Kirsty Blackman

We are committed to delivering better life chances for all - breaking the link between background and success.

At the Budget, the Chancellor announced increases to both the National Minimum Wage (16.3% for those aged 18-20) and the National Living Wage (6.7% for those 21 and over), as well as a £240 million Get Britain Working package to improve support for people who want to develop their careers (as well as for those who are economically inactive or unemployed).Through our Mission-driven Government, we will build the skills people need for opportunity and growth.

The Government will continue to draw on the work of the Office for National Statistics and others, such as the independent Social Mobility Commission, to understand the links between pay and socio-economic background.

The Department for Work and Pensions complies with correspondence reporting and data requests from the Cabinet Office. The data on responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers 2023 includes performance when responding to correspondence from members of devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. This information has not been separated out in this or previous reports. Correspondence performance data for 2024 will be published in due course.

The Department for Work and Pensions complies with correspondence reporting and data requests from the Cabinet Office. The data on responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers 2023 includes performance when responding to correspondence from members of devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. This information has not been separated out in this or previous reports. Correspondence performance data for 2024 will be published in due course.

The Department for Work and Pensions complies with correspondence reporting and data requests from the Cabinet Office. The data on responses to correspondence from MPs and Peers 2023 includes performance when responding to correspondence from members of devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. This information has not been separated out in this or previous reports. Correspondence performance data for 2024 will be published in due course.

The Guide to Handling Correspondence, owned by the Cabinet Office and published on GOV.UK, sets out the guidance for Government departments to follow when handling correspondence from MPs and Members of the devolved Parliaments and Assemblies. The guidance was last updated in 2021.

The Department has not undertaken any such assessment. Companies are already required to disclose employee matters and can choose to include socioeconomic aspects where relevant to their business. For example, all large companies in the UK must include information on employees as part of their Annual Report’s Section 172(1) Statement. This should detail how employees are consulted, and their views considered, in decision making, ensuring employees of all backgrounds feel involved in how the company is run. It is a matter of good practice to collect data on employee background that the company can choose to communicate its workforce inclusivity.

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 makes no changes to existing roles and responsibilities regarding safety or tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. Tackling crime is the responsibility of the British Transport Police, who will continue to police the rail network following the transition of passenger services into public ownership. Safety regulation will remain the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Rail and Road.

The National Travel Attitudes Survey on perceptions of safety when walking, cycling and using public transport, found that a ‘poorly lit vehicle or carriage’ was the joint seventh most popular reason for feeling unsafe when travelling on a public transport vehicle. The Rail Safety and Standards Board sets requirements around lighting for new rolling stock. We continue to work with the rail industry including the Rail Delivery Group and the British Transport Police to ensure the rail network remains a safe environment for the travelling public.

The Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 makes no changes to existing roles and responsibilities regarding safety or tackling crime and anti-social behaviour. As such, there is no reason to expect any adverse impacts. The Government expects publicly owned train operators to focus relentlessly on the interests of passengers rather than shareholders, resulting in better outcomes for passengers across a range of areas, which will include personal security on trains.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a priority for the Government. We have set the ambitious target to halve this figure in the next decade using every lever available to us. The Department is working closely with the central mission delivery unit in the Cabinet Office to achieve the aims set out in the Government’s Safer Streets mission.

The British Transport Police will continue to police the rail network following the transition of passenger services into public ownership to prevent and investigate crime, and in particular to tackle violence against women and girls.

The department receives and responds to enquiries from Members of Parliament and Members of devolved Parliaments or Assemblies but does not collate, report or produce statistics on this.

The Department does not keep this information centrally and therefore it is not readily available. Providing the information that the Department does hold would incur disproportionate costs.

In Scotland, as of the 2022 census there were the following numbers of 1950s-born women in each Scottish constituency:

The relevant Scottish census data is available here in table UV102a, broken down by United Kingdom Parliamentary Constituency 2024: SuperWEB2(tm) - Table View.

In Northern Ireland, as of the 2021 census there were the following numbers of 1950s-born women in each Northern Irish constituency:

The relevant Northern Irish census data is available in this table: Get data for Single year of age and sex (MS-A09) | NISRA Flexible Table Builder

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) role is to continually monitor the safety of medicines during their use. We have robust, safety monitoring and surveillance systems in place for all healthcare products, including finasteride. As part of our monitoring and surveillance activities, we take into account any changes in the usage of a particular medicine.

Finasteride containing medicines are prescription only medicines. This means they must be prescribed by a doctor or other authorised health professional, and must be dispensed from a pharmacy or from another specifically licensed premises.

The MHRA has recently completed an extensive safety review into finasteride, with the subsequent updates to the product information having been implemented, and the development of a patient alert card is underway. We also published a Drug Safety Update to raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals of the adverse psychiatric and sexual side effects. We are aware that the European Medicines Agency has launched a review, and we are monitoring this closely. Further information on the Drug Safety Update is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/drug-safety-update/finasteride-reminder-of-the-risk-psychiatric-side-effects-and-of-sexual-side-effects-which-may-persist-after-discontinuation-of-treatment

Please be reassured that the MHRA continuously monitors the safety of finasteride via information from various sources, including the published literature. Information from all sources is carefully screened and may identify unexpected side effects, indicate that certain side effects occur more commonly than previously believed, or that some patients are more susceptible to some effects than others. If a new side effect is identified, information is carefully considered in the context of the overall side effect profile for the medicine. When necessary, the MHRA may take action to ensure that a medicine is used in a way which minimises risk and maximises benefits to the patient.

A consultation published in 2023 considered options for updating labelling guidance for no and low alcohol alternative drinks.

We will continue to consider how alcohol labelling can be improved to support consumers to make informed decisions about the products they are purchasing, whilst also promoting responsible consumption.

A consultation published in 2023 considered options for updating labelling guidance for no and low alcohol alternative drinks.

We will continue to consider how alcohol labelling can be improved to support consumers to make informed decisions about the products they are purchasing, whilst also promoting responsible consumption.