Freddie van Mierlo

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson was confirmed as the next Chair of the EHRC. She will begin her term as EHRC Chair in December and will meet regularly with the Minister for Women and Equalities as part of her role.

We know care leavers have some of the worst long-term life outcomes in society. We are therefore committed to ensuring children leaving care have stable homes, access to health services, support to build lifelong loving relationships and are engaged in education, employment and training. Through the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill we will be driving forward our commitments on children’s social care, including improved support for care leavers.

As announced by the Prime Minister on 24 September 2024, care leavers under age 25 will be exempt from rules which require a connection to a local area before accessing social housing. We have also established a care leaver Ministerial Board, which brings together Ministers from key Departments, to improve support for care leavers across Government.

On the specific question of protected characteristics, the Government often receives requests for new characteristics such as "carer experience"” to be added to the Equality Act 2010. While many of these carry merit, it would not be practical to legislate because of the public and private sector burdens that this would create. The Equality Act 2010 will already protect many care leavers under the indirect discrimination provisions, because a disproportionately high number are likely to be from an ethnic minority and/ or have a disability. They may also benefit from the age discrimination protections in the Act.

The Cabinet Office works with Government departments and agencies to monitor the quality and timeliness of correspondence, providing support and guidance as necessary.

The Government has recently implemented the Procurement Act 2023 which has introduced significantly enhanced transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle. Alongside this, a new Central Digital Platform has been rolled out and captures this data in the public domain- from publishing tender notices to contractual key performance indicators. Other measures introduced include requiring conflicts of interest assessments to ensure impartiality and equal treatment obligations that require suppliers participating in the procurement to be treated the same. A new Procurement Review Unit will additionally provide oversight for the regime and ensure it is functioning well. The Government is considering new legislation and has launched a consultation that is currently seeking views.

The Government thanks the committee for its careful consideration of Shared Parental Leave and Paternity Leave and has responded in full to the report. We recognise that more can be done to ensure working families are better supported. That is why on 1 July 2025 we launched the parental leave and pay review, which will consider all current and upcoming parental leave and pay entitlements. The recommendations and evidence outlined in the Women and Equality Committee’s report are important contributions to the review and we look forward to working with the committee as the thinking develops.

The United States as part of the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal, has created a quota of 100,000 vehicles for UK automotive imports at a 10 percent tariff rate, down from 27.5% We have been engaging with industry to seek their views on how we can ensure that the quota works for industry as a whole. The quota has been implemented today, 30 June, by the US and came into effect at 00:01 US Eastern time.

We intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure properties from 2026 - 27. Ahead of these changes being made, we have extended retail, hospitality, and leisure relief for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business and frozen the small business multiplier.

The Government will protect the smallest businesses by increasing the Employment Allowance to £10,500. This means that 865,000 employers will pay no National Insurance Contributions at all. We are also working with businesses to understand their barriers to growth and High Streets will be a key pillar of our forthcoming Small Business Strategy.

Information provided by employers to HMRC shows that in 2023/24 (the latest year for which full year data is available), 17,200 individuals were in receipt of Statutory Shared Parental Pay.

The government is committed to supporting working families. The Employment Rights Bill will make Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave ‘day one’ rights. We have committed to review the parental leave system, ensuring it offers the best possible support to working families. Planning work is already underway.

Paternity Leave supports working people. Access to family-friendly rights means that working people can enjoy a better work-life balance that benefits wellbeing, morale, productivity and retention.

The Government has committed to conduct a review of the whole parental leave system. This review will focus on ensuring that parental leave, including Paternity Leave, offers the best possible support to working families. Work is already underway on planning for its delivery.

Maintaining a secure electricity supply is a key priority for Government. DESNZ works closely with industry to continually improve and maintain the resilience the energy infrastructure, networks and assets to reduce vulnerabilities, and ensure an effective response to actual or potentially disruptive incidents.

