Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will publish guidance on inclusive language in relation to sexual minorities and gender identities in (a) Government reports, (b) official literature and (b) in-service delivery.

Terms and language regarding sexual orientation and gender identity are evolving rapidly and many terms may mean different things to different people.

Under the Public Sector Equality Duty, public authorities must, in all their functions, have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people with different protected characteristics, including when designing policies and delivering services. This is key to the Government’s commitment to delivering equality of opportunity for all and my officials in the Equality Hub provide advice to departments to assist with this.