Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill
Long titleA Bill to regulate access to hormone therapy for children under the age of 18; to make provision relating to social transition practices in schools and other settings; to make provision regarding the meaning of the protected characteristic of sex; and for connected purposes.
Introduced byLiz Truss (Commons)
Territorial extent United Kingdom
Status: Not passed
History of passage through Parliament

The Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill is a proposed Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The Bill is a Private Members' Bill introduced by the former Prime Minister, Liz Truss.[1][2] A petition was subsequently launched for Parliament to allow the Bill to pass.

The Bill would amend the Equality Act 2010 to define sex in law, ban children from accessing puberty blockers, creates offences for medical practitioners if they prescribe puberty blockers to children, and bans recognition of social transitioning for children under the age of 18.[3]

The Bill is co-sponsored by Dame Priti Patel, Ian Paisley, Dame Jackie Doyle-Price, Dr Caroline Johnson, Nick Fletcher, Miriam Cates, Ben Bradley, Tom Hunt, Robin Millar, Andrew Lewer and Marco Longhi.[1]

History and parliamentary passage[edit]

There has been limited criticism of the Equality Act 2010 from 'gender critical' activists for not defining "sex" or "gender".[4] "Sex" is a protected characteristic under section 11 of the Equality Act 2010, whereas "gender" and "gender identity" are not and have no recognition in UK equality law.[5]

This has led to a series of petitions on this issue, a couple of which gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures. One calling for "sex" to be changed to mean sex at birth gained over 100,000 signatures and was debated in Parliament.[6] These petitions did not materialise in any change of the law. A counter petition, that garnered many more signatures was debated at the same time.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has stated that legally defining sex could bring clarity in a number of areas.[7] Indeed, the EHRC recommended the Government take further action to define sex in the Equality Act 2010.[8] Many other organisations and people (including celebrities and politicians) have supported clarifying the definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010, which it has been stated it is essential to do so to protect the rights of cisgender women.[9][10][11][12] The EHRC report recommended that any change to the Equality Act 2010 should mean that a woman does not include trans woman, i.e. to mean sex at birth only.[13]

The call for sex to be amended to mean biological sex has become even stronger following the judgment in the case For Women Scotland v the LA & the Scottish Ministers which the Court of Session held that trans women are women for the purposes of the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act 2010, and further held that the legislation which the case regarded conflated the definition of woman.[14][15] This case is subject to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.[16] It is expected that the Supreme Court will give the legal definiton of sex.[17]

The Bill was presented by Truss in December 2023 as a ballot bill.[18][19] The Bill was seen to be a power move against the Labour Party as a potential weak spot.[20]

Truss published data from a poll which stated that there was over 90% of support for her Bill.[21]

The Bill was broadly recognised as being an attack on transgender rights.[22]

The Bill was due to receive its Second Reading in the House of Commons on 15 March 2024, but was not read in time for the moment of interruption.[23][24] Many people, including Truss and Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, criticised Labour MPs for filibustering the Bill so that it was not debated on 15 March 2024 and accused them preventing a debate to protect children and single sex spaces.[25][26][27][28] Badenoch has previously said that amending the Equality Act 2010 in this way would provide "greater legal clarity".[29]

A few days before, the NHS stated that it will not prescribe puberty blockers to children, which was said to be welcomed by the Government and other prominent politicians.[30] The Scottish Government similarly entered talks to prevent puberty blockers being prescribed to children.[31]

