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Written Question
Sri Lanka: Police Scotland
Wednesday 22nd September 2021

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, on what date the British High Commission in Colombo formally notified Sri Lanka's Inspector General of Police that Police Scotland had decided to pause its programme of work with Sri Lanka.

Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The British High Commission in Colombo formally notified Sri Lanka's Inspector General of Police that Police Scotland had decided to pause its programme of work with Sri Lanka on 2 July 2021. The training has focused on developing community policing, supporting women in the Sri Lankan police service, and improving the response to sexual and gender-based violence. Our police training is currently undergoing a review. Police Scotland officers have not travelled to Sri Lanka since the start of the coronavirus pandemic for public health reasons.


Written Question
Sri Lanka: Police Scotland
Thursday 16th September 2021

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will publish a copy of the letter sent from Police Scotland's ACC Gary Ritchie to the British High Commission in Colombo on 28 May 2021 on the decision to pause activities with Sri Lanka police.

Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has no plans to publish this correspondence. The UK's police training programme has focused on developing community policing, supporting women in the Sri Lankan police service, and improving the response to sexual and gender-based violence. All UK assistance is subject to robust Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) assessments that analyse the potential human rights, international humanitarian law, political and reputational risks of any proposed assistance to ensure that it supports our values and is consistent with our domestic and international human rights obligations. Our police training is currently undergoing a review. Police Scotland officers have not travelled to Sri Lanka since the start of the coronavirus pandemic for public health reasons. More information on our programme work can be found online.


Written Question
Sri Lanka: Police Scotland
Thursday 16th September 2021

Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will publish a copy of the letter supplied by Police Scotland on 10 June 2021 to the British High Commission in Colombo giving formal notification of the pause of the programme of work being undertaken by Police Scotland in Sri Lanka; and whether that letter was faxed to the Inspector General of Sri Lanka Police.

Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has no plans to publish this correspondence. The UK's police training programme has focused on developing community policing, supporting women in the Sri Lankan police service, and improving the response to sexual and gender-based violence. All UK assistance is subject to robust Overseas Security and Justice Assistance (OSJA) assessments that analyse the potential human rights, international humanitarian law, political and reputational risks of any proposed assistance to ensure that it supports our values and is consistent with our domestic and international human rights obligations. Our police training is currently undergoing a review. Police Scotland officers have not travelled to Sri Lanka since the start of the coronavirus pandemic for public health reasons. More information on our programme work can be found online.


Written Question
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Thursday 22nd July 2021

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2021 to Question 29788 on Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and with reference to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) statistics: 1 July 2021, Table 12 - CJRS extension: employments on furlough by country, region, local authority and gender and Table 14 - CJRS extension: employments on furlough by age and gender, whether his Department plans to publish that data by country, region, local authority, gender and age as one dataset; and for what reason that cumulated data is not currently available.

Answered by Jesse Norman

HM Revenue and Customs will publish additional information on the number of employments on furlough in due course in a future release of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) statistics.

Previously published statistics on the CJRS include the cumulative number of employments put on furlough at any time since the start of the scheme. Figures by local authority are in table 1a of the 1 July release.

HMRC keeps the contents of the statistics under review and have developed them informed by user feedback.


Written Question
Females: Coronavirus
Friday 16th July 2021

Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities to help ensure an equitable economic recovery for women from the Covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The Chancellor speaks to his Cabinet colleagues frequently.

Women have benefitted from an unprecedented package of support introduced since March 2020 to help businesses and individuals.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) continues through to the end of September, with employees receiving 80% of their salary for hours not worked, up to £2,500 per month. Across the UK, where it was possible to link the data, 1.72 million women were on furlough at 30 April 2021 compared with 1.67 million men.

The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) also continues until September 2021. The fifth and final grant will include a turnover test in order to ensure that the most generous support - a grant worth 80% of three months’ average trading profits, up to £7,500 - is targeted at those who need it the most. As of 6 June 2021, the scheme has received over 2.6 million claims from self-employed women across the four rounds of grant.

To continue to support people on low incomes during the pandemic, the Government has extended the temporary £20 per week uplift to the Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance to the end of September, with similar support for eligible Working Tax Credit (WTC) claimants. The majority of Universal Credit claimants are women: 53% in April 2021.

The increase to Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates for Universal Credit and Housing Benefit in cash terms in 2021-22 has also been maintained, an increase which was worth an extra £600 on average in 2020-21 for over 1.5 million households.

As there is a higher proportion of single women (52%) claiming housing support in the private rental sector with a shortfall than single men (18%) or couples (30%), increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile of rates in the market, is more likely to benefit single women than single men.

While the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the labour market are still emerging, there has been a larger fall in employment among men compared to women so far. Since December-February quarter 2020, the female employment rate has fallen by 0.5 percentage points, while the male employment rate has fallen by 2.4 percentage points. This is in contrast to other G7 countries: between Q4 2019 and Q4 2020 Canada has seen a larger fall in the female employment rate, and France, Italy, Japan and the US have seen relatively similar falls for both men and women (within 0.2 percentage points).

