Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether her Department has submitted any proposed amendments to the revised Code of practice for services, public functions and associations to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following its consultation after the UK Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland, and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities on 4 September 2025.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Secretary of State will lay it before Parliament over a 40 day period.
As set out in Equality Act 2006, the EHRC operates independently of the Government and is responsible for drafting and consulting on the Code. The Secretary of State is following the process in the Equality Act 2006 and is consulting the Welsh and Scottish Ministers at the relevant stages, as required under section 14(9).
The Government does not comment on legal advice it may have received. We have always been clear that there is a due process that needs to be followed by all. Our priority is getting this right. We will continue to work with the EHRC to ensure Ministers are able to make a fully informed decision.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, which external organisations or groups her Department has engaged or consulted with on the draft Code of Practice for services, public functions, and associations.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following its consultation after the UK Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland, and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities on 4 September 2025.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Secretary of State will lay it before Parliament over a 40 day period.
As set out in Equality Act 2006, the EHRC operates independently of the Government and is responsible for drafting and consulting on the Code. The Secretary of State is following the process in the Equality Act 2006 and is consulting the Welsh and Scottish Ministers at the relevant stages, as required under section 14(9).
The Government does not comment on legal advice it may have received. We have always been clear that there is a due process that needs to be followed by all. Our priority is getting this right. We will continue to work with the EHRC to ensure Ministers are able to make a fully informed decision.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how much she has spent on legal advice pertaining to the revised Code of practice for services, public functions and associations.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following its consultation after the UK Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland, and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities on 4 September 2025.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Secretary of State will lay it before Parliament over a 40 day period.
As set out in Equality Act 2006, the EHRC operates independently of the Government and is responsible for drafting and consulting on the Code. The Secretary of State is following the process in the Equality Act 2006 and is consulting the Welsh and Scottish Ministers at the relevant stages, as required under section 14(9).
The Government does not comment on legal advice it may have received. We have always been clear that there is a due process that needs to be followed by all. Our priority is getting this right. We will continue to work with the EHRC to ensure Ministers are able to make a fully informed decision.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will list the meetings between his Department, including the Office for Equality and Opportunity, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the implications of the For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers Supreme Court ruling since 16 April 2025.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following its consultation after the UK Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland, and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities on 4 September 2025.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Secretary of State will lay it before Parliament over a 40 day period.
As set out in Equality Act 2006, the EHRC operates independently of the Government and is responsible for drafting and consulting on the Code. The Secretary of State is following the process in the Equality Act 2006 and is consulting the Welsh and Scottish Ministers at the relevant stages, as required under section 14(9).
The Government does not comment on legal advice it may have received. We have always been clear that there is a due process that needs to be followed by all. Our priority is getting this right. We will continue to work with the EHRC to ensure Ministers are able to make a fully informed decision.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions her Department has had with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the revised Code of practice for services, public functions and associations, submitted to the Minister for Women and Equalities for approval on 5 September 2025.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following its consultation after the UK Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland, and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities on 4 September 2025.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Secretary of State will lay it before Parliament over a 40 day period.
As set out in Equality Act 2006, the EHRC operates independently of the Government and is responsible for drafting and consulting on the Code. The Secretary of State is following the process in the Equality Act 2006 and is consulting the Welsh and Scottish Ministers at the relevant stages, as required under section 14(9).
The Government does not comment on legal advice it may have received. We have always been clear that there is a due process that needs to be followed by all. Our priority is getting this right. We will continue to work with the EHRC to ensure Ministers are able to make a fully informed decision.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what external legal advice has she sought on the revised Code of practice for services, public functions and associations, submitted to her for approval on 5 September 2025.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The EHRC revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations following its consultation after the UK Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland, and submitted it to the Minister for Women and Equalities on 4 September 2025.
The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Secretary of State will lay it before Parliament over a 40 day period.
As set out in Equality Act 2006, the EHRC operates independently of the Government and is responsible for drafting and consulting on the Code. The Secretary of State is following the process in the Equality Act 2006 and is consulting the Welsh and Scottish Ministers at the relevant stages, as required under section 14(9).
The Government does not comment on legal advice it may have received. We have always been clear that there is a due process that needs to be followed by all. Our priority is getting this right. We will continue to work with the EHRC to ensure Ministers are able to make a fully informed decision.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will publish national data on endometriosis diagnostic waiting times.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not centrally hold data on the number of women in England and Wales awaiting specialised endometriosis care, or on the waiting times for patients waiting for a diagnosis of endometriosis.
However, in England, the waiting list for gynaecology care, which includes those waiting for endometriosis care, stands at 575,986. This is a reduction of 19,979 since the Government came into office. Consultant-led Referral to Treatment Waiting Times data, which includes the above data, is published monthly at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/rtt-waiting-times/rtt-data-2025-26/
Data is currently published on the waiting times for diagnostic tests that are used along an endometriosis pathway, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound, but does not differentiate between the suspected diagnosis. This can be found in the Monthly Diagnostic Waiting Times and Activity dataset, published monthly at the following link:
The following table shows the number of patients waiting for MRI and non-obstetric ultrasound, as of November 2025:
| Total waiting list | Number waiting over six weeks | Percentage waiting over six weeks |
MRI | 362,208 | 67,557 | 18.7% |
Non-obstetric ultrasound | 627,473 | 115,909 | 18.5% |
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the cross-departmental ministerial group will next meet to discuss the violence against women and girls strategy action plan; and how that group plans to report its work to Parliament.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Ministerial Board met on Tuesday 27th January and will continue to meet regularly.
Home Office Ministers look forward to engaging with Parliament on the working of the government in implementing our Strategy ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse’, our supporting Action Plan, and our ambition to halve VAWG within a decade. This will include annual progress reports which will be published.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide a timeline for their engagement with technology companies on preventing nude image sharing among children, as referenced in Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls, published on 18 December 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We committed in the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy ‘to make it impossible for children in the UK to take, share or view a nude image’, and that ‘we are working constructively with companies to make this a reality’. This engagement will be targeted and carried out with the urgency that the issue deserves.
We want device operating systems to be doing more to protect their child users. Applying nudity detection technology more comprehensively across the operating system can prevent nude imagery from being taken, shared or viewed on the phone at all. This intervention is about preventing the harm from happening by blocking the imagery entirely. Preventing the creation and sharing of self-generated indecent imagery (SGII) would undermine grooming and sextortion models, where imagery is extorted out of the child by offenders.
This intervention will also prevent children from being exposed to harmful content, building on similar protections already enacted through the Online Safety Act. Exposure to harmful content – especially pornography – at such an impressionable age can feed misogynistic views and give distorted views of healthy relationships.
We will provide an update on this work as soon as possible. If voluntary action from industry is not sufficient, we will not hesitate to consider other means.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to Freedom from violence and abuse volume 2: action plan, published on 18 December 2025, what actions they have taken, or plan to take, to deliver the commitment to working with employers on domestic abuse.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’, published on 18 December 2025, sets out our commitment to improving the employer response to violence against women and girls (VAWG). Work is underway to encourage employers to maximise employment opportunities and provide support for those experiencing domestic abuse in the workplace. This includes:
We are working across government to deliver commitments on employers’ response to domestic abuse, including through a cross-government Ministerial Group that has shaped the development of the Strategy and will oversee its implementation.
This is further supported by a Strategy Advisory Board of external expert stakeholders who will help to hold the Government to account on delivery.