Recommendation 65

Equality for different groups can raise difficult, balanced rights issues, for example race or religion and belief can sometimes conflict with equal rights on the grounds of sex or sexual orientation. There are lessons to be learned from recent delicately balanced rights questions, perhaps most notably Gender Recognition Act (GRA) reform, the public debate around which has become protracted and acrimonious. The equalities machinery must adapt to better engage with civil society organisations and experts from all perspectives and seek common ground on the most difficult balanced rights questions. We recommend the Government invite the Equality and Human Rights Commission to engage with a range of stakeholders to seek common ground on the most difficult balanced rights issues. The new equalities strategy should set out a programme of such stakeholder engagement on the most pressing issues, for example the interplay between options for GRA reform and women’s rights to single-sex spaces, services and sports. It should also set out clear principles to underpin the choice of ministerial advisory panels and on which issues they should be appointed to advise.