Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to ensure BAME women are not disproportionately affected by the covid-19 outbreak.

This Government is working to support all people through COVID-19, including BAME women. Guided by medical and scientific expertise, we have implemented specific measures to reduce the spread of the virus in all communities for everyone including women from BAME backgrounds.

This Government has taken unprecedented steps to support lives and livelihoods, including increasing the generosity of Universal Credit, introducing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and made changes to ensure women do not miss out on parental leave and childcare support. We continue to engage with women’s charities both local and national, and have made available an additional £76 million announced in May, to support survivors of?domestic abuse, sexual violence, modern slavery, and vulnerable children and their families.

The Public Health England (PHE) report, “COVID-19: review of disparities in risks and outcomes”, published on 2 June 2020, looks at the COVID-19 mortality rates of different ethnic groups. I am now leading further work to build on this by analysing the key drivers of disparities in COVID-19 outcomes, the relationships between different risk factors, and what can be done to close the gap, for BAME men and women. This work is supported by the Race Disparity Unit in the Cabinet Office. The recommendations in the second PHE report “Beyond the data: Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on BAME groups” published on 16 June are also being taken forward as part of the terms of reference announced by myself on 4 June.