Sarah Russell

The Office for Equality and Opportunity is working closely with the Home Office to deliver on our landmark mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

We are also working with the Department for Business and Trade to progress the Employment Rights Bill. As part of this, we will strengthen protections against harassment and sexual harassment in the course of employment, by introducing three amendments to the Equality Act 2010.

This Government is dedicated to improving rights for working parents. In April, we are making Unpaid Parental Leave and Paternity Leave day-one rights, as well as introducing Bereaved Partners Paternity Leave.

In 2027, we will further improve protections for pregnant women and those returning from Maternity Leave. These reforms will benefit millions of employees across the country.

We also know that more can be done to support working parents. The ongoing Parental Leave and Pay Review is looking at all parental leave entitlements and will conclude next year, informing our next steps.

Through the Employment Rights Act, we are making Paternity Leave a ‘day one’ right from 6 April this year. This will bring an extra 32,000 fathers and partners into scope of the entitlement.

The Government also launched the Parental Leave and Pay Review on 1 July 2025, which will consider all existing and upcoming parental leave entitlements, including Paternity Leave and Pay. The Review will conclude in early 2027 with a set of findings in which the Government will outline next steps for taking any reforms forward to implementation.

The Government is committed to implementing the provisions of the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act 2023 as soon as possible. Once in place, up to 12 weeks of paid leave will be available to all eligible parents of babies who are admitted into neonatal care.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology recognises the importance of supporting women working in the UK science, technology, engineering and mathematic sectors.

In December 2025, DSIT launched the Women in Tech Taskforce to address the systemic barriers that prevent women from entering, progressing, and leading in the tech sector. In March 2026 DSIT launched a package to get more women into tech, including 300 paid tech placements and support for those returning after a career break. DSIT also announced a TechFirst Girls Competitition and the Women in Tech Taskforce launched a call for evidence on building a more diverse tech sector.

This is on top of major programmes that DSIT supports such as the £187 million TechFirst initiative to support entry into the sector, the CyberFirst Girls annual tech competition, and Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation programme.

Alongside this, DSIT and UKRI are working to improve retention and career outcomes for women in research. On 11^th March, DSIT Secretary of State called on research institutions and funders to do more to support women in research and back a voluntary charter to raise standards and drive culture change. The charter, which will be shaped with employers and funders of researchers, will set a firm expectation that all PhD funders commit to meeting or exceeding UK Research and Innovation’s parental leave offer for doctoral students. It will also agree clear, tangible commitments on other issues like support for those returning to work with caring responsibilities, greater job flexibility and addressing sexual discrimination and harassment.

DSIT have also doubled the government’s support for the Daphne Jackson Trust, who support researchers who have taken a career break, to £4m per year.

The number of England‑domiciled borrowers with a Plan 3 student loan was 603,000, rounded to the nearest thousand, and the total value of those loans was £6.521 billion, rounded to the nearest million, as of 31 March 2025.

Education is a devolved matter, and the Welsh Government is responsible for providing equivalent figures for borrowers in Wales.

There is no plan to assess the potential impact of the Minimum Income Floor specifically for self-employed childminders on Universal Credit.

The department does not systematically collect data about the sector self-employed customers work in. Universal Credit treats all forms and sectors of self-employment in the same way, focusing on the level of the customer’s earnings rather than the sector. There is no link between the sector that a customer works in and the level of their Minimum Income Floor.

Last year, we published our 10-year plan to deliver a National Health Service fit for the future and a central part of the plan is our workforce and how we ensure we train and provide the staff, technology, and infrastructure the NHS needs to care for patients across our communities.

The Government is committed to publishing a 10‑Year Workforce Plan, to ensure the NHS has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver for patients, including those at the end of their lives. The 10‑Year Workforce Plan will be published in spring of this year.

The Department has not made an assessment of the potential impact of reductions in the social care workforce on the level of delayed discharges from hospitals.

Achieving timely and effective discharge for hospital patients relies on effective joint working between the National Health Service, local authorities, and social care providers. Through the Better Care Fund, NHS integrated care boards and local authorities are required to pool over £9 billion of funding and agree how to use that funding to join up health and social care services. This includes agreeing local goals for both preventing avoidable hospital admissions and reducing delayed hospital discharges.

