Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Prime Minister's press release of 18 August 2014, what steps she is taking to assess the impact of her Department's policies on the family.

The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014 through the publication of guidance for officials - Family Test Guidance

The objective of the test is to introduce a family perspective to the policy making process, specifically to make the potential impacts on family functioning and relationships explicit.

Defra is following guidance issued by the Department of Work and Pensions to embed and implement the test in the policymaking process. Where the test identifies impacts on the family, this will be evidenced as part of the formal Impact Assessment.