Ownership of a Distribution Network Operator (DNO) requires appropriate levels of investment to ensure power flows reliably, safely and securely. All DNOs are regulated by Ofgem, which sets annual targets for customer interruptions and customer minutes lost; DNOs must report their performance against these measures to Ofgem which rewards or penalises operators appropriately.

The Government expects energy companies to deliver the best support to customers. Ofgem monitors and enforces the Guaranteed Standards of Performance. Ofgem also regularly reviews and updates their compensation arrangements. The most recent changes were made following the Storm Arwen Review which came into effect on 1 September 2023 and enable higher levels of compensation at more regular intervals. Ofgem regulates Distribution Network Operators through a price control process, which includes incentives to reduce the frequency and duration of power interruptions. For the next price control period (2028–2033), Ofgem is reviewing whether amendments are required to minimise repeated or prolonged interruptions.

Great Britain is expected to have sufficient supplies of electricity and gas to meet consumers’ demands over the short and long-term (Statutory Security of Supply Report 2024). The government’s mission is to secure our energy supply with home-grown, clean power – and we have set out the steps to achieve this in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan. These include: cleaning up a dysfunctional grid system by prioritising the most important projects; speeding up decisions on planning permission by empowering planners to prioritise critical energy infrastructure; and expanding the renewable auction process to stop delays and get more projects connected.

The Government is committed to incentivising properties to transition to cleaner, affordable heating. At present, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, does not apply to alternative electric heating technologies, such as heat batteries. We are targeting support at technologies, like heat pumps, that current evidence suggests offer the greatest potential to decarbonise our buildings.

However, the Government will keep its position on alternative electric heating technologies under review and make further assessments as the evidence base develops. Our Warm Homes Plan will offer grants and low interest loans to support investment in low carbon heating and other home improvements to cut bills.

We are introducing improvements to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) modelling in early 2025, known as Reduced Data Standard Assessment Procedure 10 (RdSAP 10), to improve accuracy. EPC assessors will soon be able to record if a consumer has installed solar batteries. The Home Upgrade Grant (HUG 2) will run until March 2025 and will be succeeded by the Warm Homes: Local Grant (WH:LG). Details of the policy on retreating low-income households that received upgrades under HUG 2 were published on 23^rd September as part of the WH:LG guidance.

The Online Safety Act introduced a number of communication offences, which were commenced in January 2024, including the false and threatening communications offences. The new communications offences have replaced the equivalent offences in the Malicious Communications Act 1988. In the January to December 2024 period, there were 14 convictions under the false communications offence and 294 under the threatening communications offence.

Services with AI chatbots regulated under the Online Safety Act have duties to protect all users from illegal content and children from age inappropiate content. This includes harmful advice if it is illegal content or meets the definition of harmful content to children under the Act.

The Government keeps all legislation under review and we will not hesitate to strengthen the law further if required.

DSIT has funded media literacy projects, including Parent Zone’s ‘Everyday Digital’, to help parents understand online safety. On 12 September 2025, DSIT published research exploring what support parents need to keep children safe online. Ofcom has also released a guide for parents on how new Online Safety Act measures will protect children online, including advice and links to trusted resources.

Virtual private networks have many legitimate uses. The Government and Ofcom continue to monitor whether technologies can be used to seek to circumvent the protections of the Act for children.

Ofcom has conducted an extensive programme of work aimed at facilitating understanding and compliance with the Online Safety Act. This includes a Regulation Checker to help services and organisations identify whether they are in scope of the relevant duties. Where they are, Ofcom provides guides and toolkits on complying with the new rules. Ofcom’s guide for services webpage can be used as a hub for relevant resources. When it comes to compliance, Ofcom will focus on services where the risk and impact of harm is the highest, only taking action where appropriate.

The Online Safety Act covers services where users post content or interact online, requiring sites like Wikipedia to address illegal material and protect children where necessary. Ofcom must ensure that the duties are proportionate and appropriate for the different kinds and sizes of services.

