Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether Government funding of Mermaids UK will be reviewed.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government Equalities Office has not provided direct funding to Mermaids. Mermaids were allocated funding through the LGBT Consortium on the Anti-homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying programme 2016-2019 and this funding ceased at the end of the programme in March 2019. A separate extension to this programme was retendered from January 2019 to March 2020 and Mermaids did not receive any funding through this process.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether people under the age of 18 can transition gender through routes other than under the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The only method of legally changing gender is through the process set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This involves applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate, which can then be used to obtain a new birth certificate. This process is only open to those aged 18 and over.
Medical transition is governed by the NHS, and surgery is not available to those under the age of 18. Cross-sex hormones can only be prescribed under strict clinical supervison from the age of 16.
Social transition, such as changing the name you are known by, and the pronouns you use, can be done by anyone at any age, and is often subject to a discussion between a child and their parents if it happens before age 18.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to ensure UK residents deported to Romania, and subject to detention, are held in conditions that are of an acceptable standard.
Answered by Nick Hurd
In making a decision to deport a person, the Home Office is required to take into account a range of factors including whether removal could be contrary to the Human Rights Act 1998. If the individual will be imprisoned and prison conditions are such that they would be considered a violation of their human rights, they will not be deported.
The Home Office does not disclose country specific information regarding deportation of foreign national offenders as its disclosure could prejudice relations between the UK and foreign governments.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to issue guidance to schools on handling allegations of misgendering of pupils.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department has published guidance to help schools understand how the Equality Act affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the Act. This includes a duty on schools not to discriminate unlawfully due to the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.
As part of the Government’s LGBT Action Plan, the Department has committed to ensuring that schools have access to the guidance they need to support LGBT pupils. This includes a commitment to updating the Equality Act guidance. Also, in the LGBT Action Plan is a commitment that Government Equalities Office will work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish comprehensive guidance for schools on how to support transgender pupils.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to issue guidance to schools about the application of school uniform and other potentially gender distinctive policies.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department publishes guidance to help schools understand how the Equality Act affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the Act. This includes a duty on schools not to discriminate unlawfully due to the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment. As part of the Government’s LGBT Action Plan, the Department has committed to updating this guidance and this will be published in due course. The LGBT Action Plan contains a commitment that the Government Equalities Office will work with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish comprehensive guidance for schools on how to support transgender pupils. The Equality Act guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.
The Department already publishes guidance for schools on setting school uniform policies. The guidance sets out that a school should ensure that their school uniform policy is fair and reasonable for all its students and that policies should be flexible enough to accommodate the different needs of pupils.
In making decisions about school uniform policy, and all other school policies, a school must have regard to its obligations under the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equality Duty. The school uniform guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether the charitable status of Mermaids UK will be reviewed.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In England and Wales, an organisation is a charity if it meets a number of legal tests; namely that it is established for exclusively charitable purposes for the public benefit and that it falls within the jurisdiction of the High Court regarding charities. The charitable status of an organisation is a matter of law and the Charity Commission cannot remove the charitable status of a charity if it meets the legal test. There are no plans to review the charitable status of Mermaids UK.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will provide a list of the brands of mobile phone which Cabinet ministers are advised not to use.
Answered by David Lidington
It is for individual Government departments to manage their own technology and telecommunications requirements in accordance with their business and security needs, including equipping their Ministers with appropriate ICT equipment. HMG takes the secure use of mobile phones very seriously and advice on how to securely manage mobile devices is published by the National Cyber Security Centre. Such information includes recommending the use of Android devices on the Android Enterprise Recommended (AER) list and for iOS, using supported devices with a Secure Enclave.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
What recent assessment she has made of the benefits to Northern Ireland of being part of the UK.
Answered by Karen Bradley
This Government has made clear on many occasions that we will never be neutral in expressing our support for the Union.
Northern Ireland benefits hugely from the Union and my steadfast belief is that Northern Ireland’s future is best served within a stronger United Kingdom.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a maximum five-year sentence for animal cruelty as a deterrent to animal cruelty offenders who use such acts of cruelty to manipulate human victims.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare, and we have announced that we will increase the maximum custodial penalty for animal cruelty from six months to five years to allow the courts to impose appropriate penalties in extreme cases, whatever the motivation for the offence.
Asked by: David T C Davies (Conservative - Monmouth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of inward foreign direct investment.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
With your permission Mr Speaker I will answer question 10 together with questions 13. The UK remains the top destination in Europe, and third in the world for foreign direct investment. By the end of 2017, UK inward FDI stock levels reached £1,337bn, a record for the UK.
In addition to publishing annual analysis of DIT’s FDI performance as Official Statistics, we recently published one of the most comprehensive analyses of the economic impact of FDI in the world, highlighting the benefits of FDI to the UK.