Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to her oral contribution of 4 June 2020, official report, column 1003, on public health England review: covid-19 disparities, what recent progress has been made on the Government's review of its work to lessen disparities in infection and death rates of covid-19 between Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities and the wider population.

I am leading cross-government work on the findings of the Public Health England Report “Disparities in the risk and outcomes of COVID-19”. The Race Disparity Unit (RDU) is supporting me in this

Following work undertaken by the RDU, the Office for National statistics, and the wider scientific community, we have made good progress in recent weeks in identifying the key drivers of these disparities and the relationships between the different risk factors for ethnic minority communities. I have also been reviewing the effectiveness and impact of current actions being undertaken by government departments and their agencies to directly lessen the disparities. I will shortly be sending the first quarterly progress report on my work to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, as required by the terms of reference.