The second reading of the Bill has been adjourned to 22 March 2024. The Government, particularly Badenoch and the current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, supports the Bill and are said that they will allow it to proceed through Parliament.[32][33][34][35]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill". PARLIAMENT.UK. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  2. ^ "Health and Equality Acts (Amendment) Bill – briefing". Sex Matters. 2024-03-14. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  3. ^ Wheeler, Caroline (2024-03-15). "Liz Truss bill would define sex as sex at birth". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  4. ^ Pasternack, Ellen (2023-04-13). "The Equality Act row typifies our distorted gender identity debate". CapX. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  5. ^ "Lewis Silkin - EHRC letter on sex and the Equality Act". Lewis Silkin. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  6. ^ "UK Parliament - Committees - The definition of "sex" in the Equality Act 2010 to be debated by MPs". PARLIAMENT.UK. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  7. ^ "Clarifying the definition of 'sex' in the Equality Act | EHRC". www.equalityhumanrights.com. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  8. ^ "Equality law: EHRC recommends the government give 'further consideration' to redefining the protected characteristic of 'sex' to mean sex at birth". Hill Dickinson. April 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  9. ^ "EHRC publishes letter on clarifying sex in the Equality Act". Sex Matters. 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  10. ^ Kennedy, Hannah (2023-05-30). "Updating the Equality Act definition of 'sex' | EHRC opinion and considerations for the workplace". WorkNest. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  11. ^ "Ministers must grasp the nettle on equality law | Michael Foran". The Critic Magazine. 2023-04-07. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  12. ^ "Petition backed by JK Rowling to clarify Equality Act nets 100,000 signatures". The Independent. 2023-03-10. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  13. ^ "PROPOSED CHANGE TO THE EQUALITY ACT DEFINITION OF SEX - Briefing from Humanists UK, June 2023" (PDF). Humanists UK. Retrieved 23 March 2024.
  14. ^ "For Women Scotland v the LA & the Scottish Ministers". scts_judiciary. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  15. ^ "Campaigners lose definition of 'woman' appeal bid". BBC News. 2023-11-01. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  16. ^ Admin (2024-02-16). "Appeal to the UK Supreme Court". For Women Scotland. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  17. ^ Wade, Mike (2024-03-23). "Supreme Court to rule on legal definition of 'woman' in Scotland". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  18. ^ "'Victory for common sense': Truss presents bill which would prevent under-18s using hormone therapies". Lynn News. 2023-12-08. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  19. ^ "Activists will 'exploit loopholes' with trans guidance and put children at risk, fears Truss". Lynn News. 2023-12-21. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  20. ^ "Liz Truss targets Labour's weak spot: gender". UnHerd. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  21. ^ "More than 90% of survey respondents back Truss' bid to protect single-sex spaces". Lynn News. 2024-03-12. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  22. ^ Perry, Sophie (2024-03-11). "Liz Truss bill would ban trans women from women's spaces". PinkNews | Latest lesbian, gay, bi and trans news | LGBTQ+ news. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  23. ^ Phillips, Emma Morgan, Alexa (2024-03-15). "Liz Truss 'furious' that transgender law reforms not debated in Commons". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ "Kemi Badenoch SHAMES Labour after leftie MPs block Liz Truss debate - 'Starmer too busy debating ferrets'". www.gbnews.com. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  25. ^ "Liz Truss bid to reform transgender law runs out of time after MPs' filibuster". Yahoo News. 2024-03-15. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  26. ^ Steerpike (2024-03-15). "Truss blasts Labour for putting 'ideology' before children". The Spectator. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  27. ^ Maidment, Jack; Gutteridge, Nick (2024-03-15). "Politics latest news: Liz Truss accuses Labour MPs of blocking her transgender law reforms". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  28. ^ "Kemi Badenoch tweet". X. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  29. ^ "UK minister mulling law change to define sex as 'biological'". POLITICO. 2023-04-04. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
  30. ^ "Children will not be prescribed puberty blockers, NHS says". www.shropshirestar.com. 2024-03-12. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  31. ^ Wilson, Paul (12 March 2024). "Scottish Government in talks with English health officials after decision to stop prescribing puberty blockers". scotsman.com. Retrieved 19 March 2024.
  32. ^ "Aubrey Allegretti tweet". X. Retrieved 15 March 2024.
  33. ^ "Government could back Liz Truss's transgender law reforms". The Independent. 2024-03-15. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  34. ^ "Liz Truss 'furious' after MPs accused of blocking transgender reform bill". Sky News. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  35. ^ Malnick, Edward (2024-03-16). "Tories plan to amend Equality Act to protect single-sex spaces". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-03-19.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_and_Equality_Acts_(Amendment)_Bill&oldid=1221404209"