Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to close the gender pension gap.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The gender pension gap is a complex issue tied to the labour market, the private pensions system and demographic differences, but one the government takes very seriously. Addressing the gender pensions gap will only be possible through the collective effort of government, employers and industry.
The new State Pension was designed to correct some of the historic unfairness in the previous system, in particular for women. Our reforms are working, under the pre-2016 system women receive 85% of the amount received by men. This is currently 97% under the new State Pension.
Automatic enrolment (AE) has helped millions more women to save into a pension, with pension participation rates among eligible women in the private sector rising from 40% in 2012 to 86% in 2022. The government is committed to build on this success and is making progress on implementing the measures as set out in the 2017 review of AE. The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 was introduced into Parliament with government support and provides the necessary powers.
Once implemented, the measures will disproportionately increase the pension saving of lower earners; a woman working part-time earning National Living Wage could see her pension almost double as a result when saving over her career.
Our labour market policies will also help. Working parents will soon be even better supported through the extension of free childcare announced in the Spring budget in 2023. DWP also announced generous additional financial help to encourage and support lead carers of children who are receiving Universal Credit to move into or progress in work.
By 2027-28, the Government will expect to be spending in excess of £8bn every year on free childcare hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
And we are working with stakeholders across government to better understand the challenge of the gender pension gap. In June, DWP published an official measure of this wealth gap, which is currently 35% between men and women shortly before they retire. The wealth gap between men and women who are eligible for automatic enrolment is lower, at 32%.
The publication of an official annual measure will help us track the collective efforts of government, industry and employers to reduce the Gender Pension Gap.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool, Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to close the gender pension gap.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The gender pension gap is a complex issue tied to the labour market, the private pensions system and demographic differences, but one the government takes very seriously.
Addressing the gender pensions gap will only be possible through the collective effort of government, employers and industry.
The new State Pension was designed to correct some of the historic unfairness in the previous system, in particular for women. Our reforms are working, under the pre-2016 system women receive 85% of the amount received by men. This is currently 97% under the new State Pension.
Automatic enrolment (AE) has helped millions more women to save into a pension, with pension participation rates among eligible women in the private sector rising from 40% in 2012 to 86% in 2022.
The government is committed to build on this success and is making progress on implementing the measures as set out in the 2017 review of AE. The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 was introduced into Parliament with government support and provides the necessary powers.
Once implemented, the measures will disproportionately increase the pension saving of lower earners; a woman working part-time earning National Living Wage could see her pension almost double as a result when saving over her career.
Our labour market policies will also help. Working parents will soon be even better supported through the extension of free childcare announced in the Spring budget in 2023. DWP also announced generous additional financial help to encourage and support lead carers of children who are receiving Universal Credit to move into or progress in work.
By 2027-28, the Government will expect to be spending in excess of £8bn every year on free childcare hours and early education, helping working families with their childcare costs. This represents the single biggest investment in childcare in England ever.
And we are working with stakeholders across government to better understand the challenge of the gender pension gap. In June, DWP published an official measure of this wealth gap, which is currently 35% between men and women shortly before they retire. The wealth gap between men and women who are eligible for automatic enrolment is lower, at 32%.
The publication of an official annual measure will help us track the collective efforts of government, industry and employers to reduce the Gender Pension Gap.
Asked by: Fiona Bruce (Conservative - Congleton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will have discussions with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on the adequacy of the range of stakeholders consulted for the guidance for healthcare staff on Involvement of the Police and External Agencies following Abortion, Pregnancy Loss and Unexpected Delivery it issued on 22 January 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The recent guidance for healthcare staff on the involvement of the police and external agencies following abortion, pregnancy loss, and unexpected delivery, was produced independently by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The Department does not intend to review the stakeholder consultation related to this guidance. Abortion is an issue on which the Government adopts a neutral stance, and it is for Parliament to decide the circumstances under which abortions should take place. The Department’s focus is on patient safety and ensuring the law, as set out in the Abortion Act 1967, is applied to ensure women can access to safe, high-quality services.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will take steps to ensure that women who are (a) self-employed and (b) earn less than £10,000 per year have access to workplace pensions.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Automatic enrolment (AE) has helped millions more women to save into a pension, with pension participation rates among eligible women in the private sector rising from 40% in 2012 to 87% in 2022.
The government is committed to build on the success of AE and is making progress on implementing the measures as set out in the 2017 review. The Pensions (Extension of Automatic Enrolment) Act 2023 was introduced into Parliament with government support and provides the necessary powers.
Once implemented, the measures will disproportionately increase the pension saving of lower earners; a woman working part-time earning National Living Wage could see her pension almost double as a result when saving over her career.
The AE framework cannot be straightforwardly extended to people who are self-employed, as there is no employer to enrol them into a scheme; select a scheme or make contributions.
The department is currently working with research partners to explore the feasibility of building and testing retirement savings solutions in digital platforms. This includes accountancy software and payment platforms, used by self-employed people to manage their money.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of cases of (a) preventable ill health and (b) premature death (i) in Leicester East constituency and (ii) nationally.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities and integrated care boards are responsible for improving the health of their local population and reducing health inequalities. In 2023/24, the total Public Health Grant to local authorities was £3.530 billion. Leicester – which includes the Leicester East constituency – received £29 million of the grant in 2023/24, which is almost £80 per head of population. Additional funding has been provided to improve cardiovascular outcomes in deprived communities, prevent drug and alcohol deaths, address need, and enhance recovery, and improve mental health for people in Leicester.
