Speeches by McKenna.

“Before I start, I have to declare an interest because Professor Moonesinghe and I worked very closely for quite a long time at UCLH in critical care and post-anaesthetic care. We have been at NHS England together but not in the same team. I just want to flag that up. I would like to talk a bit more about the evidence a…”

“Do you know why licensed and registered medical facilities and practitioners in those countries are offering these surgeries? What evidence base are they using?”

“If I am honest, from everything we have heard so far, it seems to me that there is no way we can generate the level of evidence to the threshold that you are looking for—that is what it feels like right now; that is what I think it feels like to a lot of service users—and that even if we do, it will not produce an answ…”

“The WHO slightly shifted its recommendation last year to a conditional recommendation for clitoral reconstruction. Has the Government or the NIHR taken that into account and maybe changed on an ad hoc basis?”

“Is that true for countries like France, Germany and Australia, all of which offer reconstruction in these circumstances? Are they operating under very different medical guidance and decisions? Have you had discussions with clinical bodies in countries such as France, Germany and Australia about this?”

“I suppose the thing is that because, obviously, this is typically migrant women—women from underserved communities full stop—notwithstanding all the issues around medical misogyny and all the layers of that, and the fact that quality is important, not moving this forward at an accelerated pace shows a lack of care for …”

“What potential harms do you think there could be from this sort of surgery given that we know quite a lot about other forms of genital reconstruction?”

“I am so grateful that the Bill is finally approaching this stage in its journey towards becoming law. I think of my younger self, in the 1980s—a gay man in a religious household. Family relationships were put under so much strain because of religious pressure not to come out as gay and not to be honest. Frankly, the co…”

“Again, from the point of view of equalities law, we are likely to be asking everyone of every age to have to verify that. Everyone in this room would have to verify their age to access their Facebook accounts and so on. Does that have an equalities implication? To protect young people, we are asking adults to change ho…”

“If that was from the EHRC’s point of view, what was your intention in asking for that revision? Why were you pushing for a revision to this?”

“Just to declare a personal interest, I have 11 nephews and nieces in Australia. We know that Australia went down the route of a ban; we also know that there is data that many children are still accessing social media. I know the Government’s argument, and part of the theory of change is that having a ban for under-16s …”

“I can see that there are some things which are very specific to young people at different developmental stages of a human being’s life, but as you have alluded to, some things that young people are being exposed to are also harmful to adults, for example inducing people to kill themselves online. There is some really t…”

“This is quite a gnarly and intense subject, and it is something that the public care a great deal about. There were some technical changes to the code during its drafting and before it was laid before Parliament. What prompted the Government to suggest to the EHRC that it should revise the original draft in relation to…”

“In wider areas of equalities where social media has a big impact, we have had evidence that content produced by women about women’s health and enabling women to talk openly about women’s health issues is being shadow-banned and downgraded by social media companies because, frankly, it is less divisive and more inclusiv…”

“There is some variation across the UK. Northern Ireland has legislated the right for access to sign language courses for deaf children and their families. Will this Government do the same for England, or maybe recommend it more widely across the UK?”

“This Government have done quite important things around making sure that where there are structural inequalities, particularly ones related to income, wealth and disability, resources are moved to support and overcome those inequalities. Have you made any assessment of the financial cost of providing free BSL training …”

“Leading on from that, but also linked to the work we have been doing to look at the manosphere and its impact on gender relationships and relationships between sexes, the Government have announced a social media ban for under-16s. Behind that—particularly because this impacts on age equality, as well as anything else—i…”

“Another area that was being explored in this code was the position of special category data, particularly where that relates to sex. Fundamentally, until now sex has not been seen as a special category. I get called “Mr” and many people here get called “Miss” and “Mrs”. That was the argument from the EHRC, and that is …”

“You have a very large brief in terms of equalities. I would like to move on to some other areas, specifically around disability. Not being able to access British Sign Language courses and training for deaf people and their families can have a devastating impact on those people and everyone around them. This may also be…”

“Obviously, the code is guidance, but people are probably still going to have to go to actual lawyers to hash this out. Has the guidance provided the level of clarity that organisations really need in what is a very contested space?”