Kate Green – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2015-11-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of her Department’s policies have been assessed against the family test; what steps she has taken to publish the outcome of such assessments; and if she will make a statement.
James Brokenshire
The Family Test was announced by the Prime Minister in August 2014 and introduced in October 2014. The DWP published guidance for Departments and officials on how the test should be applied when formulating policy and my Department follows that guidance.
The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/368894/family-test-guidance.pdf
The Family Test is also being integrated within the Department’s impact assessment process to ensure it is consistently addressed. Recognising that all Government policies will impact on families in some way, the Government’s guidance on the Family Test is clear that policies should pass a threshold of proportionality before the Family Test is applied in full. New Home Office policies in the current Parliament have not met the threshold for applying the Family Test. The Family Test, when applied, will be published as part of the relevant impact assessment.
