"The comments by Phillipson, who is the equalities minister as well as the education secretary, come after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took the unusual step of urging the government to act with speed in approving its statutory guidance on responding to a landmark supreme court ruling on transgender rights. In a decision that delighted gender-critical activists, the UK supreme court ruled in April that the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act referred only to a biological woman and to biological sex."
"We'll get this right, Phillipson said. We'll do it thoroughly and carefully, but we also require the regulator to provide us with the information that we need as a government to consider all of that together the code of practice, together with other material that we require. And bit more focus on that and a little less focus on public debate would be helpful."
Bridget Phillipson urged the Equality and Human Rights Commission to prioritise providing necessary materials to ministers and to reduce public-facing debate. The EHRC requested rapid approval of statutory guidance after the UK Supreme Court ruled that ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act refer to biological sex. The watchdog submitted a 300-plus-page code for ministerial approval, and government officials said more time is needed to assess the document and to obtain an equalities impact assessment. Ministers must consult devolved administrations before approval. Phillipson called calls for immediate sign-off unhelpful and promised a careful process.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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