The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chairman of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf.

Clinical waste bins (which are suitable for the disposal of continence products) are currently provided in all accessible toilets in the House of Lords (Palace of Westminster, Millbank House and Old Palace Yard) where space provides, with an additional one situated in the male Peers’ shower / toilet room on the Ground Floor West Front.

Separately, feminine hygiene bins are provided in all female, accessible and unisex toilets in the House of Lords.

The data supplied in answer to Question 254731 used May 2019 figures. This showed that of the 264,500 with an advance repayment more than 12 months old, 83,500 were aged over 40 years old, and 49,500 (59%) of those were male, and 34,000 (41%) were female. We would expect there to be a difference in the advances outstanding over 12 months’ figures, although the gender split in the original table is more pronounced.

We have no evidence to explain this greater gender difference in outstanding advances over 12 months old.

All data used in researching this response has been sourced from internal management information. It offers a snapshot in time and cannot be compared to any other, similar data released by the Department

Domestic abuse is a devastating crime and the Government is committed to doing everything we can to tackle it. We absolutely recognise that domestic abuse affects men as well as women. We have also published a dedicated male victims position statement to recognise the needs of male victims and to clarify and strengthen our response.

We know that victims’ individual needs must be at the centre of service provision, including through an understanding of their gender and sexual orientation, which is why we have provided specific funding just to male victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, including:

• £500,000 to improve support to male victims of domestic abuse;
• Funding for the Men’s Advice Line which provides support and advice to male victims of domestic abuse;
• Funding to Galop which provides advice and support to LGBT populations affected by domestic abuse;
• Funding for a number of LGBT-focused projects
• £452,000 from the Ministry of Justice to 12 organisations in England and Wales to provide services for male victims of rape and sexual violence;
• MoJ has provided £194,000 funding for a national online service for men and £100,000 for the male rape telephone helpline pilot so that male victims of rape and sexual violence are able to access support and information through other channels.

We have also committed to conducting a review of the National Statement of Expectations and its impact on the local commissioning of male support services, and to improving the gender breakdown of Crown Prosecution Service and police data to better understand the numbers of male victims of domestic abuse who engage with the criminal justice system.

As of September 2019, over 15,000 individuals are enrolled on the PrEP Impact Trial. The trial aims to recruit up to 26,000 places and several thousand places remain open for recruitment. Of the 153 research clinics participating in the trial, 124 remain open to recruitment for men who have sex with men. Individuals interested in joining the trial can get information on their nearest recruiting clinics from the trial website which is available at the following link:

https://www.prepimpacttrial.org.uk/

The website is updated on a regular basis.

Participation in the trial is on a voluntary basis and it is for clinics and local authorities to decide the number of allocated places they can accept. Recruitment to places in the trial is managed locally by participating clinics.

The 36 month pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) Impact Trial is scheduled to continue until autumn 2020. Work is now starting to consider future commissioning for PrEP after the Trial has ended, which includes consideration of funding options.

The PrEP Impact trial is managed by the Trial Sponsor. Recruitment to places in the Trial is managed locally by participating clinics. Information on why the Gate Clinic at Kent and Canterbury Hospital is not open to gay and bisexual men is not held centrally.

Following funding from NHS England to pay for extra PrEP drug and research costs and the Secretary of State’s announcement on 30 January that the number of places on the PrEP Impact Trial would be doubled to 26,000, expansion of the Trial is now underway across the country. Participation in the Trial is on a voluntary basis and it is for research clinics and local authorities to decide whether they wish to take part and the number of allocated places they can accept.

In May last year, we published our plans for reforming prison education and improving employment outcomes for ex-offenders in the Education and Employment Strategy. The strategy created a system in which each prisoner was set on a path to employment, with prison education and work geared towards employment on release from the outset.

