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21 Oct 2008 : Column 290W—continued
Running a media campaign to raise awareness of enterprise among women.
The Government Equalities Office is working closely with the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to support the delivery of these measures.
Women are the largest under represented group in terms of participation in enterprise and offer a wealth of untapped talent and economic opportunity.
Measures to assist women's enterprise are an important part of the Government's Enterprise Strategy, including piloting Women's Business Centres, creating a fund to invest in women-led businesses, and supporting the establishment of a Women's Business Centre of Expertise.
The Enterprise Strategy, published in March this year, recognises the importance of changing women's attitudes to enterprise; providing advice and support to women starting and running their businesses; and helping women entrepreneurs to achieve growth in their businesses.
The Government Equalities Office is, jointly with BERR, supporting research into the barriers faced by mothers thinking about setting up their own business. This research will feed in to the development of Women's Business Centre pilots.
The Government published a Strategic Framework for Women's Enterprise in 2003. This set out for the first time the policy imperative for the development of women's enterprise.
The Government established the Task Force on Women's Enterprise to accelerate the levels of female entrepreneurship. It is also supporting the national network of 1,000 women entrepreneur ambassadors established with RDAs.
Equality Bill
10. Julie Morgan: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps she is taking to consult young people on the provisions of the Equality Bill. [228324]
Maria Eagle: The consultation on the proposals for the Equality Bill included a children's consultation event organised on our behalf by the Children's Rights Alliance for England. Barbara Follett also met a small group of children and young people to discuss the impact the Equality Bill proposals may have on children and young people. Organisations representing children responded to the consultation paper and have also been invited to the regional stakeholder events on the Equality Bill which will take place during the next few months.
Departmental Finance
James Duddridge: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how much funding the Government Equalities Office is to receive in 2008-09. [225045]
Maria Eagle: For 2008-09, the Government Equalities Office will receive £77 million of resource funding and £7 million capital funding. Of this funding, £63 million resource and £7 million capital is allocated to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Departmental Written Questions
Mr. Harper: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many and what proportion of written questions for answer on a named day she has answered on the due date in the current session of Parliament to date. [226814]
Maria Eagle: The Government Equalities Office has replied to a total of 39 named day questions in the current parliamentary session, of which nine (23 per cent.) had substantive replies on the named day and 30 (77 per cent.) received holding replies.
Domestic Violence Prosecutions
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how many prosecutions for domestic violence against women failed to come to court because the victim refused to give evidence in the latest period for which figures are available. [227213]
Maria Eagle: The Government do not hold figures for the number of prosecutions for domestic violence against women or other crimes which failed to come to court because the victim refused to give evidence.
Crown Prosecution Service records include an analysis of the reasons for unsuccessful court outcomes, including an indication of those cases dropped before a hearing because the victim refused to give evidence or retracted. In 2007-08, 3,829 cases were dropped for this reason, representing 19.3 per cent. of all unsuccessful outcomes for domestic violence, and 6 per cent. of all completed cases of domestic violence. However, these figures are not broken down by gender.
Domestic Violence: Victim Support Schemes
Mr. Neil Turner: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps she plans to take to increase resources to regions where women who have undergone domestic violence are significantly underserved according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s survey Mapping the Gaps. [226140]
Maria Eagle: The responsibility for decisions about local level funding priorities, including the provision of specialist support to women who have been affected by domestic violence, rests with local authorities.
The Supporting People programme provides the main source of public funding for housing-related support. This programme is delivered at a local level and decisions on how much money is spent on services for those affected by domestic violence are made by the top tier local authorities, based on a local needs assessment. The 2008-09 allocations for Supporting People amount to £1.686 billion. The top tier authorities spent £59,333,258 on services for those affected by domestic violence in 2005-06, and £61,645,319 in 2006-07.
The Government Equalities Office will continue to work in partnership with the Women’s National Commission, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and other Government Departments to keep a close watch on how local areas prioritise funding for domestic violence services.
Equality
James Duddridge: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality how much the Government Equalities Office will spend on the Single Equality Bill seminar being hosted on 10th December 2008 in conjunction with Whitehall and Westminster World. [225163]
Maria Eagle [holding answer 13 October 2008]: The Government Equalities Office is not making any contribution towards the cost of the Single Equality Bill seminar organised by Whitehall and Westminster World on 10 December 2008.
Gender: Discrimination
Mrs. May: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps the Government have taken to act upon the recommendations of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women since the 41st session of parties of 30 June to 18 July. [224211]
Barbara Follett: I will let the right hon. Member have such information as is available as soon as possible.
Substantive answer from Maria Eagle to Theresa May:
The United Kingdom was examined on its 5th and 6th reports to the United Nations committee and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against women on July 10th this year. Following this examination the committee published a set of draft observations which welcomed the UK's adoption of a number of legislative, judicial and administrative measures aimed at promoting gender equality and eliminating discrimination. Among these were the 2006 Equality Act; The establishment of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Gender Equality Duty for all public authorities.
