Written question asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Baroness Hanham (Conservative) on Monday, 30 April 2012.

Communities: Integration

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hanham on 22 March (WA 185–86), what mechanisms and methodologies they intend to use to evaluate the success of their strategies on equalities, social mobility and integration, both individually and cumulatively.

Answer: The Government are tackling the specific issues associated with racial discrimination through their single equality strategy, social mobility strategy and integration policies. It is not our current intention to have a separate strategy for race equality. An Inter-Ministerial Group on Equalities was set up to drive work across Government to support the Equality Strategy. The Government will report progress on the Equality Strategy shortly. The Government have two key mechanisms to measure the success of the social mobility strategy. The independent Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission will report annually to Parliament on progress on both social mobility and child poverty. We have also placed leading indicators of success in improving social mobility for each life stage in departmental Business Plans. These ensure the public have the information necessary to hold the Government and other institutions to account. Specific projects in our policy approach to integration, Creating the Conditions for Integration, will be monitored and evaluated against their objectives. Integration is predominately a local issue which requires a local response, and therefore further evaluation is a matter for local areas.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 16971; 736 c398-9WA
Session: 2010-12
Related items: Communities: Integration
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects: Community relations Equality Social mobility
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk