NHS: Single-sex Spaces for Staff
Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts(4 days ago)
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Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)
My Lords, we are in a mess. We all care about trans people, and we all care about biological women and all the problems that women have suffered over the years. But even as we speak, senior legal officials and estates and facilities managers are racing to draw up proposals for how hospitals, community care centres and GP practices should operate their facilities according to the rules of the Supreme Court. We could, as an interim, ask trans people simply to use a disabled toilet, but all services need to think more deeply about the needs of trans people and cis women—their human rights must be upheld.
What about changing facilities? This was the basis of the much-publicised Darlington case, which was referred to by the noble Lord earlier. That may be trickier and more expensive to solve, where changing facilities have to be allocated by biological sex. From my knowledge of trans friends—who, in the main, just want to quietly get on with their lives as women—the requirement to open changing facilities, and therefore to out themselves, would fill them with distress. That is before you start talking about confronting rights to privacy and dignity. Much has been made of the fear that trans people are experiencing. We do not want to create situations that embarrass, humiliate, out, and create fear in trans people. Their dignity, privacy and human rights must be protected.
There is a little pub just down the road from where we live that has three toilets, labelled “men”, “women” and “inclusive”. Everyone, I hope, will feel comfortable using the “inclusive” option—I know I do. It has the advantage that no one has to out themselves just to go to the loo. There is also the situation of non-binary people, where sometimes it is hard to distinguish the sex of the person. Many trans women accomplish their transition with aplomb and spend their lives as women. I have a friend whom I knew for 10 years before I found out that she was trans—it did not make a blind bit of difference, obviously—but what would happen to them if they were forced to use a men’s toilet? It does not bear thinking about.
I ask that we keep these things in proportion, because half of 1% of people in this country—men or women—is trans. Perhaps we could bear that in mind.
Employment Gap: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, and White, Workforce
Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts(1 year, 10 months ago)
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Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)
I am grateful to the noble Lord for his point. I will certainly encourage a response, and I appreciate the comment.
Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)
My Lords, while government guidance is very welcome, does the Minister accept that the only way to close the ethnicity pay gap is to make reporting mandatory for businesses and companies with over 250 employees, and that we can address this disparity only when we really know the true scale of the problem?
Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con)
I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her comment. As this House will be aware, a deep consultation was undertaken to see what would be the most effective way to ensure that those gaps were narrowed. Since 2012, the gap has narrowed from 5.1% to 2.3% in median hourly pay, but it has very much been felt that, because of the complexities of measuring ethnicity pay gap differentials, particularly in smaller companies of 500 employees or fewer, it would produce data that would not be valid and helpful. Instead, we have introduced a series of voluntary measures and a great deal of training and guidance, which we believe will have the intended outcomes.
Baby-changing Facilities
Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts(1 year, 10 months ago)
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The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, my noble friend makes a very good point. One of the challenges is that a lot of pubs are in historic buildings and are listed. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to get through the planning laws so that doorways and steps can be taken out to give free access. I say again that every opportunity is taken to provide disabled access.
Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)
My Lords, fathers change babies too, and yet baby-changing facilities are often situated in ladies toilets. Does the Minister think that we should have an inclusive place where fathers and mothers can change children—and in a nice environment, rather than some of those that some mothers have to bear up with?
The Earl of Minto (Con)
My Lords, again, that is a very good point. The issue is predominantly driven by space and, to some extent, finance and running costs. The Welsh Government did a very interesting study a few years back, in 2019-20, where they estimated that it costs between £2,500 and £5,000 to put in baby-changing facilities. We all know that the majority of small hospitality businesses are SMEs, and that sort of cost, let alone the ongoing cost of maintenance, cleaning, refuse collection and that sort of thing, at times makes it restrictive.