Mike Wood

The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO) overall budget has increased from £16.2m in 2024-25 to £17.7m in 2025-26. Further details will be provided, in the usual way, in the Cabinet Office’s accounts.

In our manifesto, we committed to strengthening protections against dual discrimination and in April we launched a call for evidence on this commitment, as well as a number of other areas of equality law. We will consider the responses to the call for evidence, which closed at the end of June, and confirm next steps in due course.

In October 2024, the style guide ‘Writing about ethnicity’ on the Ethnicity facts and figures website was updated. While the guide makes no direct reference to the capitalisation of references to Travellers, a capital letter was used to align with the Government Analysis Function's harmonised standard for ethnicity, based on the 2011 Census.

This standard is also followed by the Office for National Statistics in its service manual.

Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson was confirmed as the next Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission on 31 July 2025. This was announced in a press release which you can view here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-confirms-dr-mary-ann-stephenson-as-the-next-ehrc-chair

On 31 July 2025, the announcement was posted on the Public Appointments website on a separate webpage here:https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/announcements?titleSearch=+Equality+and+Human+Rights+Commission+%28EHRC%29+Chair&body=&regulated=&bodyJustice=&sort=announcementDate%3Adesc#search-results

Section 9.1 of the Governance Code for Public Appointments states “candidates must be asked to declare potential conflicts of interest in their application.”.

The EHRC publishes the declarations of interests of its Chair and Commissioners on their website: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/about-us/how-we-operate/our-commissioners/commissioner-declarations-interests

The Government is committed to commencing the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010.

We will work in partnership with public authorities, civil society and others in order to ensure that the implementation of the duty is as effective as possible. As part of this, we are currently analysing responses to the call for evidence on equality law, which included several questions relating to the socio-economic duty.

We will also consult on draft statutory guidance in order to ensure it addresses the needs of public bodies and civil society and supports effective implementation.

No external research relating to the socio-economic duty has been commissioned.

Common Purpose was paid to provide a one-off day of team development for the Office of Equality and Opportunity in February 2025.

The Office for Equality and Opportunity does not mandate the use of any particular acronym in reference to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office works with a range of organisations globally to protect and promote the human rights of the most vulnerable communities.

The Government uses LGBT+ in communications and publications, as these are widely recognised and understood.

In May 2024, following benchmarking exercises against other similar nursery provision, and taking account of pay awards for the period 2023-2025, fees were increased by 10% for all users. The rise was the first since 2017. The Nursery is an important service to support Members, their staff and House staff.

Assuming a 5 day a week usage, this saw a cash equivalent of increases of £127.84 a month for children under two years old, and £117.00 a month for children over two years old.

In July 2025, a further increase of 3% was implemented.

Assuming a 5 day a week usage, this saw a cash equivalent of increases of £42.5 a month for children under two years old, and £39.00 a month for children over two years old.

The Library takes one copy of each daily national newspaper which is made available in the Members’ Library. Additional copies of titles are only taken if Library staff determine there is sufficient demand. Newspaper orders, including numbers of copies, are reviewed annually to ensure they are still meeting Members’ needs.

Further copies are placed in the Members’ Tea Room, Smoking Room, and Portcullis House Atrium, as previously requested by Members.

In June 2025, the Administration Committee approved a review of newspaper provision in non-Library areas, to look at both quantities and locations of hard-copy newspapers. This will be completed by the House Service post summer recess.

The Church of England does not provide specific standalone guidance to clergy on the expression of gender-critical views.

On complex issues the House of Bishops may from time to time publish guidance and advice for clergy, designed to inform local response. Two main publications that include detailed theological discussion relating to gender and sexuality are ‘Some Issues in Human Sexuality’ (2003), and ‘Issues in Human Sexuality’ (1991).

More recent statements and pastoral guidance have updated the above, in particular:

• 2005 House of Bishops statement on civil partnerships for same-sex couples,
• 2014 pastoral guidance from the House of Bishops on civil same-sex marriage,
• 2019 House of Bishops statement on civil marriage for all persons,
• 2020 Living in Love and Faith book.

These are all available to view or order on the Church of England website

Following a vote of the General Synod in 2017 to welcome and affirm transgender people, the House of Bishops provided guidance in 2018 called ‘Pastoral Guidance for use in conjunction with the Affirmation of Baptismal Faith in the context of gender transition.’

Within Church of England schools, clergy and teachers are advised to align with the “Pastoral Principles”: www.churchofengland.org/about/general-synod/structure/house-bishops/pastoral-principles

Guidance is also available in ‘Flourishing for All: Anti-bullying Guidance for Church of England Schools’ (updated April 2025): www.churchofengland.org/about/education-and-schools/education-publications/anti-bullying-guidance-church-england-schools

The Office for Equality and Opportunity has not issued guidance on whether regulators should impose equality, diversity and inclusion requirements on regulated entities.

Where a public body decides to undertake an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) to fulfill its Public Sector Equality Duty obligations, this would be funded as part of the organisation’s administrative budget. EIAs are well embedded in Government policy making and are not considered an additional cost but part of mainstream administrative functions.

