Baroness Penn

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Government will replace the 5% reduced rate of VAT with a zero rate as soon as it is legally able to do so. It has also committed to continue to fund the Tampon Tax Fund until the UK is legally able to apply the zero rate. As such the Tampon Tax Fund, in its current form, will eventually come to an end. The most recent funding round allows organisations to use up to 10% of their grant money to build their sustainability.

In a written ministerial statement on 10 February 2020, the Northern Ireland First Minister and Deputy First Minister announced that a Domestic Abuse Bill was one of the Bills that the Minister of Justice intended to introduce during the 2019-20 Assembly session (the statement is available at: http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/globalassets/documents/official-reports/written-ministerial-statements/2019-2020/bv125_wms_teo_100220.pdf).

The Northern Ireland Bill will include the new domestic abuse offence criminalising controlling or coercive behavior which was previously in Part 2 of the Domestic Abuse Bill introduced in the UK Parliament in July 2019. The offence is required to ensure that the law in Northern Ireland satisfies the requirements of Article 33 (psychological violence) of the Istanbul Convention. As domestic abuse legislation is a devolved matter, it is preferable for legislation relating to such matters to be delivered through the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Domestic Abuse Bill as re-introduced in the UK Parliament will continue to include Northern Ireland provisions extending the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts to certain violent and sexual offences (required to satisfy the requirements of Article 44 (jurisdiction) of the Istanbul Convention). We are in discussion with the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice about the timetable for the Assembly Bill, with reference to the UK’s progress towards ratification of the Istanbul Convention.

We indicated in our initial response to the Joint Committee’s report, published in July 2019, that we would publish a further response in due course addressing around ten recommendations where we needed more time to fully consider the Committee’s proposals. We aim to publish that further response alongside the Domestic Abuse Bill.

We will also publish an updated impact assessment alongside the Bill. As the Minister for Safeguarding and Vulnerability indicated at Second Reading of the Bill in the last Parliament (Official Report, House of Commons, 2 October 2019, column 1331), we will prioritise the funding for the Bill in the 2020 Spending Review.

In response to the recommendations from the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, the Government committed to review the scope and duration of the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession.

We have carefully considered the Committee’s recommendations and the evidence provided by stakeholders on the issue. The evidence gathering stage of the review into support levels for migrant victims of domestic abuse has now completed and its findings are being considered.

In response to the recommendations from the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, the Government committed to review the scope and duration of the Destitute Domestic Violence Concession.

We have carefully considered the Committee’s recommendations and the evidence provided by stakeholders on the issue. The evidence gathering stage of the review into support levels for migrant victims of domestic abuse has now completed and its findings are being considered.

We indicated in our initial response to the Joint Committee’s report, published in July 2019, that we would publish a further response in due course addressing around ten recommendations where we needed more time to fully consider the Committee’s proposals.

We aim to publish that further response alongside the Domestic Abuse Bill. As the Leader of the House of Commons has indicated (Official Report, House of Commons, 23 January 2020, column 423), we expect to re-introduce the Bill ahead of the Easter recess.

The panel assessing the risk of harm to children and parents in private law cases has been meeting regularly to discuss the wealth of evidence collected from 1,200 individuals and organisations, and is in the process of finalising its report. It is right that it takes the time to analyse this data and to consider the recommendations for how the family courts can be reformed to improve the experiences of victims of harm. A full report outlining the findings and recommended next steps will be published this spring. The Government will publish a response at the same time setting out the steps we will take to reform the family courts.

After the panel completed the call for evidence in Autumn 2019, the Ministry of Justice published a Progress Update on 23 October. The Progress Update included provisional findings from the panel. This has been attached and can also be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/assessing-risk-of-harm-to-children-and-parents-in-private-law-children-cases.

We indicated in our initial response to the Joint Committee’s report, published in July 2019, that we would publish a further response in due course addressing around ten recommendations where we needed more time to fully consider the Committee’s proposals. This included their recommendation in respect of the scope of the automatic prohibition on cross-examination in person in family proceedings. We aim to publish that further response alongside the Domestic Abuse Bill. As the Leader of the House of Commons has indicated (Official Report, House of Commons, 23 January 2020, column 423), we expect to re-introduce the Bill ahead of the Easter recess.