyday. It is a reasonable and proportionate approach to extend this practice to voting and give the public confidence that their vote is theirs, and theirs alone.
As legislation is brought forward to enable the national roll out of voter identification, appropriate impact assessments, which include information on costs, will be provided for Parliament in the normal way.
Showing identification to prove who they are is something people of all walks of life already do everyday. It is a reasonable and proportionate approach to extend this practice to voting and give the public confidence that their vote is theirs, and theirs alone.