📜 Oral Answers to Questions

• Addressing Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Future Earnings:
  • The Minister for Women and Equalities emphasized breaking the link between background and success through the opportunity mission and child poverty taskforce. They aim to ensure every child has the best start in life, helping them achieve and thrive.
  • Discussions highlighted the need to tackle period poverty, with the Minister outlining efforts to make work pay by increasing the living wage and supporting access to free period products in schools.
  • Paternity and maternity leave were discussed, with a focus on making paternity leave available from the first day of a new job and reviewing the parental leave system to support working families better.
• Social Mobility and Class Pay Gaps:
  • Concerns were raised about the class pay gap, where professionals from working-class backgrounds earn significantly less than their more privileged counterparts. The government is considering enforcing the socioeconomic duty under the Equality Act 2010 and encouraging businesses to monitor socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Regional Income Inequalities:
  • The importance of tackling regional pay disparities was acknowledged, with plans to raise the minimum wage and ensure children across the country get the necessary support to excel in school.
• Violence Against Women and Girls:
  • The government is working to halve violence against women and girls, introducing measures like domestic abuse protection orders and additional funding for victims in safe accommodation.
  • Efforts to curb online abuse and deepfake pornography were discussed, with plans to criminalize these practices in the current session and enhance cooperation between government departments to tackle online harms.
• Banning Conversion Practices:
  • The government reiterated its commitment to banning conversion practices, promising a trans-inclusive draft bill to be published soon, while ensuring it does not restrict supportive discussions in faith-based settings.
• Discrimination Against Ethnic Minorities:
  • Legislation is being prepared for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting among large employers and to enshrine equal pay rights for ethnic minorities.
  • Health inequalities affecting ethnic minorities were addressed, with a focus on prevention and community-based care, including targeted campaigns for conditions like type 2 diabetes.
• Support for Specific Groups and Issues:
  • The Prime Minister expressed dedication to supporting people with disabilities, military personnel, emergency services, and foster carers, with initiatives aimed at improving their circumstances.
  • On the issue of pensioners and the WASPI campaign, the government highlighted the economic challenges that make widespread compensation currently unfeasible.
• Local Issues and Commitments:
  • Various local issues were addressed, such as support for hospices, addressing homelessness, and ensuring safe streets for visually impaired individuals. The government is committing to invest in public services and address these concerns in upcoming plans.
• Prime Minister’s Engagements:
  • The Prime Minister acknowledged and thanked the armed forces and emergency services for their dedication, especially over Christmas, and committed to issues like supporting Ukraine and fostering peace globally.

The parliamentary session exhibits a moderate level of disagreement among the participants. While there is no overt hostility or shouting down of speakers, there are several instances where opposition members challenge the government’s policies and decisions, often directly criticizing the actions and inactions of the current administration. This is evident in the exchanges on topics like socioeconomic disadvantage, violence against women and girls, and pension issues such as the WASPI campaign. Labour members question the government’s efforts on these fronts, suggesting inadequacies or failures, which indicates a degree of disagreement. The Prime Minister’s responses often defend the government’s actions and decisions, sometimes refuting the criticisms, but also acknowledging the concerns raised by opposition MPs. This back-and-forth debate, while respectful, still shows clear lines of dispute. However, the session does not escalate to extreme levels of contention, maintaining a level of parliamentary decorum, hence the rating of 3 out of 5 for disagreement.