Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she has made an assessment of the findings of the 14th annual Girls' Attitudes Survey published by GirlGuiding in October 2022.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Girlguiding Girls' Attitudes Survey provides valuable data each year which helps the Government's policy development. We share the concerns about harassment and sexism highlighted in this survey and are taking action to protect women and girls, online, in communities and in the workplace.
Strong laws protecting people against workplace harassment and discrimination, including in relation to sex, are set out in the Equality Act 2010. In addition, the Government is supporting the protection from workplace harassment Bill introduced by the Hon. Member for Bath. This Bill will amend the Equality Act 2010 to strengthen legal protections for employees against workplace harassment, including sexual harassment and harassment by third-parties, such as customers and clients.
We will also bring the Online Safety Bill back to Parliament as soon as possible, which will introduce new protections for women and girls online. Under the Bill all services will need to proactively remove and prevent users from being exposed to priority illegal content. This includes content that particularly affects women and girls, such as illegal content relating to sexual images – for example, revenge and extreme pornography, harassment and cyberstalking. Women and girls will also be better able to report abuse and should expect to receive an appropriate response from the platform.
In addition, we are putting a range of measures in place to support children and young people as part of the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. This includes providing £3 million to better understand what works to prevent violence against women and girls. We are investing in high quality, evidence-informed prevention projects, including in schools, to educate and inform children and young people about violence against women and girls, healthy relationships, consent and the consequences of abuse.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, in the context of the International Safe Abortion Day 2022 which took place on 28 September 2022, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure young people can access early medical abortion via the telemedicine pathway; and what recent assessment she has made of the extent to which young people are supported to consent, if they have capacity to do so, to early medical abortion via the telemedecine pathway.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
In March 2022, Parliament voted in favour of making the temporary approval allowing home-use of both pills for early medical abortions a permanent measure for women and girls in England and Wales. The Abortion Act 1967 does not set a legal age limit for access to early medical abortion via the telemedicine pathway. The Department continues to work with NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and abortion providers to ensure that children and young people have timely access to all abortion services, including telemedicine abortion services.
While no recent assessment has been made, the Department commissioned the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to develop independent safeguarding guidance for children and young people under 18 years old accessing early medical abortion services, which was published in August 2022. The guidance states that young people have an evolving capacity to make decisions about their lives and to consent to medical treatment and recommends that early medical abortion services assess whether a young person is able to consent using national frameworks and the services’ own internal guidance.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for Carers Allowance to a larger number of unpaid carers; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of unpaid care work on the (a) physical and (b) mental health of women.
Answered by Claire Coutinho - Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero
The primary purpose of Carer’s Allowance is to provide a measure of financial support and recognition for people who give up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to provide regular and substantial care for a severely disabled person.
Entitlement to Carer's Allowance depends on certain conditions relating to the circumstances of both the disabled person and the carer being satisfied. The carer must provide a minimum of 35 hours care a week for the disabled person who must be receiving a qualifying disability benefit. The carer must be aged 16 or over; should not be in full-time education; or receiving earnings above £132 a week, net after the deduction of certain allowances. In 2020/21, 850,000 people were in receipt of the Allowance, an increase of nearly 300,000 since 2010/11.
In addition to Carer’s Allowance, carers on low incomes can claim income-related benefits, such as Universal Credit and Pension Credit. These benefits can be paid to carers at a higher rate than those without caring responsibilities through the carer element and the additional amount for carers respectively. Currently, the Universal Credit carer element is £168.81 per monthly assessment period, and the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit is £38.85 per week.
Since April 2010, carers who do not get Carer's Allowance have been able to apply for National Insurance carer's credits if they are caring for one or more disabled people for at least 20 hours a week. These are Class 3 credits which can help towards the conditions of entitlement to the new State Pension and Widowed Parent’s Allowance.
Carer’s Allowance is devolved to the Scottish Parliament and will, in due course be replaced by Scottish Government provision. Carer’s Allowance is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland.
The Government recognises that caring is not always easy or straightforward. There is a wide variety in caring circumstances, experiences and needs among unpaid carers. In England, the Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable high-quality care and support services, including support for unpaid carers and local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any unpaid carer who appears to have a need for support and to meet their eligible needs on request from the carer. There is similar provision in Scotland and in Wales.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure young people (a) can access and (b) retain the legal right to consent to early medical abortion via the telemedicine pathway.
Answered by Caroline Johnson
In March 2022, Parliament voted in favour of making the temporary approval allowing home-use of both pills for early medical abortions a permanent measure for women and girls in England and Wales. The Department continues to work with abortion providers and other stakeholders on the provision of services, including ensuring timely access to all abortion services.
