Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the recent Higher Education Statistics Agency statistics which suggest that gender and race inequalities are established immediately after university graduation.

It is disappointing to see the disparities shown in the HESA Graduate Outcome Data publication, but it highlights why collecting this information is so important. To tackle these gaps the Government is focused on ensuring equality of opportunity exists for everyone.

To help us do this the Government has established an independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which will examine ethnic inequalities across the whole population in the UK, and report by the end of this year.

To tackle income and employment disparities we are ensuring more women are equipped to enter STEM careers, where some jobs have higher than average wages, and we are encouraging flexible working, so parents are not held back. The Government is also doubling the number of front line staff at job centres, providing an extra £32m to recruit extra careers advisers and providing £17m for work academies in England to help make sure those looking for employment are offered the support they need to fulfil their potential.