In line with this, we introduced new performance measures to record the rates of employment for prison leavers at six weeks post-release. The Department is scheduled to publish the statistical data for this on 25 July in an annex to Community Performance Statistics on Gov.uk, at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics

The Government takes the issue of gender inequalities very seriously and recognises the intentions of those bringing forward proposals to reform male primogeniture for hereditary titles. Careful consideration is needed of the issues that reform in this area would raise including the legitimate expectation of males next in line to inherit a title, and the effects of reform on land and property rights. Various approaches have been proposed in both Houses to address this issue though there has not been a consensus on the way forward. The Government’s position remains that reform in this area is not a priority for this Parliamentary session but the Government continues to listen to the concerns of interested parties to understand the consequences of changes to hereditary titles.

The Government is committed to reducing suicides across society and we published the first cross-Government suicide prevention workplan in January 2019, which sets out an ambitious programme for suicide prevention across national and local government.

The National Suicide Prevention Strategy highlights men, and especially middle-aged and young men, as a hard-to-reach, high-risk group and that is why the Government is investing £25 million to support local suicide prevention plans and is testing a range of approaches to reaching men in local communities.

We also recently announced up to £600,000 to support local authorities to further improve their plans, including sharing best practice in targeting high risk groups such as men.

The Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) contract is specifically designed for the movement of prisoners in cellular vehicles that meets MOJ standards.

A total of 191 pregnant women have been transported since December 2018, with 1 being moved by a cellular vehicle because she did not declare her pregnancy before the move.

Below is a table showing the number of instances when both women and men have been transported in the same vehicle. PECS contracts include a Contract Delivery Indicator which requires women to be separated from men for at least 97% of all journeys made. The current national performance is 99.93% of total journeys made.

Contracts also include a requirement that individuals should not remain on a cellular, or any other vehicle, overnight and there have been no instances where women have been held in such circumstances.

Private providers continue to play an important role in the prison estate. We will continue to closely the performance of all providers and we will not hesitate to take action where

standards fall short.

The Government recognises the impact that debt and financial difficulty can have on men’s mental health and wellbeing and that men are at a higher risk of suicide.

The National Suicide Prevention Strategy highlights groups that need tailored approaches to address their mental health needs to reduce their suicide risk, including men. Every local authority has a suicide prevention plan in place and we are investing £25 million over the next three years to support these local plans. We have worked with NHS England and Public Health England to ensure that this funding is used to test different approaches to reaching men in local communities.

We are working with the local government sector to assess the effectiveness of those plans, and a report will be published shortly that will highlight areas of best practice and areas for improvement. This report will include an analysis of the extent to which local authority plans are addressing high risk groups.

The latest update on suicide prevention from the health scrutiny panel at City of Wolverhampton Council (June 2019), shows that 66 deaths were registered as suicides for the period of 2015-17 and 54 of these (82%) were male.

In ‘Making Wolverhampton a Suicide Safer Community: Wolverhampton Suicide Prevention Strategy 2016–2020’, City of Wolverhampton Council has set the following aims to reduce suicides:

- provide a multi-agency approach to suicide prevention across Wolverhampton;

- raise awareness of suicide, compelling organisations and the community to take positive action;

- upskill workforces through information and knowledge enabling them to better understand and respond to poor mental wellbeing and suicide ideation;

- influence services and policies so that suicide prevention is robustly considered and embedded in routine business; and

- provide a coordinated suicide support offer which can be accessed by services and communities.

Men remain the group at the highest risk of suicide and continue to account for three quarters of all suicides. Clearly, targeting suicide in men must be the main thrust of our suicide prevention strategy. We are investing £25 million to support local suicide prevention plans in every local area, and that funding is testing different approaches and sharing best practice. We also announced £600,000 yesterday to support local authorities with exactly these processes.

What his Department's strategy is to reduce the level of male suicides.

I agree with much of what the hon. Gentleman says, and I would be delighted to go to St Helens, not least because the more we can do to share good practice around combating male suicide, the more we can prevent it. Everybody in this space wants to do more to prevent suicide, and location is important, too,

which is why a big part of my plan is to ensure that we are putting in good measures in the places that attract more suicides.