Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what percentage of current Chairs of Public Sector Bodies are women; and how this percentage has changed since 1992.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office publishes annual data on public appointments diversity. The latest figures, published 21 October 2021, show that the proportion of Chair, or Chair equivalent roles filled by women in post on 31 March 2021 was 33%. In 2017, the comparative figure was 30%. Comparative figures are not available for earlier years. Data for 31 March 2022 will be published before the end of the year.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many women were victims of homicide in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 17 October is attached.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Rt Hon Lord Frost CMG plans to appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee following his recent postponement.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Lord Frost will appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 29 June 2021 alongside the Minister of State for Digital and Culture, Caroline Dinenage MP.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Rt Hon Lord Frost CMG plans to appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government is committed to Parliamentary scrutiny of our new relationship with the EU, and recognises the important role played by Select Committees, in particular the European Scrutiny Committee and the European Affairs Committee before which Lord Frost will be appearing in the coming weeks. Lord Frost has agreed to appear before the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 10 June together with DCMS Ministers.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate she has made of the proportion of rapes in England and Wales which were unreported in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Covid-19 Operations Committee is taking to ensure that local authorities are adequately resourced to tackle covid-19 vaccine safety concerns.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
We are working at pace to tackle vaccine misinformation and reassure all citizens of vaccine safety and efficacy. The Government has shared social media content and used prominent figures, including actors and experts such as the Chief Medical Officers to drive that message.
Working with the Cabinet Office, vaccine communications from DHSC have appeared in 600 national, regional, local and specialist titles, including BAME media for Asian, Bangladeshi, Bengali, Gujarati and Pakistani communities.
Public confidence in the vaccine is high. By January, vaccine content shared through NHS.UK channels had reached over 208 million people.
To improve our understanding of vaccine hesitancy, the Government is working with over 90 healthcare provider networks, faith groups, influencers and experts from a range of communities.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he discussed EU-UK reciprocal visa-free touring for musicians with Maroš Šefčovič at their meeting on 11 February 2021.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The arrangements for touring musicians between the UK and the EU relate to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, and not the Withdrawal Agreement which was the subject of the meeting on 11 February between the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Maroš Šefčovič.
The Government recognises the importance of the UK’s world leading cultural and creative industries, and we are now focused on helping the sector work as confidently as possible in the EU. DCMS has established a Working Group of sector representatives and other key government departments to look at the issues facing the creative and cultural sectors when touring the EU.
The date of the first meetings of the committees set up under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement will be announced in due course, when we have agreed with the EU.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what provision there is for civil servants to take paid leave to care for their children of primary school-age and under when the child is ill.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Within the Civil Service, policies on time off are delegated to departments. Departments can decide whether to offer paid special leave in these circumstances, or whether a combination of annual, flexi and special leave is more appropriate.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to mark the centenary of women getting the right to vote in 1918.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Government is funding a programme of activity in England to mark this anniversary, under the leadership of the Government Equalities Office. Programme themes include “celebrate”, “inspire” and “remember” to increase national awareness and mark 100 years since women got the right to vote. They also include “educate” to increase young people’s knowledge of UK democracy and its importance, and increase their democratic participation. The final theme is “participate” to aspire to achieve gender parity in local and national politics by the centenary of the Equal Franchise Act by 2028.
The Cabinet Office is helping to deliver this programme by leading on a number of projects under the “educate” theme. These are aimed at young people aged between 13 and 16 and at tackling barriers to their democratic participation. Planned projects include developing a secondary schools resource, working with the Department for Education, and a scheme to recruit and train youth democracy ambassadors. We are also developing a pack with ideas and materials for parliamentarians to engage young people, particularly those who are disengaged with our democratic processes.
Within the Cabinet Office we are planning an events programme throughout 2018 to commemorate the centenary and champion equality, helping to ensure we make the Civil Service and Cabinet Office ever more inclusive.
Asked by: Harriet Harman (Labour - Camberwell and Peckham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to mark the centenary of women getting the right to vote in 1918.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Government is funding a programme of activity in England to mark this anniversary, under the leadership of the Government Equalities Office. Programme themes include “celebrate”, “inspire” and “remember” to increase national awareness and mark 100 years since women got the right to vote. They also include “educate” to increase young people’s knowledge of UK democracy and its importance, and increase their democratic participation. The final theme is “participate” to aspire to achieve gender parity in local and national politics by the centenary of the Equal Franchise Act by 2028.
The Cabinet Office is helping to deliver this programme by leading on a number of projects under the “educate” theme. These are aimed at young people aged between 13 and 16 and at tackling barriers to their democratic participation. Planned projects include developing a secondary schools resource, working with the Department for Education, and a scheme to recruit and train youth democracy ambassadors. We are also developing a pack with ideas and materials for parliamentarians to engage young people, particularly those who are disengaged with our democratic processes.
Within the Cabinet Office we are planning an events programme throughout 2018 to commemorate the centenary and champion equality, helping to ensure we make the Civil Service and Cabinet Office ever more inclusive.