Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to put in place policies that encourage breastfeeding, including supportive work environments where women are able to breastfeed or express milk.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government’s vision, set out in the policy paper, The Best Start for Life: A Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days, is that every parent and carer has access to high quality infant feeding services in their local area. A copy of the paper is attached.
Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme, we are investing £50 million in infant feeding services, enabling participating local authorities to design and deliver a blended offer of advice and support in line with local needs. The investment is being used to increase the range of advice and specialist support available, helping to ensure all mothers and families can meet their breastfeeding goals. We are also using programme investment to increase the capacity of the National Breastfeeding Helpline so that a greater number of families are able to access this support. In March 2024, we launched a trial of extended helpline opening hours so that support and advice will be available at any time of the day or night, every day of the year.
Regulations are in place that require employers to provide a suitable area for breastfeeding mothers. This must be hygienic and private so they can express milk if they choose to and include somewhere to store their milk.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps his Department is taking to monitor (a) the enforcement of dress codes and (b) other human rights abuses in Iran.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We continue to work with international partners to hold Iran accountable for its unacceptable human rights record. At the 55th Human Rights Council session, the UK was on the core group for the Iran human rights resolution, which successfully renewed the mandates of the Special Rapporteur and the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Iran human rights, enabling continued monitoring of abuses against women and girls and religious and ethnic minorities, as well as freedom of expression. We continue to engage with UK-based and international organisations on human rights, including Iranian diaspora organisations. In October 2023, the former Foreign Secretary and Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon hosted a roundtable with women's rights activists, joining them publicly in calling for an end to impunity and violence. Since October 2022, we have sanctioned 94 individuals or entities for human rights abuses, including senior decision makers responsible for enforcing Iran's mandatory hijab law. We continually assess our human rights sanctions regime, and will make further designations where we have the evidence to do so. We will continue to raise human rights issues with the Iranian Government.
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