English local authorities are responsible under the Care Act 2014 for meeting social care needs and statutory guidance directs them to ensure there is sufficient workforce in adult social care.

The Government is committed to transforming adult social care and supporting adult social care workers, turning the page on decades of low pay and insecurity. That is why we plan to introduce the first ever Fair Pay Agreement in 2028 to improve pay and conditions for the adult social care workforce, backed by £500 million of new investment.

The Government has published impact assessments alongside the Spring 2025 Immigration Rules, which implement proposals set out in the White Paper, Restoring control over the immigration system. These impact assessments set out the expected effects of the reforms on the Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker routes, including modelling of changes in overall visa volumes. The impact assessments are published on the GOV.UK website, at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/impact-assessments-covering-migration-policy

The forthcoming 10 Year Workforce Plan will ensure the National Health Service has the right people in the right places, with the right skills to care for patients when they need it.

The Department has regular discussions with the General Dental Council (GDC) on regulatory matters. While the GDC is an independent regulator responsible for managing its fitness to practise processes, the Government expects the GDC to take steps to improve the efficiency and timeliness of case handling.

The GDC recently published its strategy, Trusted and effective: A strategy for dental regulation 2026-2028, which sets out its vision and objectives, and the work it will do to achieve them. One of those objectives is to improve fitness to practise, maximising patient safety and reducing unintended impacts. The published strategy is available at the following link:

https://www.gdc-uk.org/docs/default-source/about-us/corporate-strategy-2025/gdc_strategy_2026_2028_final.pdf?sfvrsn=3ec0b80f_1

In parallel, the Department is progressing wider, longer-term reforms to the regulatory frameworks of the healthcare professional regulators. These will enable them to be more responsive to changes in the health and care workforce and give them the flexibility to modernise their fitness to practise processes whilst maintaining public protection.

Baroness Amos has advised that the independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation will publish its final report and recommendations in June.

Every victim of violence against women and girls (VAWG), whether in a city or a rural village, should be able to access the help they need. In the 'Freedom from Violence and Abuse’ Strategy, we committed to developing a new cross-government statement on the commissioning of VAWG services. This statement aims to strengthen the quality of commissioning from local commissioners, and it will support local areas to tailor their provision to their local communities, including rural victims.

Last year (2025/26), the Home Office invested over £6m into specialist helplines to support victims of VAWG and we are expanding our investment into the VAWG helplines this financial year. The helplines are accessible across England and Wales and provide advice and support to victims and assist in signposting and referrals to appropriate local services.

Last year, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) commenced a call for evidence across a network of rural stakeholders to inform our understanding of the availability of support services and effective practice to provide support in rural areas. This research will help to confront the disparities in the provision and inform our future work to address the disparities of provision.

Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level, up 29% on year up to June 2024, with more and more offenders using violence and abuse against shopworkers to do this.

Everybody has a right to feel safe on the job and this government is committed to taking retail crime seriously.

We will introduce a new specific offence for assaults on shopworkers to protect them from violence and abuse. The scope of the legislation is still under consideration and will be confirmed when legislation is brought forward.

Data relating to the number of wheelchair accessible homes is not collected centrally, although the English Housing Survey collects occasional series on accessibility and adaptations within the home.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, the government consulted a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The consultation on the revised Framework, which can be found on gov.uk here, included proposals to set clearer expectations for accessible housing to meet the needs of older and disabled people. We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide adaptations for people who satisfy a needs assessment, eligibility criteria, and a means test. The Disabled Facilities Grant is provided by government and distributed to local authorities to fund home adaptations for disabled people of all ages and tenures subject to the statutory conditions.

Data relating to the number of wheelchair accessible homes is not collected centrally, although the English Housing Survey collects occasional series on accessibility and adaptations within the home.

Between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026, the government consulted a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The consultation on the revised Framework, which can be found on gov.uk here, included proposals to set clearer expectations for accessible housing to meet the needs of older and disabled people. We are currently analysing the feedback received and will publish our response in due course.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to provide adaptations for people who satisfy a needs assessment, eligibility criteria, and a means test. The Disabled Facilities Grant is provided by government and distributed to local authorities to fund home adaptations for disabled people of all ages and tenures subject to the statutory conditions.