Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 29
Third report- Reform of the Gender Recognition Act
Published 21 Dec 2021
Paragraph 221
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Reform of the Gender Recognition Act All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome confirmation from the Department of Health and Social Care that the LGBT Action Plan is considered a point of reference for the Department. However, we are concerned that the Government Equalities Office appears to have abandoned it. This demonstrates how disjointed the Governments approach to LGBT+ issues is. It is also concerning that the GEO is ignoring the valuable experiences and concerns of LGBT+ people across the UK. The Government’s own LGBT Advisory Panel made it clear that the commitments in the LGBT Action Plan should continue to be implemented, before it was disbanded. The Government should commit at the earliest possible opportunity to continuing the implementation of the LGBT Action Plan across all departments. It should also reinstate its LGBT Advisory Panel, to demonstrate willingness to implement the actions outlined in the Plan - driven by 78 Reform of the Gender Recognition Act the data from the National LGBT Survey. We call on the Government to write to this Committee outlining the next steps in this work and providing a timetable by which they hope to achieve it.
From: Women and Equalities Committee, Third report- Reform of the Gender Recognition Act (HC 977), paragraph 221, 21 December 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 24 March 2022 (deadline 21 February 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that its September 2020 position on the Gender Recognition Act "is right and appropriate" and that it will not change the legislation, while pointing to administrative improvements such as the fee cut and digitisation.
- On the diagnosis of gender dysphoria, the government declines to remove it, saying the requirements ensure the process is "rigorous", but says it will amend the reference to a "disorder" via a remedial order "in due course".
- It does not consider it necessary to change the statutory declaration, and considers it "equitable" for spousal consent to remain, as it is a safeguard for the non-transitioning spouse.
- It says the digital application process is in testing and "will be operational by summer 2022", and that applicants can still use the paper process if they prefer.
- It does not consider a formal healthcare strategy for transgender and non-binary people necessary, while DHSC says it is "happy to provide the Committee with annual updates" on the pilot clinics' progress and waiting times.