Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle racism towards Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities in schools.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
All children and young people must be treated fairly. There is no place for hate or prejudice in our education system.
Schools play an important role in preparing pupils for later life. This involves supporting pupils to understand the society in which they grow up and teaching about respect for other people and for difference. Under the Equality Act 2010, schools must not discriminate against a pupil in a number of respects because of a characteristic protected by the Act, including race. The department has published guidance for schools on how to comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010, and it is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.
The department is also providing over £2 million of funding, between August 2021 and March 2023, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. We have deliberately focused this grant programme on preventing and tackling bullying of pupils with protected characteristics. The training and resources provided cover hate-based bullying, including resources specifically relating to the bullying of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when he will provide the Government's response to the First Report of the International Development Committee, Racism in the aid sector, HC 150, published on 14 June 2022; and for what reason he is yet to provide the Government response to that report.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
I provided a response to the International Development Committee (IDC) on 5 December 2022, together with a letter to the IDC Chair, apologising for the delay. The UK Government is grateful to the IDC for its report on racism in the aid sector. We wanted to provide a comprehensive response to the complex issues raised by the IDC's report. This took time, but it should not have taken as long as it did. The FCDO is committed to providing UK Government responses within 8 weeks, and the Foreign Secretary has asked officials to ensure that a delay of this kind does not recur.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report by The Traveller Movement entitled The last acceptable form of racism, published in September 2017, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his policies of the research on the proportion of people from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller backgrounds that have experienced discrimination in health care.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
No specific assessment has been made.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Cricket Discipline Commission at tackling discrimination, bullying, racism and sexism in cricket in (a) England and (b) Wales.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The work of the Cricket Discipline Commission is a matter for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The Government has no role in scrutinising its work.
We will continue to directly hold the ECB to account on cultural change in the sport, particularly around racism, and reserve the right to take further measures if progress is not made.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Premier League on reports of antisemitic chanting and acts at football matches.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has always been clear that racism, including any form of anti semitism, has no place in football, sport, or society at large. This is why the government and its arm’s length bodies, Sport England and UK Sport, have worked closely with football authorities and the sector to ensure there is continued action to tackle all forms of racism at football matches.
This includes actions targeted at and around football grounds, such as improving reporting systems, providing better training and support for referees and stewards, and improving the quality of CCTV around stadia.
I will continue to meet with the Premier League and other football authorities to ensure that tackling all forms of racism remains a priority.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle racism in police forces in England and Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government published the Inclusive Britain strategy which sets out a series of actions across policing to improve transparency, accountability, and effectiveness across recruitment, police training and use of police powers.
Reforms to the police complaints and discipline systems, introduced by the Government in 2020, strengthened the independent police “watchdog” - the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) – which plays a vital role in investigating the most serious and sensitive allegations. By law, all allegations of misconduct aggravated by discrimination, must be referred to the IOPC by forces.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many complaints have been made to the Armed Forces Service Complaints Process for allegations of a) racism, b) bullying, c) sexism, and d) harassment, in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the UK Armed Forces are committed to taking action to eradicate unacceptable behaviour. All allegations of illegal or unacceptable behaviour are taken extremely seriously and investigated thoroughly. Service personnel have a number of routes to raise issues, either with the police, within the Chain of Command or with Diversity and Inclusion Advisers. MOD has mandated Active Bystander training so that personnel have the skills to challenge any witnessed unacceptable behaviour effectively when it does occur.
Information on the number of complaints made due to alleged racism or sexism is not readily available and an answer could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Allegations of racism or sexism are captured through various systems, including internal and external disciplinary proceedings, the Service Complaints system, informal complaints and the Armed Forces Continuous Attitude Survey. Defence is working to improve its data capture of all unacceptable behaviour across the department.
The Service Complaints Ombudsman for the Armed Forces (SCOAF)'s annual report cites the issue of overrepresentation by ethnic minorities within the complaints system, but these complaints do not only concern racial discrimination. However, information from the single Services' annual statistical returns on Service Complaints to the SCOAF indicates that in 2019, five per cent of all bullying, harassment or discrimination Service Complaints concerned racial discrimination; this reduced to three per cent in 2020 and 2021.
Information on the numbers of Service Complaints concerning bullying, harassment and discrimination is available through the SCOAF’s annual reports (2016 to 2021) and the Service Complaints Commissioner’s annual reports (2010 to 2015), all of which are available at the following website: www.scoaf.org.uk/annual-reports
Asked by: Liz Twist (Labour - Blaydon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that all complaints of racism and discriminatory behaviour by HMRC officers are investigated; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Bullying, harassment, and discrimination of any kind, including racial discrimination, has no place whatsoever at HMRC. The wellbeing of all staff is a top priority, and HMRC does not tolerate any behaviour that makes staff, or taxpayers, feel uncomfortable. HMRC has policies which cover what action individuals can take if they experience discrimination within the workplace, and has developed comprehensive guidance on how to raise a concern. All concerns are investigated in accordance with the Civil Service investigation standards. HMRC has introduced a number of services to ensure staff can speak up if they see, hear, or experience anything that gives them a cause for concern. It has also introduced steps to ensure that complaints are investigated impartially with the decision taken by an independent decision manager with full support from expert HR advisers.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of complaints received by NHS England in each reporting year since 2017 have been related to racism.
Answered by Will Quince
We are informed by NHS England (NHSE) that data relating to complaints about racism is not collected centrally by the organisation. NHSE receives complaints made by, or on behalf of, patients only in relation to the services it commissions however this represents a very small proportion of the overall complaints received by the National Health Service (NHS).
Data on complaints made by, or on behalf of, patients about NHS services provided by NHS Trusts and General Practices and Dental practices is collected and published by NHS Digital on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care and can be found at the following link:
Neither of these collections include a classification that would allow NHS Digital to identify numbers of complaints relating to racism.
It is possible that such information is collected by NHS organisations who directly manage their complaints locally.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the INQUEST report entitled Deaths of racialised people in prison 2015-2022: Challenging racism and discrimination, published on 12 October 2022, if he will make it his policy to pause current plans for prison expansion due to the potential harms prisons can present.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have delivered to date over 3,100 additional prison places as part of a significant build programme delivering safe, secure and modern places across the country.
We have done this to protect the public and make the streets safer, meet projected demand from the courts and deliver manifesto commitments. The modern facilities we are delivering will also enable us to provide a safer and more secure custodial environment and to provide more opportunities to intervene and aid prisoners to turn their back on crime.
We are committed to improving outcomes for those from ethnic minority backgrounds. In March 2022, we published our response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report and committed to 74 actions across Government for a more inclusive and integrated society, including in relation to criminal justice.