Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps they are taking to improve social mobility.

This Government believes the circumstances of one's birth should not determine life outcomes.

We recently published our landmark Levelling Up White Paper, which sets out our ambitious plans to spread opportunity more equally across the UK.

The Social Mobility Commission is important to our levelling up agenda. We have bolstered the work of the Commission by recruiting a new Chair and Deputy Chair and giving the Commission more leverage to influence other government departments. We are also running a competition for new Commissioners and the new board is expected to be in place by Spring 2022.

To support our levelling up agenda, the Minister for Women and Equalities announced the Equality Data Programme to ensure that geographic and socio-economic inequality is considered, alongside other factors, when identifying barriers to opportunity.

We will use evidence from the Equality Data Programme and Social Mobility Commission to inform and support the development of policy across the Government to level up opportunities across the UK.