Asked by: Carol Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of levels of violence against or detention of faith leaders and religious figures in Myanmar.
Answered by Nigel Adams
The UK is very concerned by divisive, racist and nationalist propaganda perpetuated by the military regime since the coup. Our Embassy is meeting with a range of stakeholders, including Buddhist, Christian and Muslim leaders who are bravely standing up against the military junta. The UK also works with partners and other community leaders to improve religious tolerance and social cohesion through facilitating a greater understanding of religious and cultural differences, and promoting dialogue between different communities across Myanmar.
We continue to raise our concern, including at the UN Human Rights Council, at the Race and Religion Laws and the 1982 Citizenship Law which have been used to discriminate against non-Buddhists.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with her Cabinet colleagues on ensuring that (a) women, (b) the BAME community and (c) people with disabilities are prioritised in the implementation of the Government’s levelling up agenda.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Equality Hub, at the heart of Government in the Cabinet Office, has a key role in driving Government priorities on equality and opportunity. The Equality Hub is leading on several cross-cutting projects, which involves working closely with other departments and Ministerial-level discussions. This includes work related to women’s economic empowerment, LGBT rights and the National Strategy for Disabled People, as well as work on the Government’s response to the final report of the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. We will also use the UK’s role as President of the G7 and our independent Gender Equality Advisory Council to ramp up work on equality.
In December 2020, we announced the Equality Data Project, the Government's new approach to tackling inequality that supports our manifesto commitment to level up across the UK. This will consider issues like geography and social background, alongside other characteristics, to enable us to understand where individuals are being held back across the UK. The Equality Hub will share the evidence from this inquiry with other government departments to help inform their work.
We also announced in December that the sponsorship of, and secretariat to, the independent Social Mobility Commission would move to the Equality Hub in the Cabinet Office from 1 April 2021. This move reflects the importance of the Social Mobility Commission for our levelling up agenda and ensures that equality and fairness of all kinds are at the heart of government.
More broadly, all departments ensure that equality considerations are at the heart of their decision-making; this is key to the Government’s commitment to delivering equality of opportunity for all as well as complying with legal requirements under the public sector equality duty. Officials in the Equality Hub provide advice to departments to assist with this.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Winchester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the contribution made to aiding reconciliation by, and (2) the vulnerability of, religious groups in Myanmar.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The UK is very concerned by divisive, racist and nationalist propaganda perpetuated by the military regime since the coup. Our Embassy is meeting with a range of stakeholders, including Buddhist, Christian and Muslim leaders who are bravely standing up against the military junta. The UK also works with partners and other community leaders to improve religious tolerance and social cohesion through facilitating a greater understanding of religious and cultural differences, and promoting dialogue between different communities across Myanmar.
We continue to raise our concern, including at the UN Human Rights Council, at the Race and Religion Laws and the 1982 Citizenship Law which have been used to discriminate against non-Buddhists.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps (1) they have taken, and (2) they intend to take, to address the level of (a) domestic abuse, (b) violence against women and girls, (c) hate crime, (d) online hate, and (e) online radicalisation, experienced by BAME communities.
Answered by Lord Greenhalgh
Domestic Abuse and VAWG
Tackling Domestic abuse and violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a government priority. These abhorrent crimes have no place in our society.
We know that anyone can be a victim of domestic abuse, regardless of ethnicity or background. That is why the Home Office has provided funding to ‘by and for’ specialist services including , Southall Black Sisters who have been provided with £80,951 in funding during the Covid pandemic.
Added to this, our landmark Domestic Abuse Bill which is due to achieve Royal Assent this Spring will strengthen our response to perpetrators and improve our support to victims.This Summer the Government will also publish a strategy to combat Violence Against Women and Girls, followed by a complementary strategy on Domestic Abuse.
Hate Crime & Online Hate
The Government has been clear that all forms of hate crime are unacceptable and that the cowards who commit these crimes should face the full force of the law. Action under the hate crime action plan 2016-20 (Action Against Hate: The UK Government’s plan for tackling hate crime) included approximately £5 million for protective security measures to protect places of worship and asking the Law Commission to review the effectiveness and coverage of hate crime legislation.
In November 2020, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government awarded £1.8 million through the Faith, Race and Hate Crime Grant Scheme to support established community groups and civil society organisations to run short projects to boost shared values and tackle religiously and racially-motivated hate crime.
We have published the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper, which includes specific measures to work with private companies and ensure that they are held to account for tackling illegal activity and content, such as hate crime, harassment, and cyber-stalking, as well as activity and content which may not be illegal but is nonetheless highly damaging to individuals (legal but harmful). The Full Government Response will be followed by legislation, which we are working on at pace, and will be ready this year. The Home Office also funds a Police Online Hate Crime Hub to improve the police response to victims of online hate crime.
Online radicalisation
Terrorist groups use the internet to spread propaganda designed to radicalise, recruit and inspire vulnerable people, and to incite, provide information to enable, and celebrate terrorist attacks. Our objective is to ensure that there are no safe spaces online for all forms of terrorists to promote or share their extreme views.
