Watching the watchdogs - new article by SexMatters

[stumbledin]

The job of the Women and Equalities Select Committee (WESC) is to hold Government to account on equality law and policy, particularly the Equality Act 2010. It also scrutinises the equalities watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Committee has received over 2,000 submissions in its current inquiry on reform of the Gender Recognition Act. This is an extraordinary number, with very few coming from government bodies or even large charities, and very many from small volunteer led organisations and women working in their own time to explain the conflict over single sex services, as well as transgender individuals. We have catalogued some of the responses here. You can read Sex Matters’ submission here.

We are not optimistic that the Committee is willing to take the gender critical inputs seriously. Chair Caroline Nokes is sticking with “be kind”

Full article at sex-matters.org/posts/updates/watching-the-watchdogs/

Thank you for posting.

An incredible read and highlighting how equality of all the protected characteristics falls short. Straight talking is sadly missing in this debate. No one wants to say 'you can't have everything' 'women have rights too'. Noakes doesn't understand equality so why is she Chair of WESC

Important piece. Can we challenge their lack of impartiality in any other way than bringing court cases?

Follow the complaints procedure - including asking an MP to take it to the parlimentary ombudsman.

Thanks for sharing, I'll read with interest. A watchdog that has been subject to ideological capture is toothless. The inability of committee members to think critically about a belief that attempts to rewrite established science is hugely worrying. You'd hope our elected representatives would be smarter and more rational than this. For the chair to announce her views and reaffirm them before even considering the evidence is actually shocking.

"If the atmosphere in this debate is toxic it is because the organisations whose mandate it is to bring clarity and calm have refused to do their job.
This isn’t the first time the EHRC has said “sorry, I’m washing my hair” to the Women and Equalities Select Committee on questions of women’s rights and safety.
As Nokes highlighted the previous Inquiry into “Enforcing the Equality Act” recommended that the Commission and Government prepare a statutory code of practice on the single-sex exceptions. The EHRC said no. It said it was working on guidance for service providers. We have seen nothing."

Awful

For the chair to announce her views and reaffirm them before even considering the evidence is actually shocking.

I don't know if the kind of public consultation WESC is carrying out is covered by the Gunning Principles, but if so it breaches them. You don't consult on a fait accompli.

Gunning 1 – Consultation must be at a time when proposals are still at a formative stage
Gunning 2 – Sufficient reasons must be put forward for any proposal to permit “intelligent consideration” and response
Gunning 3 – Adequate time is given for consideration and response
Gunning 4 – The product of consultation is conscientiously taken into account by the decision maker(s)
Put simply, these criteria are a “prescription for fairness” and mean that a public body must: consult before they have made up their mind (albeit that an open mind is not an empty mind); provide people with the right kind of information for them to be able to take part in the consultation; give people enough time to participate and respond; and, give consultation responses conscientious consideration.

elderflowerlegal.co.uk/public-law-pitfalls-academies-part-ii/

Even if this "evidence gathering" is outside this framework as it's a parliamentary select committee, I think it's worth referencing the Gunning principles as consultation good practice in any complaint.

Thanks for posting this. This is a dam waiting to burst. It'll be a major scandal with Stonewall right there at the centre. We're going to have to rethink how we do democracy when we see how one lobby group infiltrated and took over every major institution in this country.

We're going to have to rethink how we do democracy when we see how one lobby group infiltrated and took over every major institution in this country.

Yes, that's an excellent point. It will have huge ramifications.

Thanks so much for sharing. I agree with everything Shedbuilder says. Stonewall have managed to infiltrate so many organisations.

The only female services in my area for survivors or sexual violence are run by and for 'self-identified' women. Every women's refuge is for 'self-identified' women.

The exceptions in the Equality Act state it is lawful to have services specifically for biological women so I wonder why this is. Well I can make a good guess but it's pretty depressing.