Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Stedman-Scott on 11 November (HL3461), whether in their view the removal of the Universal Credit uplift meets the public sector equality duty tests set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010 for any of the nine protected characteristics; what evidence informs their view that the public sector equality duty does not apply to ‘temporary’ measures; and what legal advice they have sought to confirm this view.

The Government recognises that the Public Sector Equality Duty set out in Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 is ongoing. As such, a full equality impact assessment was completed prior to the introduction of the uplift to Universal Credit and that equality impact assessment was reviewed and updated prior to implementation of the temporary six-month extension announced by the Chancellor at the Budget on 3 March 2021.

Consideration of the impact of the end of the uplift was implicit in those equality impact assessments, because the uplift was always intended as a temporary measure only. No separate assessment was therefore needed when the uplift came to an end.