The gender pay gap is also at its lowest level since records began, falling to a record low of 15.5% in April 2020, from 17.4% last year. For full-time employees, the gap is also at a record low of 7.4% in April 2020, down from 9.0% in April 2019. The Office for National Statistics found that evidence from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) suggests that coronavirus factors did not have a notable impact on the gender pay gap in 2020.


Written Question
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Tuesday 13th July 2021

Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme statistics: 1 July 2021, including data tables 12 and 14, if he will provide details of employments broken down by (a) country, (b) region, (c) local authority, (d) age and (e) gender as at 31 May 2021.

Answered by Jesse Norman

HM Revenue and Customs publish statistics on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) regularly. The latest statistics were published on 1 July 2021 and can be found on GOV.UK.

The number of employments on furlough at 31 May 2021 broken down by the requested categories are available in the spreadsheet accompanying the release: a) country and region by gender (table 11); b) local authority and gender (table 12); and, c) age and gender (table 14).


Written Question
Restart Grant Scheme: Small Businesses
Monday 5th July 2021

Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding has been allocated under the Restart Grant scheme to support (a) women-led SMEs and (b) minority ethnic group led SMEs.

Answered by Paul Scully

The £5 billion Restart Grants scheme announced by my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors to support businesses to reopen as covid-19 restrictions are lifted in the coming months.

The Department does not collate details of the gender or ethnicity of any business owners who have received support through any COVID-19 business grant scheme.

All data on Government allocations and Local Authority payments of grant schemes is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.


Written Question
Government Assistance: Coronavirus
Thursday 27th May 2021

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Women’s Budget Group Gender Differences in Access to Coronavirus Government Support, published on 19 April; and what assessment they have made of the reliance of women, in comparison to men, on government COVID-19 support.

Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton

The Government is committed to ensuring a fair recovery for all. During the crisis we have rolled out unprecedented levels of support to protect jobs for both women and men.

The continuation of measures to respond to the impact of COVID-19, such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, has demonstrated the support for women during the pandemic, with more than half of jobs that have been furloughed since July being held by women. Women in low income households will also benefit from the additional support provided through the extension of the temporary £20 per week uplift to the Universal Credit standard allowance. Women account for 52% of Universal Credit claimants as of February 2021.

The Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has provided support for many of the 1.7 million self-employed women in the UK. The Future Fund has committed over £1 billion to support 1140 high growth companies across the country, of which 77% have mixed-gender management teams - compared to the Female Founders report which found that only 10% of venture capital was going to mixed-gender teams in 2019.

The Treasury carefully considers the impact of its decisions on those sharing protected characteristics, in line with both its legal obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and in line with its strong commitment to promoting fairness.


Written Question
Parents: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Tuesday 2nd March 2021

Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the report published by the Women and Equalities Committee, Unequal impact: Coronavirus and the gendered economic impact, HC 385, what assessment he has made of (a) the implications for his policies of that report and (b) the recommendation in that report to guarantee parents the right to furlough.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government is considering the Committee’s report carefully and will respond to their recommendations in due course. The Government appreciates the work of the Committee on these important issues, and the contributions of all those who gave evidence.

The Treasury has rigorous processes in place to ensure that it complies with its legal requirements under the Equality Act 2010. The Treasury considers carefully the equality impacts of individual policies on those sharing protected characteristics, including gender, in line with both its legal obligations and with its strong commitment to equality. As the Government considers further policies as part of the response to coronavirus, these processes ensure impacts on all are taken into account appropriately.

In relation to the specific recommendation related to parents’ right to furlough, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is available to the employers of anyone who is unable to work, including from home, due to caring responsibilities arising from COVID-19, such as caring for children who are at home as a result of school and childcare facilities closing. However, the furloughing of staff through the CJRS is a voluntary arrangement, entered at the employers’ discretion and agreed by employees. It is not for the Government to decide whether an individual firm should put its staff on furlough.


Written Question
Business: Coronavirus
Thursday 25th February 2021

Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the proportion of furloughed workers who work in the supply chain for retail, leisure and hospitality; and what steps he is taking to support those businesses through the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Jesse Norman

HMRC publish monthly experimental statistics that provide estimates of the number and value of claims made to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, broken down by employer size, sector of the economy, geography, and employee age and gender. For example, as at 31 December, statistics show that there were 714,400 employments furloughed in the wholesale and retail and repair of motor vehicles sectors, and 1,115,700 furloughed in the accommodation and food services sector. Based on the number of employments eligible for furlough, this represents 16% and 55% of eligible staff, respectively.

The Government has put in place an economic package of support designed to provide businesses with more certainty over the coming months. In addition to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, this package has also included billions in loans, tax deferrals, and business rates relief. Local authorities have also been provided with £1.6 billion of discretionary funding through the Additional Restrictions Grant, that can be used at their discretion to support businesses which supply the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors.