Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to (a) co-ordinate equalities strategies across government and (b) monitor departmental performance against those strategies.

All departments ensure that equality considerations are at the heart of their decision-making; this is key to the Government’s commitment to delivering equality of opportunity for all as well as complying with legal requirements under the Public Sector Equality Duty. My officials in the Equality Hub provide advice to departments to assist with this.

We also work with other departments to ensure they publish substantive equality objectives, as part of their departmental plans, that relate to their policy and service delivery responsibilities. Publishing equality objectives as part of core departmental planning processes means that performance against these objectives is measured and that we are advancing equality across Government.