Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent progress his Department has made on the implementation of the Government’s Strategy for Our Veterans.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The Strategy for our Veterans sets out the Government’s ambition to make the UK the best place to be a veteran anywhere in the world. In January the Government published its first Action Plan to deliver this strategy following a UK-wide consultation on how to implement it.
This plan included the creation of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, which this Government has already delivered, and that Office are responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Strategy. A number of the actions are already complete, such as the establishment of charity-facing posts within the Ministry of Defence and the recruitment of more Jobcentre Plus Armed Forces Champions, to help those who have left the military transition into employment. Progress is being made in all areas, with a number of other commitments due to be completed in the coming months; these include the publication of a factsheet drawing together key data on veterans, and shortly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government will publish guidance for local authorities on allocating social housing for the Armed Forces community. In addition to the actions set out in the Strategy, we have already set out plans to introduce railcards for veterans and make it easier for veterans to get an interview for a job in the Civil Service.
Work on many of the other commitments in the consultation’s action plan is in full swing, and the Government looks forward to announcing further progress over the coming months.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Answer of 9 September 2019 to Question 286332 on Honours: Gender and Ethnic Group, whether he is taking steps to monitor the (a) socio-economic class, (b) occupational background and (c) regional background of honours recipients; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government is committed to ensuring that the honours system is fully representative of UK society. We plan to collect the socio-economic background of honours recipients for the first time in the forthcoming New Year’s Honours List 2020, and we plan to publish the data in due course.
We plan to record the region recipients are from. This is so we can assess whether any part of the UK is under-represented and target outreach activities appropriately. We also plan to collect data on gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. There are no plans to formally capture the occupational background of honours recipients.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Answer of 8 October 2019 to Question 293689, whether he is considering not establishing an Office for Tackling Injustices.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
We are considering how best to take forward this work in the light of the new Government’s domestic priorities and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress he has made on the establishment of the Office for Tackling Injustices; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
We are considering how best to take forward this work in the light of the new Government’s domestic priorities and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if it is is policy to (a) maintain a racial disparity unit within his Department and (b) continue collating and publishing data through the race disparity audit.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
This Government has confirmed that the Race Disparity Unit will continue its work. This includes the collation and publication of data through the Race Disparity Audit. Last month (August) the Race Disparity Audit published 15 updates to existing data across a range of topics including education, housing, fuel poverty and health. It also published a new measure on Honours, which showed that the percentage of recipients from ethnic minorities has increased to 10% over the last 5 years.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress has been made on establishing the Office for Tackling Injustices; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for Cabinet Office, what data his Department collects on the (a) gender and (b) ethnicity of honours recipients.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government is committed to ensuring the honours system is fully representative of UK society. Data on gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation is collected by asking recipients to complete a diversity survey. A summary of this data is published alongside each New Year and Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
The Honours Secretariat in the Cabinet Office is working with the Race Disparity Unit to improve data collection and transparency, and has published all data relating to the breakdown of ethnicities on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures on Gov.uk:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/honours-recipients-by-ethnicity
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of jobs in (a) the UK, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) Barnsley are paid the National Living Wage.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of jobs in (a) the UK, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) Barnsley are paid the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2019 to Question 215097, what proportion of the £1,549 million total reported spend on consultancy services in 2017-18 was attributable to each Government Department.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
All departmental spend over £25,000 is published on data.gov.uk