Speeches by Dodds.

“Well, policies must be lawful rather than unlawful—that is, of course, important. In fact, there is now case law making it clear that belief is a protected characteristic, as we know, again going back to the Equality Act, which was produced by the previous Labour Government. Obviously, as a new Government, we also want…”

“Of course, the case that was mentioned is one that is currently in the courts, so it would not be appropriate for me to comment on it. Furthermore, it relates to the Scottish NHS, which is an area that is devolved to the Scottish Government. However, on the broader issue of single-sex exceptions, the new Government hav…”

“The equality action plans within the Employment Rights Bill will be focused on gender pay gap-related action and menopause action plans. Those action plans will enable the opening up of space around a whole range of different issues. We are going to be working on ensuring that there is appropriate information for emplo…”

“I have seen the evidence that has been produced by the Committee, and we have all been very moved by a lot of the discussions that have gone on within the Committee. If I may say so, Chair, your leadership on this has been incredibly impressive. Obviously, the loss of a child is an incredibly difficult time; miscarriag…”

“It is really important that there is clarity around particularly what service providers understand of the law. We have been seeking to try to ensure that, especially around the availability of single-sex services, where they are required. Of course, that applies in conditions like the one I mentioned—refuges—and other …”

“We are working on this right now. You completely accurately described the previous situation, where there was a huge amount of instability and different approaches were taken over time. As a new Government, we are really clear that we will take forward a full, trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices. We are clear t…”

“I hope that we will have the legislation that we committed to in our manifesto in place. I hope that we will have driven change on those core missions—halving violence against women and girls and a number of others as well. Above all, I hope we will have a country where there is more opportunity for people wherever the…”

“The mission is for a decade, so I want us to make sure that we are in the right direction by the five-year point, but you are right. Of course, we need to look really carefully at the measures to assess this. The Home Office, as you would expect, is particularly focused on how we can ensure that we really are looking a…”

“We are both really passionate about it, and I know that many members of the Committee are, because we are seeing a situation where, unfortunately, as the Committee has found, too often we see women’s symptoms either not being diagnosed for far too long or being dismissed and women not being listened to. Unfortunately, …”

“Absolutely. This is a real challenge. If we are being completely frank, we saw the Race Disparity Unit set up by Theresa May, which was intended to improve the quality of data gathering and use across Government on issues to do with racial and ethnic inequality, and I would argue there was not a huge amount of impetus …”

“Absolutely.”

“We certainly want to see those diagnostic periods coming down; we think it is really important. We do not have a commitment to a target on that issue, but we do have a strong plan to be making sure that we are progressing on this. That covers a whole range of different areas: the measures that I mentioned; the overall …”

“We believe that exploration is very important. We have the previous Government’s consultation to examine, which was contributed to by a very large number of people. That indicated a range of situations where people had been subject to what they described as conversion practices. Of course, it will be really important f…”

“I am delighted to be here with the Committee and to finally be able to change things for the better, which is what we are determined to do right across our team. I work really closely with Bridget and the other Ministers. As Minister of State, I particularly focus on OEO legislation. I am sure that we will get into the…”

“That integration is, of course, critical across the Government’s different missions; we are ensuring that there is that equalities input with them all. The other clear difference with the new Government is that we are determined to integrate equality and opportunity-based work, including in relation to socioeconomic in…”

“I will quickly talk about the VAWG ministerial board, and then I am sure there are many other examples that Bridget will mention. I represent OEO on that board; clearly, there are representatives of a number of different Government Departments. Hopefully, members of the Committee will be aware that we have made the fir…”

“I do not want to hold up the Committee, but I could not agree more. It is exactly the same for me and, I think, for the other Ministers as well.”

“This was not just in the King’s Speech; it was in our manifesto as well. It is something we are strongly committed to. We are working on a draft Bill right now and we will be publishing it later this Session, so this is something that we really are pushing forward on. As I said, we need to make sure that we have a Bill…”

“We believe that everyone, including freelance workers, needs to be able to operate at work without any fear of harassment, discrimination or even violence, and certainly, the hearing that was undertaken and the update from the Committee were extremely concerning in that regard. We recognise that many allegations have b…”

“We are not committing to change the Equality Act on this issue. We have that industry-led initiative that I mentioned. We want to see that being effective and it is really important that it delivers, but we are of course going to be monitoring this really closely and will reserve the right to take action if we do not s…”