The Abortion Act 1967 does not set a legal age limit for access to early medical abortion via the telemedicine pathway. The Department commissioned the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to develop independent safeguarding guidance for children and young people under 18 years old accessing early medical abortion services.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support her Department provides to at-risk (a) third sector and (b) non-governmental organisation staff in Afghanistan with resettlement in the UK.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK. It is designed to support those who have assisted UK efforts in Afghanistan and stood up for UK values, as well as vulnerable people, such as women and girls. The scheme is not application based. Instead, eligible people will be prioritised and referred for resettlement to the UK through one of three referral pathways set out in the Statement to Parliament of 6 January 2022:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/oral-statement-on-the-afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme.
Further details on the ACRS referral pathways can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/afghan-citizens-resettlement-scheme.
Under Pathway 3 of the ACRS, in the first year, we will offer resettlement places to up to 1,500 people from the three identified cohorts (British Council, GardaWorld contractors and Chevening alumni) and their eligible family members in Afghanistan and the region.
The online referral process for this pathway closed on 15 August 2022. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) will be in touch with those eligible to support them through the next steps.
Beyond the first year of Pathway 3, the Government will work with international partners and NGOs to welcome wider groups of Afghans at risk.
Further information on this can be found here:
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help support (a) heavily pregnant women and (b) new mothers on statutory maternity pay with increases in cost of living.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Maternity Allowance (MA) is available to eligible pregnant women and new mothers who cannot get Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), such as the low paid and the self-employed. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has a statutory obligation to review SMP, benefits including MA, and pensions annually. The review will commence shortly, and her decisions will be announced to Parliament in the normal way later this year. Any new rates of benefits / pensions will become payable from April 2023.
More broadly, the government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills ahead of Winter 2022. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost-of-living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.
Asked by: John McNally (Scottish National Party - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2022 to Question 37514 on Sexual Offences, whether (a) incentives and (b) penalties exist to encourage police departments to meet the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences target of reaching a charging decision within 30 days of beginning work on a sexual assault case.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Protecting women and girls from violence and supporting victims and survivors of sexual violence is a key priority for this Government, and we expect cases to be dealt with sensitively and effectively. In June 2021, we published the End-to-End Rape Review Report and Action Plan which outlined a robust programme of work that aims to achieve a significant improvement in the way the criminal justice system responds to rape and sexual offences against adults.
As set out in the Rape Review, our ambition is to more than double the volume of adult rape cases reaching court over the Parliament, and we are using the Criminal Justice System (CJS) Delivery Dashboards to monitor progress towards this ambition.
There are no set targets for the police on timeliness. The published crime outcomes data shows that for all sexual offences the median days for a charge outcome to be assigned in 21/22 was 261 days, down from 268 days in 20/21. For all rape, the median days for a charge outcome to be assigned in 21/22 was 467 days compared to 465 days in 20/21.
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, what impact assessments her Department conducted in advance of the sign off and publication of the International Development Strategy; and if she will publish those assessments.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are confident that funding decisions reflect the priorities in the International Development Strategy, including putting women and girls at the heart of what we do. Assessments of the impact on different beneficiary groups are ongoing, including through the upcoming business planning process. The Foreign Secretary was clear with Parliament during Oral Questions on 8 March 2022 that Equality Impact Assessments will not be published, due to the need to protect the space for officials to provide frank advice to ministers.
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, whether her Department conducted impact assessments in advance of the sign-off and publication of the International Development Strategy.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are confident that funding decisions reflect the priorities in the International Development Strategy, including putting women and girls at the heart of what we do. Assessments of the impact on different beneficiary groups are ongoing, including through the upcoming business planning process. The Foreign Secretary was clear with Parliament during Oral Questions on 8 March 2022 that Equality Impact Assessments will not be published, due to the need to protect the space for officials to provide frank advice to ministers.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the commitment in their policy paper Gender equality at every stage: a roadmap for change, published in July 2019, to provide an annual progress report to Parliament, where the reports they have already made can be found; and when they plan to publish their next report.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
In December 2020 the Minister for Women and Equalities set out a new approach to tackling inequality, including in relation to gender. This involves moving beyond the previous roadmap and narrow focus of protected characteristics; and reflects the new expanded remit of the Equality Hub.
Since then, the Hub has been concentrating on improving the quality of evidence and data about disparities and the types of barriers different people face. This evidence is enabling us to support the development of policy across government to make the UK a fairer place to live and work.