Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 7 August (HL345), how many staffing hours are allocated to the Civil Service LGBT+ Network, and across how many staff members.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Allocation of working time spent on cross-government staff networks is an agreement between the staff network volunteers and their departments as employers.
The majority of staff time spent on the Civil Service LGBT+ Network is voluntary and unpaid. There are no central records on how many staff members participate in the network.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 12 August (HL517), what applications for an equality, diversity and inclusion spending control exemption have been (1) applied for, (2) accepted, and (3) rejected, since the general election.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Applications and decisions about applications for external Equality Diversity and Inclusion expenditure lie with individual departments. No exemptions have been centrally reported since the General Election.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 7 August (HL344), whether any of the civil servants claiming diversity network time are also claiming trade union facility time, and at what hourly amounts; and what is their policy on the double dipping of network time and facility time.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are fewer than 5 individuals in DWP in September 2024 who are claiming Trade Union (TU) Facility time and Diversity Network time.
In line with standard departmental practice in statistics, we do not publish details of numbers below 5, or where individuals might otherwise be identified in the data, as this would breach our data protection obligations.
DWP does not have a policy on colleagues claiming both Diversity Network Time and Facility Time at the same time.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Department for Work and Pensions (1) currently has, or (2) has previously had, a National Diversity Ambassador on Trans Issues; and if so, (a) who they were, and (b) during what time period(s) they served.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP does not have a National Diversity Ambassador on Trans Issues.
Since 2018, under the current Permanent Secretary, there has been no formally recognised role of this description. Before this, the term Ambassador may have been used colloquially within the Department to raise awareness of Trans and wider Equity, Diversity and Inclusion matters. However, this role was not confirmed in any official capacity.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 12 August (HL426), whether the Ministry of Justice has received such representations from the Public and Commercial Services Union; and what was their response.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Public and Commercial Services Union has not made any representations to the Ministry of Justice regarding this motion and therefore no response was given.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many responses they received to their consultation Review of the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education statutory guidance, which launched on 16 May and closed on 11 July; and when they intend to publish their response to the consultation and summary of responses.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
The public consultation on the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education statutory guidance was open for eight weeks and received over 14,300 responses.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance for schools and as such the government will look carefully at the consultation responses and consider the relevant evidence, including through stakeholder conversations, before setting out the next steps to make sure the guidance draws from the best available evidence. This will include plans for responding to the consultation.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their plans to lower the voting age to 16, whether they also intend to lower the legal age for (1) applying, or (2) qualifying, for a Gender Recognition Certificate to 16.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government has no plans to lower the minimum age of application for a Gender Recognition Certificate.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the risk posed to workers by fake job advertisements, whether it is their policy that Government jobs should only be advertised on websites which are members of an industry-led anti-fraud certification scheme which is compliant with the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Cabinet Office)
Preventing fraudulent job postings is of importance to the government and Civil Service roles are mainly listed on our secure Civil Service Jobs website. They may also appear elsewhere on third party job websites. At present, there is no policy which stipulates that Civil Service roles should only be advertised on websites which are members of an industry-led anti-fraud certification scheme compliant with the Online Safety Act 2023.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Gower on 12 February (HL1997), whether rules similar to Network Rail's code of acceptance for commercial advertising apply to non-commercial displays of political messaging.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
The rules of Network Rail’s code of acceptance for commercial advertising apply to non-commercial displays.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what policies and guidance are in place for Network Rail concerning whether political statements are permitted in advertising or otherwise displayed in their stations.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
All advertisements and any displays in Network Rail’s stations must comply with Network Rail's code of acceptance for commercial advertising. The code states that any displays ‘will not be approved for or permitted to remain on display if they are of a political nature calling for the support of a particular viewpoint, policy or action or attacking a member or policies of any legislative, central or local government authority’. Advertisements must also comply with the ASA’s British Code of Advertising Practice.