Source · Select Committees · Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 65
65
Equality for different groups can raise difficult, balanced rights issues, for example race or religion...
Recommendation
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.
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Committee rightly notes that equality issues by their nature often require wide engagement and sensitive handling. To support this, effective stakeholder engagement as well as careful communications are required. The Equality Hub interacts regularly with a wide range of stakeholders across equality issues, ensuring that it factors in all relevant views to its work. For example, to support the COVID-19 pandemic response, the Equality Hub has led a programme of engagement with external stakeholders which is detailed in the published quarterly reports on COVID-19 disparities. This programme comprises working groups, bilateral meetings, conference speeches and targeted roundtables with a range of stakeholders including the British Medical Association, National Pharmacy Association, Bangladeshi caterers and midwives from Birmingham, and East London NHS Trusts. The Equality Hub engaged with just under 140 organisations before and during the Gender Recognition Act consultation period, including LGBT groups, women’s groups, faith groups, other Government departments, foreign Governments and other civil society organisations. As we run the consultation phase for our ban on conversion therapy, we continue to engage closely with a similarly broad range of interested groups, as well as with victims of these practices, to ensure our policy is informed and effective. We remain alive to the need to hear a diverse range of voices and views, while also ensuring sensitivity in how we hold these conversations, including with people directly affected. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities drafted its report after a period of significant engagement which included a call for evidence that received over 2,300 responses. It is an independent commission and communications work for the publication of the Commission’s report on 31 March 2021 were likewise planned independently. A statement given by the Commission on 2 April stated that following publication of the report, disagreements with their views had tipped into wilful misrepresentation. This reflects the challenge of managing communications and anticipating social media commentary, especially where emotions are heightened. We share the Committee’s concerns as to the polarised debates that have intensified around these sensitive issues. We have publicly urged all those involved in debates on these important and emotive issues to show tolerance and respect for different perspectives and views. The Government is always interested in learning lessons wherever it should. Alongside health and economic challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic posed a public communications challenge to ensure that people in all corners of the country including those who lack trust in Government, received a clear message about matters which had a bearing on issues such as community, family, housing and faith. The Minister of State for Equalities’ quarterly reports into COVID disparities have included an exploration into how we can improve our communications to under-served groups. Recommendations have covered issues such as community and stakeholder engagement, nuancing of messages, partnerships with trusted advocates, disaggregation of audiences, diversification of channels, expansion of translations and formats, avoiding stigmatisation and dispelling myths. The final report with a summary of proposals and actions for improving Government communications to diverse audiences on sensitive issues, will be published soon. Given this, the Government does not see a compelling need for an additional review as suggested by the Committee. Likewise, with regard to the Committee’s recommendation to invite the Equality and Human Rights Committee (EHRC) to engage with stakeholders, we do not see this as an additional need or new activity. The EHRC wrote to the Committee on this matter. The Government echoes the EHRC’s point that this is something the Commission takes into consideration through its day-to-day operation. Regular engagement with stakeholders is part of the Equality Hub’s policy making. This includes individual contacts, roundtables, consultations, and input from experts - ensuring we hear from the full range of voices especially on contentious or polarised issues. Our approach is both proactive, for example with conversion therapy policy, and reactive, for example in relation to the Afghanistan Resettlement Programme - we have to be responsive, and that is the right approach.