In 2010, we set up the police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU), based in the Metropolitan Police. To date, over 314,500 individual pieces of terrorist content referred by CTIRU have been removed by companies and the Unit has also informed the design of the EU Internet Referral Unit based at Europol.
The Government has also pressed companies to increase the use of technology to automate the detection and removal of content where possible. As a result of continued engagement, companies have expanded the use of automated removals.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it Government policy to undertake an inquiry into the disproportionate effect of covid-19 on BAME, migrant and low-income workers.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have no plans to do so. The Minister for Equalities (Kemi Badenoch MP) is leading cross-Government work to understand the disparities in the risks and outcomes from COVID-19 among the black, Asian and minority ethnic community and the relationships between the different risk factors.
Her first quarterly progress report concluded that a range of socioeconomic and geographical factors coupled with pre-existing health conditions were contributing to the higher infection and mortality rates for ethnic minority groups. The report can be found at the following link:
Findings of the second quarterly progress report included the role of deprivation in the unequal impact of COVID-19 which is available at the following link:
Tackling deprivation will be the focus of the third quarterly progress report. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has been set up to explore issues faced by ethnic minorities in this country and the challenges identified in the COVID-19 response is a key part of the Commission’s work, which is due to report shortly.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the (a) Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and (b) Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on expanding the Community Champions scheme to support vaccine uptake in ethnic minority communities.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
On 25 January, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced allocations of £23.75 million to support the Community Champions scheme which supports those groups at greater risk of COVID-19. This includes funding for 60 local authorities and voluntary and civil society partners.
As part of this, Community Champions will use their local networks to provide advice about COVID-19 and promote the take-up of vaccines.
Officials in the Race Disparity Unit, who are supporting me in my work to address COVID-19 disparities amongst ethnic minorities, continue to meet regularly with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health and Social Care to discuss a range of topics related to the delivery of the Community Champions scheme including vaccination uptake amongst ethnic minorities.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the adequacy of funding for local authorities to encourage vaccine uptake in ethnic minority communities.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
On 25 January, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced allocations of £23.75 million to support the Community Champions scheme which supports those groups at greater risk of COVID-19. This includes funding for 60 local authorities and voluntary and civil society partners.
As part of this, Community Champions will use their local networks to provide advice about COVID-19 and promote the take-up of vaccines.
Officials in the Race Disparity Unit, who are supporting me in my work to address COVID-19 disparities amongst ethnic minorities, continue to meet regularly with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health and Social Care to discuss a range of topics related to the delivery of the Community Champions scheme including vaccination uptake amongst ethnic minorities.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support people with dementia in Bolton who are living in (a) the community and (b) care homes.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised that Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group individually assesses the needs of service users with dementia and that they are supported to remain in their own homes for as long as possible. During the pandemic we have enhanced that support by providing evidence based guidance on how best to manage or mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on people living with dementia in care homes and in the community. We have also funded the Alzheimer’s Society and the Race Equality Foundation to provide practical and tailored advice and support.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on community champions.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
I announced the Community Champions scheme in my first quarterly report to the Prime Minister on progress to address disparities in risks and outcomes from COVID-19, published on 22 October, and provided an update in my second quarterly report published on 26 February. Officials in the Race Disparity Unit, who are supporting me in this work, continue to meet regularly with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government who are leading on the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by ClearView Research Ltd Youth Employment 2030: Employment and prospects for young people in England post-COVID19, published on 17 December 2020; and what steps they are taking to support unemployed young people who are black, Asian or minority ethnic.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
As part of the Plan for Jobs, the department is providing a range of support for young people, in collaboration with the Department for Education, schools and other partners. This will mean whatever their needs young people can find the right support, education or training that will ultimately lead to sustained employment.
We have recognised the substantial risk to the long-term employment and earnings prospects of young people and are taking steps to help minimise the amount of time they spend out of work.
Our £30 billion Plan for Jobs has been designed to deliver targeted support to those most in need and continues to adapt to a changing labour market. We have a variety of support options for all our claimants including specific interventions aimed at young people.
The package includes Kickstart scheme, New Youth Offer, Expansion of the Work and Health Programme to offer new support to those who lost their job as a result of Covid-19, Flexible Support Fund, Expanding Sector Based Work Academy Programmes and Job Finding Support service.
Taken together, the package will ensure that we can get Britain back into work quickly. Every young person, whatever their background or the challenges they face, should have the chance to shape their own futures.
We recognise the particular challenges faced by young unemployed people who are black, Asian and minority ethnic. In addition to our national offer, Jobcentre Plus supports employment through place-based solutions that meet the needs of local communities.
Youth Hubs will provide vital links in the community helping to reach young people who need this support. Additionally, we have DWP Mentoring Circles, developed for twenty local authorities identified as having a high ethnic minority population and high gap between ethnic minority and white employment rate, following the publication of the first Race Disparity Audit in 2017, working in partnership with Business in the Community. They are delivered by leaders from the companies involved and they work with jobseekers to increase their confidence, motivation and job search skills.
The Government is also taking forward activity mitigating the findings of the Public Health England review into disparities in the risks and outcomes of COVID-19 published in June 2020 as well as working with the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that will make evidence-based recommendations to change lives for the better.