#transinquiry

The Women and Equalities Committee undertook an inquiry into equality for transgender people, which the government issued a formal response to on Thursday. The original report can be viewed on the transinquiry.co.uk website, as can the government's response; further information and media can be tracked on Twitter by following the#TransInquiry hashtag.

Teaming up with the Nonbinary Inclusion Project, and their new offshoot organisation Specific Detriment, we have prepared a critique of the government's response titled "No Excuses: Inclusion and Equality for all".

I emailed my MP (Liz Saville Roberts, Plaid Cymru) in April to ask about the status of the Trans Inquiry report that was published in January 2016.

The Trans Inquiry demanded, among many other things, X as a gender marker option on passports and a further inquiry into the needs of nonbinary people.

This is the response I got a few days ago:

I have been looking into this for you. We usually expect a response to committee inquiries within two months of the publication of the report, but I understand this particular inquiry has been delayed because of the complexity and cross-governmental nature of the issues raised. The Chair of the committee asked a question about the delay on 14 April and got the following response:

Mrs Maria Miller

Trans young people experience unacceptable and unlawful discrimination. Three months ago, the Women and Equalities Committee published a ground-breaking report outlining more than 30 recommendations to improve the lives of trans people. When can we expect a response from the Government?

Nicky Morgan

I had the pleasure last week of visiting the Young Transgender Centre of Excellence, which has just been opened by the LGBT Centre in Leicester, funded by BBC Children in Need. My right hon. Friend is absolutely right to mention the ground-breaking report published by the Committee that she chairs. She also mentioned the 30 recommendations, which we are working through. I am sure that, like me, she wants us to make sure that when we respond, we do so in a full and open way. The report calls for significant changes to the law, complex changes to the NHS and changes to the policies and practices of more than a dozen public bodies, and I want to make sure that we get the response right.

So I’m afraid I can’t give you a date but there will be a response at some point.

You can read the relevant part of the debate starting here.

The Women and Equalities Committee has undertaken an inquiry into equality for transgender people. The consultation process for this involved seeking written and oral evidence from the public, to help form the direction of the report, which makes recommendations about furthering equality for transgender and nonbinary people.

The report can be viewed as archived by UK Trans Info and further information and media can be tracked on Twitter by following the #TransInquiry hashtag.

We have prepared a breakdown of the report from the perspective of the aims of the Nonbinary Inclusion Project, with detailed discussion of how best to support nonbinary people through this process, as well as analysis of several other issues that could effectively leave others (including but not limited to nonbinary people) behind.