Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Southall Black Sisters’ No Recourse to Public Funds project evaluation has been completed; and if so, whether a copy of that evaluation will be published.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Southall Black Sisters was awarded funding of £250,000 in April 2018 and (in partnership with The Angelou Centre) £1,090,000 in April 2019 through the Tampon Tax Fund. It was used to fund the No Recourse to Public Funds Project, also referred to as the Recourse to Safety project.
Southall Black Sisters’ have commissioned an independent evaluation of the project which is currently ongoing. They have used their Tampon Tax grant to fund this. It will be Southall Black Sisters’ decision whether to publish their evaluation.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they plan to fulfil the Conservative Party’s 2019 General Election manifesto commitment “to make it easier for fathers to take paternity leave”.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
BEIS is currently assessing the responses from the consultation on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay. We are also conducting a formal evaluation of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme, including large-scale, representative surveys of employers and parents. Together, these will give us a fuller picture of how well the current system of parental leave and pay is working for parents and employers, and inform how we might make it easier for fathers and partners to take Paternity Leave.
The evaluation is ongoing, and we will report on this and publish the Government Response to the consultation in due course.
More generally, Government is committed to making the UK the best place to work and grow a business. In the recent Queen’s Speech, we announced that we will bring forward an Employment Rights Bill to deliver the greatest workers rights reform in over 20 years.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish their response to the consultation on parental leave and pay, which closed on 29 November 2019.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
BEIS is currently assessing the responses from the consultation on high-level options for reforming parental leave and pay. We are also conducting a formal evaluation of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay scheme, including large-scale, representative surveys of employers and parents. Together, these will give us a fuller picture of how well the current system of parental leave and pay is working for parents and employers, and inform how we might make it easier for fathers and partners to take Paternity Leave.
The evaluation is ongoing, and we will report on this and publish the Government Response to the consultation in due course.
More generally, Government is committed to making the UK the best place to work and grow a business. In the recent Queen’s Speech, we announced that we will bring forward an Employment Rights Bill to deliver the greatest workers rights reform in over 20 years.
Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish a White Paper on reform of the Mental Health Act 1983, following the announcement in June 2019 that such a White Paper would be published before the end of 2019.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
We will publish our White Paper in the next few months, which will set out the Government’s response to Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act.
Our intention is that this White Paper will pave the way for reform to the Mental Health Act 1983, and tackle issues addressed by the Review. We will ensure that people subject to the Act receive better care and have a much greater say in that care.
We will consult publicly on our proposals and we will bring forward a Bill to amend the Act when parliamentary time allows.