Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what the budget is for the UK to host the European IDAHOT+ Forum 2027.

In accordance with standard practice, additional information regarding the event, including associated costs, will be released at the appropriate time. Officials are working to ensure the event is delivered as cost-effectively as possible, in line with the Government’s usual approach to spending public money appropriately and in line with value-for-money principles.

We will also learn the lessons from the previous government’s failed attempt to host the ‘Safe To Be Me’ conference in July 2021, billed as the world’s first global LGBT+ rights conference with a budget of more than £5 million, and eventually scrapped in April 2022 with estimated irrecoverable losses of up to £0.6 million.