Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of paragraph 9(4) of resolution 2318 (2020) of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on the provision of training and advice to public and private employers.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Resolution 2318 concerns the protection of freedom of religion or belief in the workplace. Both the Equality and Human Rights Commission and ACAS have published guidance for employers and employees about this matter.
Additionally, ACAS offers online training for employers on religion or belief in the workplace.
The guidance and the online training are available at: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/religion-or-belief-workplace ; and https://elearning.acas.org.uk/login/index.php
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has plans he to meet the families of the 21 innocent victims of the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings to discuss their campaign for justice; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The Birmingham pub bombings were a dreadful and cowardly attack on innocent people. I will of course meet with my honourable friend and Justie4the21 to discuss their campaign. It would be inappropriate to make a statement on the Birmingham pub bombings given inquest hearings are due to start shortly.
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will place the advice given to his Department by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland in respect of (a) the recruitment of Border Force officers and assistant officers and (b) applications from former members of the armed forces in the Library.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Northern Ireland Equality Commission has made a public statement on some of the advice given to Border Force, this is available at https://www.equalityni.org/Footer-Links/News/Employers-Service-Providers/Equality-Commission-Comment-on-Border-Force-Recrui
Furthermore in response to the answer to Question 140136 of 8 May 2018 the Minister of State for Immigration summarised the rest of the advice given.
These pieces of correspondence and advice are not routinely published, there are currently no plans to do so.
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications have been received from (a) Irish citizens and (b) citizens of other EU countries for British citizenship under the naturalisation rules in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The available published information on the total number of applications made for British citizenship by the applicant’s country of nationality, including both naturalisation and registration, is in the Home Office’s Immigration Statistics, October to December 2017, Citizenship table cz_01_q_a available from
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps have been taken by the Government in response to the recommendation in paragraph 6.2. of the Council of Europe Resolution 2036 (2015) on promoting reasonable accommodation within the principle of indirect discrimination; and what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of introducing a formal mechanism of reasonable accommodation for religious belief in the workplace.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This Government greatly values the vital role that Christian organisations – and individual Christians - have in our society and the part they play in national life, inspiring a great number of people to get involved in public service and providing help to those in need
A report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in December 2016, ‘Religion or Belief: Is the law working?’, concluded that the existing legal framework provided sufficient protection for people manifesting their religion or belief and recommended that:
‘A duty of reasonable accommodation should not be introduced into law’
We have no plans, therefore, to change to law in that way. However, subsequent to the Council of Europe’s Resolution from 2015, the EHRC has also published a suite of guidance for employers covering issues of religion or belief in the workplace, including how to handle requests from employees to accommodate their religious beliefs while at work.
We believe that the Equality Act 2010 strikes the right balance between the rights of people to manifest their religion or beliefs and the rights of others not to be discriminated against or harassed due to other protected characteristics.
We also do consider that current legislation allows people from expressing their religious beliefs in a legitimate and proportionate way.
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps have been taken by the Government in response to the recommendation in paragraph 6.2.2 of the Council of Europe Resolution 2036 (2015) on upholding freedom of conscience in the workplace while ensuring that access to services provided by law is maintained and the right of others to be free from discrimination is protected.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This Government greatly values the vital role that Christian organisations – and individual Christians - have in our society and the part they play in national life, inspiring a great number of people to get involved in public service and providing help to those in need
A report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in December 2016, ‘Religion or Belief: Is the law working?’, concluded that the existing legal framework provided sufficient protection for people manifesting their religion or belief and recommended that:
‘A duty of reasonable accommodation should not be introduced into law’
We have no plans, therefore, to change to law in that way. However, subsequent to the Council of Europe’s Resolution from 2015, the EHRC has also published a suite of guidance for employers covering issues of religion or belief in the workplace, including how to handle requests from employees to accommodate their religious beliefs while at work.
We believe that the Equality Act 2010 strikes the right balance between the rights of people to manifest their religion or beliefs and the rights of others not to be discriminated against or harassed due to other protected characteristics.
We also do consider that current legislation allows people from expressing their religious beliefs in a legitimate and proportionate way.
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government has taken in response to the recommendation in paragraph 6.4. of the Council of Europe Resolution 2036 (2015) on upholding the fundamental right to freedom of expression by ensuring national legislation does not unduly limit religiously motivated speech.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This Government greatly values the vital role that Christian organisations – and individual Christians - have in our society and the part they play in national life, inspiring a great number of people to get involved in public service and providing help to those in need
A report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in December 2016, ‘Religion or Belief: Is the law working?’, concluded that the existing legal framework provided sufficient protection for people manifesting their religion or belief and recommended that:
‘A duty of reasonable accommodation should not be introduced into law’
We have no plans, therefore, to change to law in that way. However, subsequent to the Council of Europe’s Resolution from 2015, the EHRC has also published a suite of guidance for employers covering issues of religion or belief in the workplace, including how to handle requests from employees to accommodate their religious beliefs while at work.
We believe that the Equality Act 2010 strikes the right balance between the rights of people to manifest their religion or beliefs and the rights of others not to be discriminated against or harassed due to other protected characteristics.
We also do consider that current legislation allows people from expressing their religious beliefs in a legitimate and proportionate way.
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been allocated to Northern Ireland under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme to date.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The government provides funding to all local authorities participating in the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
The funding allocated to local authorities is provided on a per capita basis, with tariff amounts and payment terms clearly set-out in the scheme’s funding instructions. The first 12 months of a refugee's resettlement costs are funded by central government using the Official Development Assistance budget. There is also an exceptional cases fund to assist the most vulnerable refugees.
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timetable is for the transfer of the next tranche of funding to Northern Ireland under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme; and what the amount of that funding will be.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The government provides funding to all local authorities participating in the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
The funding allocated to local authorities is provided on a per capita basis, with tariff amounts and payment terms clearly set-out in the scheme’s funding instructions. The first 12 months of a refugee's resettlement costs are funded by central government using the Official Development Assistance budget. There is also an exceptional cases fund to assist the most vulnerable refugees.
Asked by: Jeffrey M Donaldson (Independent - Lagan Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on sharing intelligence information to counter terrorism in Europe.
Answered by Mike Penning
We do not comment on intelligence matters.