The Act includes exemptions for specific types of user comment sections, which will take many news publishers sites out of scope. Safeguards are also built in to protect news publisher content on the largest (Category 1) platforms and Ofcom will be required to review how the Act affects journalistic and news publisher material on such services.

Ofcom, by law, carries out its investigations independently of the Government. Ofcom is accountable to Parliament, and the standards and objectives which underpin Ofcom’s rules and procedures are set out in legislation. Decisions over whether or not to investigate particular media outlets, and how they do that, are rightly a matter for Ofcom.

The BBC is operationally and editorially independent from the Government. Therefore, the Government cannot intervene in the BBC’s day-to-day operations including on editorial matters.

Decisions on who to include in international events and competitions are for the organisers to take, within the framework of their own rules and regulations. It is for the EBU, in consultation with its members, to decide which countries are allowed to participate in Eurovision.

A response was sent to the hon. Member for Henley and Thame on Monday 9th June 2025. I apologise for the delay.

The safety, wellbeing and welfare of everyone taking part in sport is absolutely paramount. National Governing Bodies (NGBs) are responsible for the regulation of their sports and for ensuring that appropriate measures are in place to protect participants from harm.

The Government is aware of the deeply concerning recent media reports in relation to rowing. We have not spoken directly to British Rowing, but have raised this with UK Sport and Sport England, who are both monitoring the situation. UK Sport has also confirmed they are in contact with British Rowing and encourage any member of staff or athlete on Olympic and Paralympic performance programmes to report allegations of unacceptable behaviour to Sport Integrity, their confidential reporting line.

The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 requires all local authorities to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service. Public libraries are funded by local authorities and each local authority is responsible for assessing the needs of their local communities and designing a library service to meet those needs within available resources.

It is for each local authority to determine its stock management policy, including which books and other materials are made available for the benefit of its residents. We expect library collections to represent a variety of perspectives and topics.

The department commits to a wide range of actions in our Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, including a requirement that all new school buildings we deliver are net-zero carbon in operation and are adapted to climate change. The strategy can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainability-and-climate-change-strategy.

All schools funded through the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) have been designed to meet this standard, supporting the UK’s 25-year Environment Plan by requiring all projects to increase their level of greening in support of biodiversity net gain. The design principles of our output specification for SRP will ensure sites are more resilient to the impact of climate change and buildings delivered will achieve net zero carbon in operation.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change. The government is boosting availability and increasing access to childcare for families through the school-based nurseries programme, including school-led provision and private, voluntary and independent providers operating from school sites.

The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. We have regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

Childcare Works, a government-supported initiative designed to help local authorities, schools, and early years providers deliver our childcare reforms, additionally provides one-to-one targeted support for local authorities who need it, alongside a wider package of support for all local authorities to support them to deliver the childcare expansion programme.

It is the department’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change. The government is boosting availability and increasing access to childcare for families through the school-based nurseries programme, including school-led provision and private, voluntary and independent providers operating from school sites.

The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. We have regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.

Childcare Works, a government-supported initiative designed to help local authorities, schools, and early years providers deliver our childcare reforms, additionally provides one-to-one targeted support for local authorities who need it, alongside a wider package of support for all local authorities to support them to deliver the childcare expansion programme.

Departmental officials have had, and will continue to have, discussions with the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly to understand and learn from their approaches. We are considering all aspects of this issue with the seriousness and sensitivity it deserves.

It is this government’s ambition that all families have access to high quality, affordable and flexible early education and care, giving every child the best start in life and delivering on our Plan for Change. In 2025/26, we plan to provide over £8 billion as we roll out the expansion of the entitlements. This represents an additional £2 billion compared to 2024/25. Additionally, the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 legal agreements allow local authorities to raise funds from new developments to support infrastructure needs in their area.

The department has regular contact with each local authority in England about their sufficiency of childcare and any issues they are facing. Where local authorities report sufficiency challenges, we discuss what action the local authority is taking and, where needed, support the local authority with any specific requirements through our childcare sufficiency support contract.