Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, which faith and regeneration projects the Government works with to meet recommendation one of the Government Response to the Women and Equalities Committee Report on Employment Opportunities for Muslims in the UK, published in December 2016, Cm 9371, to rebuild trust with Muslim communities by improving the life chances of disadvantaged communities.

The Department for Communities and Local Government supports a number of programmes that seek to bring communities together.

We are providing £1.65 million in 2017/18 to support the Near Neighbours programme, which has enabled Muslim women to develop a range of employment and life skills. We have funded Nisa-Nashim which brings together Jewish and Muslim women around the themes of business, culture, social action, sports and well-being. In 2015/16 we provided support through a Women’s Empowerment fund to 14 separate projects working with women from isolated and BME communities.

The forthcoming integration strategy will further set out how we will support people in more isolated communities and assist women, in particular into the workplace, and teach more people to speak English.