Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with her Cabinet colleagues on ensuring that (a) women, (b) the BAME community and (c) people with disabilities are prioritised in the implementation of the Government’s levelling up agenda.

The Equality Hub, at the heart of Government in the Cabinet Office, has a key role in driving Government priorities on equality and opportunity. The Equality Hub is leading on several cross-cutting projects, which involves working closely with other departments and Ministerial-level discussions. This includes work related to women’s economic empowerment, LGBT rights and the National Strategy for Disabled People, as well as work on the Government’s response to the final report of the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. We will also use the UK’s role as President of the G7 and our independent Gender Equality Advisory Council to ramp up work on equality.

In December 2020, we announced the Equality Data Project, the Government's new approach to tackling inequality that supports our manifesto commitment to level up across the UK. This will consider issues like geography and social background, alongside other characteristics, to enable us to understand where individuals are being held back across the UK. The Equality Hub will share the evidence from this inquiry with other government departments to help inform their work.

We also announced in December that the sponsorship of, and secretariat to, the independent Social Mobility Commission would move to the Equality Hub in the Cabinet Office from 1 April 2021. This move reflects the importance of the Social Mobility Commission for our levelling up agenda and ensures that equality and fairness of all kinds are at the heart of government.

More broadly, 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. Officials in the Equality Hub provide advice to departments to assist with this.