In fact, EIAs are likely overall to reduce costs for public bodies, because the entailed analysis and discussion, by highlighting any equality issues greatly reduces the risk of subsequent litigation for alleged law breaches resulting from the particular policy.

There is no definition of gender, sexual orientation or gender identity formally recognised and used by the diversity networks in the Cabinet Office.

The National Audit Office does not pay subscriptions to Stonewall.

The Call for Evidence on Equality Law, published on 7 April 2025, seeks evidence on how we can better remove barriers to ambition and success for everyone, to improve the lives of working people and strengthen our country as part of our Plan for Change.

The purpose of the Call for Evidence is not to put forward detailed policy proposals and it would therefore not be possible or appropriate to produce an impact assessment at this stage. All evidence submitted to the Call for Evidence will be taken into account when developing policy. We will assess the impact of any proposed policy in the normal way, working in partnership with business, trade unions and civil society, to ensure any potential impacts are fully considered.

The Government is sharing with the EHRC all the submissions that met the criteria of the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance.

It is vitally important that service providers understand the single-sex service exceptions in the Equality Act 2010 and feel confident using them. The Government has committed to ensuring that there is guidance in place which gives service providers assurance about the rights afforded by the Act and how to lawfully apply its single-sex exceptions. We will set out our next steps on this soon.

The Government is sharing with the EHRC all the submissions that met the criteria of the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance.

It is vitally important that service providers understand the single-sex service exceptions in the Equality Act 2010 and feel confident using them. The Government has committed to ensuring that there is guidance in place which gives service providers assurance about the rights afforded by the Act and how to lawfully apply its single-sex exceptions. We will set out our next steps on this soon.

The public consultation seeks views on the proposed approach to mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting in order to inform the drafting of the legislation.

We are separately engaging with a wide range of organisations, including employers, and gathering evidence in a more systematic manner on the likely costs and benefits of the proposed reporting requirements. This work will inform the impact assessment that will be published alongside the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.

The Equality Act defines the protected characteristic of gender reassignment as a person that is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of gender reassignment.

The scope of the Public Sector Equality Duty (the PSED) is set out in the Equality Act 2010 (the Act). It extends to all public authorities listed in Schedule 19 of the Act and all parties carrying out public functions. This came into force in April 2011 and includes private sector and voluntary organisations.

The PSED requires organisations in scope to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between different people.

The government remains committed to upholding the PSED and ensuring that all parties exercising public functions comply with its provisions.

Whoever you are, wherever you come from, Britain should be a country where hard work means you can get on in life. Our work in the Opportunity Mission aims to break the link between background and success to ensure all children, including those from white working-class backgrounds, are able to achieve and thrive today so they can succeed and flourish tomorrow.

We are currently considering our position on caste discrimination. We will announce our plans in due course.

The LGBTI conference was a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) event, and the supplier used to provide venue services was Calder Conferences.

Calder Conferences offers venue solutions for meetings, conferences, and other events, and works with various government departments.

The CPS has a contract with Calder Conferences through the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) Framework for Travel and Venue Solutions. This framework allows CPS to access venues for meetings and conferences as needed.

The contract was signed in 2024 under the previous government for two years, with an option to extend for one additional year until February 2027, as is standard across government departments when contracting with conference suppliers. As standard, government contracts are routinely reviewed.

Due diligence was undertaken prior to the appointment of the former Ambassador to the United States, and was part of an established process to collate relevant information as part of the identification and selection of the appointee.

I refer the Hon. Member to the Cabinet Secretary’s letter of 30 October 2025 to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which sets out the process and information contained in the due diligence report: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50019/documents/269409/default/

The training, learning and development needs of vetting officials within United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) is kept under regular review, in line with changes in policy, legislation or the external environment. This approach allows UKSV to maximise skills and meet resourcing requirements whilst ensuring that HMG risk appetite is underpinned by a National Security Vetting provision that is both rigorous and assured.

In line with the practice followed by successive administrations, the Government does not otherwise comment on security matters.

The Government Car Service (GCS) issues monthly invoices to each department for the use of its vehicles and drivers. Departments are responsible for determining the appropriate use of these vehicles, whether for Ministers or senior officials. Separate invoicing procedures are not applied for Ministers and officials.

GCS does not directly invoice the Cabinet Office for its services. These transactions are managed through internal budget transfers on a monthly basis.

It is a long established precedent that the frequency and business of Cabinet Committee meetings is not usually publicly disclosed.

As noted in our answer to PQ 43222, the Honours Committee handbook is a document used to induct newly appointed independent chairs and committee members to the honours system and the committee process. This document is intended for internal use only. More information on these can be found on gov.uk.

As with any communication campaign approach, channels are selected based on their ability to engage with audiences in alignment with the government's priorities.

Social media has been utilised on campaigns of varying scale and reach, supporting missions communications and government priorities.

The Cabinet Office has worked with influencers outside of the New Media Unit.

There are currently no plans to publish the full list of publications assessed under the SAFE framework.