In January 2023 the Department announced its plan to publish the Major Conditions Strategy, focusing on six major groups of conditions (cancer, mental ill health, cardiovascular disease (including stroke and diabetes), dementia, chronic respiratory diseases, and musculoskeletal disorders) that account for approximately 60% of ill-health and premature death in England.
Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death, disability and ill health, which is why Government has set out plans to introduce a Tobacco and Vapes Bill in parliament and announced new funding to support current smokers, a new incentives programme to support pregnant women to quit, deliver anti-smoking campaigns and crackdown on illicit tobacco and underage sale of tobacco and vapes.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide (a) accessible and (b) affordable sexual and reproductive healthcare services that include HIV prevention and testing.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We remain committed to improving sexual and reproductive health in England.
The Department published a HIV Action Plan in 2021 setting out our actions during 2022-2025 to move towards ending new HIV transmissions, AIDS and HIV-related deaths within England by 2030. Good progress has been made during the first year of its implementation, as set out by the annual report to Parliament published on 7 June. In 2022 we published the Women’s Health Strategy for England setting out our 10 year ambitions and actions to improve health for women and girls.
As part of the HIV Action Plan, the Department is investing over £3.5 million to deliver the National HIV Prevention Programme, a nationally co-ordinated programme of HIV prevention work, including public campaigns such as National HIV Testing Week, that is designed to complement locally commissioned prevention activities in areas of high HIV prevalence. HPE also aims to improve knowledge and understating of HIV transmission and reducing stigma within affected communities.
Local authorities are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access sexual health services to meet local demand and individual local authorities decide on spending priorities based on an assessment of local need for sexual health services, including HIV prevention and testing. We are providing more than £3.5 billion this financial year to local authorities through the Public Health Grant to fund public health services, including sexual health services, increasing to £3.575 billion in 2024/25
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Equality Ministers work closely with colleagues across Government to tackle violence against women and girls.
The Minister for Women sits on the Ministerial Steering Group overseeing the delivery of the Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy and the Domestic Abuse Action Plan. This group met most recently on 18 October 2023 to assess progress, which includes;
Adding the issue of violence against women and girls to the revised Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR), meaning it is now set out as a national threat for forces to respond to alongside other threats such as terrorism, serious and organised crime, and child sexual abuse;
Investing £168 million through the Safer Streets and Safety of Women at Night funds to make our streets safer;
Launching a fund for VAWG ‘by and for’ services over two years to a total of up to £6 million, from 2023/24 – 2024/25. The fund is for services across England and Wales, supporting LGBT people, people with a disability, or ethnic minorities affected by VAWG;
Launching the ‘Enough’ behaviour change campaign in March 2022, which has reached millions of individuals across England and Wales.
As part of that cross government work the Equality Hub is supporting the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill. Parliament agreed the final version of the Bill on Friday 20 October and it will now receive Royal Assent, strengthing protections for employees against workplace sexual harassment.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to help tackle racial inequality.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We published our ground-breaking race equality strategy last year.
Inclusive Britain set out 74 actions to tackle entrenched ethnic disparities across health, education, employment, policing and criminal justice.
18 months on and we have completed over half of the actions, including:
o publishing new ethnicity pay guidance for employers;
o issuing improved guidance on behaviour in schools and on suspensions and permanent exclusions; and
o improving the stop and search process through new de-escalation skills training for police officers.
A further update will be provided to parliament in Spring 2024
Asked by: Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat - Bath)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether the Government plans to increase protections against harassment in the workplace.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government has been supporting the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill first introduced in the Commons by the Hon Member for Bath.
I am delighted that Parliament has agreed the final version of the Bill on Friday 20 October and it will now receive Royal Assent.
This Bill will strengthen protections for employees against workplace sexual harassment.
Asked by: Baroness Gale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to mark White Ribbon Day on 25 November.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are considering our activity to mark the day. Last year, there was a programme of cross-Governmental activity around the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and the 16 days of activism that followed. This included Ministers across Government conducting visits, attending events, making speeches, debating these important issues in Parliament and a series of announcement on action to tackle VAWG.
Tackling VAWG is a Government priority. We have made significant progress since we published the Tackling VAWG Strategy in July 2021 and the complementary Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in March 2022.
In July, we launched the fifth round of the Safer Streets Fund which provides an additional £43 million in funding to projects focused on protecting women in their communities across England and Wales. We also announced the launch of a new national operating model for the investigation and prosecution of rape, which all forces and CPS Areas in England and Wales are implementing to ensure investigations of rape are suspect-focused and considerate to the needs of victims.
To improve the police response to tackling these crimes, we have supported the introduction of a new full-time National Policing Lead for VAWG, DCC Maggie Blyth, and have added VAWG to the Strategic Policing Requirement, meaning it is now set out as a national threat for forces to respond to alongside other threats such as terrorism, serious and organised crime and child sexual abuse.