Lord Lucas

The Government has no plans to lower the minimum age of application for a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Allocation of working time spent on cross-government staff networks is an agreement between the staff network volunteers and their departments as employers.

The majority of staff time spent on the Civil Service LGBT+ Network is voluntary and unpaid. There are no central records on how many staff members participate in the network.

Applications and decisions about applications for external Equality Diversity and Inclusion expenditure lie with individual departments. No exemptions have been centrally reported since the General Election.

The public consultation on the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education statutory guidance was open for eight weeks and received over 14,300 responses.

My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance for schools and as such the government will look carefully at the consultation responses and consider the relevant evidence, including through stakeholder conversations, before setting out the next steps to make sure the guidance draws from the best available evidence. This will include plans for responding to the consultation.

DWP does not have a National Diversity Ambassador on Trans Issues.

Since 2018, under the current Permanent Secretary, there has been no formally recognised role of this description. Before this, the term Ambassador may have been used colloquially within the Department to raise awareness of Trans and wider Equity, Diversity and Inclusion matters. However, this role was not confirmed in any official capacity.

There are fewer than 5 individuals in DWP in September 2024 who are claiming Trade Union (TU) Facility time and Diversity Network time.

In line with standard departmental practice in statistics, we do not publish details of numbers below 5, or where individuals might otherwise be identified in the data, as this would breach our data protection obligations.

DWP does not have a policy on colleagues claiming both Diversity Network Time and Facility Time at the same time.

In light of the review of the National Health Service by Professor Lord Darzi, which highlights the importance of driving productivity in hospitals, the Government welcomes the manifesto of the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) and will consider its recommendations. The Government is already working with NHS England to improve perioperative care, which can reduce length of stay, improve patient outcomes, and increase productivity. In May 2023, NHS England published guidance setting out five core perioperative care requirements relating to the care of adult patients awaiting planned inpatient surgery. These measures address the key objective of identifying health needs as early as possible in perioperative pathways, and then using time on the waiting list to optimise health, through optimisation of both existing health conditions and of health-related behaviour. NHS England is working to oversee and support implementation, and will continue to do so throughout 2024/25. In addition, NHS England is also undertaking work on other areas addressed in the CPOC manifesto such as drinking, eating, and mobilising after surgery.

It is not the position of the Government, or NHS England, that a person whose biological sex is male can get pregnant.

The FCDO is committed to championing the rights of LGBT+ individuals globally. This year, for Bisexual Awareness Week, the FCDO flew the Bisexual flag within the grounds of our HQ in London to show support to our colleagues. An equalities assessment was made against our Public Sector Equality Duty commitments which concluded that this would raise awareness and promote tolerance. The FCDO stands for inclusivity, diversity and acceptance, both at home and abroad. We ­celebrate the diversity of our staff throughout the year and recognise various anniversaries, events or international days which can include flying flags or lighting up the FCDO in relevant colours.

Flag advertisements which benefit from deemed consent are set out in Class 7 of Schedule 3 to The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisement) (England) Regulations 2007. Guidance is set out in Flying flags: A plain English guide.

As set out at Autumn Budget, the Long-Term Plan for Towns will be retained and reformed, as part of a new regeneration programme.

The 75 places across the UK that were previously selected to receive funding under the Long-Term Plan for Towns will receive up to £20 million of funding and support over the next decade.

The Public and Commercial Services Union has not made any representations to the Ministry of Justice regarding this motion and therefore no response was given.