Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department plans to take in the event that outsourcing companies fail to meet the targets set out in the Government's action plans for tackling social issues and disparities.

We are clear that to build a fairer society, we must use the government’s purchasing power to lead the way.

We have already published a Supplier Code of Conduct to make clear the standards and behaviours that are expected of our suppliers when they work with government and we will now develop proposals for the government’s biggest suppliers to publish data and provide action plans for how they plan to address key social issues and disparities, such as ethnic minority representation in their workforce, the gender pay gap throughout the company and what they are

doing to tackle the scourge of modern slavery. In requiring these suppliers to publish data and explain how they will tackle these priority areas, we remain committed to preventing any additional unnecessary burdens for businesses.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Rt Hon. David Lidington, has commissioned a review of these priority areas, and will announce the outcomes later this year.