Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps she has taken to end period poverty.

This Government is taking a range of action to ensure that women and girls are able to access affordable sanitary products.

No girl should be held back from reaching her potential because of her gender or background; this is why the current and draft guidance on Relationship and Sex Education issued to schools encourages them to make sensitive arrangements to help girls cope with menstruation. Schools have discretion over how they use their funding and can make sanitary products available, if they identify this as a barrier to attendance. The Department for Education’s published analysis, which reviewed absence statistics, shows no evidence that period poverty has a significant impact on school attendance,

Additionally, since 2015, the Government has awarded £15 million a year to women’s charities through the Tampon Tax Fund – equivalent to the amount of VAT raised from the sale of women’s sanitary products. Through the current round of the fund, we will provide over £1.6 million for the ‘Let’s Talk. Period.’ Project, delivered by ‘Brook Young People’ across England. The project will identify vulnerable and disadvantaged young women who struggle to afford products through the organisation’s existing community services and a network of local partners, including schools. It will also develop resources to educate girls about menstruation and hand out pre-paid cards allowing girls and young women in need to access free sanitary products at local distribution points.

Work offers people the best opportunity to move out of poverty; across the UK, there are over 3.3m more people in work, around 964,000 fewer workless households, and around 637,000 fewer children living in such households compared with 2010. Also since 2010 there are 1 million fewer people in absolute poverty (before housing costs) compared with 2010.