The Government Equalities Office is currently drafting an Action Plan to take forward the recommendations made in the draft report. A particular focus of which is to strengthen relations with other Government Departments and the Devolved Nations, in order to act on women's equality issues. The Government will provide a future progress report to the United Nations next year.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent steps the Government have taken to reduce sexism in the workplace. [226334]
Maria Eagle [holding answer 15 October 2008]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 9 October.
Women: Violence
Chris Huhne: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what progress the Government Equalities Office has made in (a) developing and (b) implementing a cross-Government strategy on violence against women. [223006]
Maria Eagle: Tackling violence against women is one of the priorities for the Ministers for Women, and my Department has published a report, "Tackling Violence Against Women: A Cross-Government Narrative", which sets out the significant progress made by Government on this and the other priorities for the Ministers for Women. This report is available in the Commons Library.
The Government continue to look at how we can strengthen and develop our approaches and the Home Secretary will be announcing plans on how this will be taken forward shortly. My Department, the Government Equalities Office, will be working with and supporting the Home Office in this.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what recent steps her Department has taken to tackle violence against women. [223007]
Maria Eagle: In July, the Government Equalities Office has more recently published “Women’s Changing Lives: Priorities for the Ministers for Women One Year On Progress Report” which details the significant progress made by Government on this and the other priorities for the Ministers for Women. It highlights a number of steps taken, including specifically by my Department. For example:
Creation of a cross-government emergency fund of £1 million to support rape crisis centres; and
Hosted a meeting for Ministers, including myself, with members of the newspaper and advertising industry to raise concerns about small adverts in newspapers—guidance for editors has since been tightened up.
This and the earlier report, “Tackling Violence Against Women: a Cross-Government Narrative”, are both available in the Libraries of both Houses.
The Government Equalities Office has a strategic and influencing role within Government on equalities issues, including tackling violence against women. We work in partnership with other Government Departments, including the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s Office on this issue. As deputy Minister for Women and Equality, I sit on the interdepartmental ministerial groups on domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking to which progress on tackling these horrible crimes is reported.
Duchy of Lancaster
Departmental Official Visits
David Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much was spent on overnight accommodation by his Department's civil servants in the last 12 months. [228739]
Kevin Brennan: Details of how much the Cabinet Office spent on overnight accommodation by civil servants in the last 12 months are not held centrally and are therefore available only at disproportionate cost.
Economic and Domestic Secretariat
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many staff are employed in the Economic and Domestic Secretariat on a (a) full-time equivalent and (b) headcount basis. [229050]
Kevin Brennan: As at the end of September 2008, 34 people were employed in the Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat of the Cabinet Office. This equates to 33.8 full-time equivalents.
Employment
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what change there was in the number of people of working age in employment who were (a) UK citizens, (b) non-UK citizens, (c) UK born and (d) non-UK born in the period (i) 1987 to 1997 and (ii) since 1997, expressed (A) as a proportion of those of working age in employment and (B) as a proportion of the total change in employment level in the same periods. [228444]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 20 October 2008]: The .information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated October 2008:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what change there was in the number of people of working age in employment who were (a) UK citizens, (b) non-UK citizens, (c) UK born and (d) non-UK born in the period (i) 1987 to 1997 and (ii) since 1997, expressed (A) as a proportion of those of working age in employment and (B) as a proportion of the total change in employment level in the same periods. (228444)
The requested information for the period April-June 1997 to April-June 2008 is shown in the attached table. Comparable data for the period 1987 to 1997 are not available.
Citizenship is defined as the nationality reported by respondents at the time of the survey.
The estimates are derived from the Labour Force Survey. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
The figures in the table are derived from the LFS microdata which are weighted using the official population estimates published
in autumn 2007. They are not entirely consistent with the figures published in the monthly Labour Market Statistics First Release which are weighted using more up-to-date population estimates.
| Working age( 1) people in employment. by nationality and country of birth—United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted | |||||
| UK Nationals | Non UK Nationals | UK born | Non UK born | Total( 2) | |
| (1) Men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59. (2) Total includes those whose nationality and country of birth is not known. (3) Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates, described as follows: Guide to quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent. we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220. Key: Coefficient of Statistical Robustness Variation (CV) (percentage) * 0 < CV < 5 Estimates are considered precise. ** 5 < CV < 10 Estimates are considered reasonably precise. *** 10 < CV < 20 Estimates are considered acceptable. **** CV ≥ 20 Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes. Note: It should be noted that the above estimates exclude people in most types of communal establishment (e.g. hotels, boarding houses, hostels, mobile home sites etc). | |||||
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