Lord Bishop of Leicester

I refer the Noble Lord to the answer of 5 June 2025, Official Report, PQ HC 53909.

Question:

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when she plans to enact the socioeconomic measures in the Equality Act 2010.

Answer:

The Government is committed to commencing the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010. The duty will require specified public bodies, when making strategic decisions, to consider actively how their decisions might help to reduce the inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage.

We will work in partnership with public authorities, civil society and others in order to ensure that the implementation of the duty is as effective as possible. As part of this, we have included questions in relation to the socio-economic duty in a call for evidence on equality law, which was launched on 7 April and will be open until 30 June. This will enable public authorities and others to input into plans in relation to the socio-economic duty at an early stage.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper sets out our plans for reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and protect disabled people.

The plans include increased funding for employment support for disabled people, rising to an additional £1 billion per year by the end of the Parliament.

The Office of Budget Responsibility has committed to produce an assessment of the labour market impacts of the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper at the time of the autumn budget.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper and to monitor and evaluate their impact will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

The Office of Budget Responsibility has committed to produce an assessment of the labour market impacts of the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper at the time of the autumn budget.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.

A programme of analysis to support development and evaluation of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed in the coming months.

The Pathways to Work Green Paper sets out our plans for reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and protect disabled people.

The disability employment rate is affected by external factors such as the composition of the underlying disabled population and overall labour market performance, as well as DWP activity. The Office of Budget Responsibility has committed to produce an assessment of the labour market impacts of the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper at the time of the autumn budget.

Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.