Equality Act 2010: Code of Practice

Debate between Baroness Alexander of Cleveden and Lord Collins of Highbury

Wednesday 3rd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

You are not going to ask on the football pitch or the rugby pitch. In the code, there are respectful ways to ask certain questions. It is not done, as the noble Lord pointed out, by saying, “Well, you can’t go in that toilet”. Governing bodies have their rules and processes. The code is quite clear about how such things are done. I say to the noble Baroness: read the code and better understand its implications.

[Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Lab)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Lab)]

My Lords, I will be finished in a moment. I too thank the Minister for the tone that he has struck today.

We are touching on an important issue. The code leaves us in a position where someone who has a gender recognition certificate has no additional protection under the Equality Act. The Gender Recognition Act was designed specifically to remedy trans people finding themselves in an intermediate legal zone. Given that, do the Government envisage that we may need to honour the commitment that Parliament made to trans people in 2004 when it passed the Gender Recognition Act?

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I hear what my noble friend says, but the ruling made clear that “sex” in the Equality Act means biological sex. That has implications for gender recognition certificates, which no longer change one’s sex for the purposes of the Act. We will look at gender recognition reform, but we are clear that we will always support single-sex spaces based on biological sex. Everyone throughout society deserves dignity, respect and protection when using public services and healthcare. That will be our position. Our priority is that services ensure that they are complying with the law. This ruling has now provided clarity to service providers, and we also have the guidance.

United Kingdom: Soft Power

Debate between Baroness Alexander of Cleveden and Lord Collins of Highbury

Tuesday 15th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I think my noble friend Lady Chapman has answered these points. There is part of a spending review and lots of decisions have not yet been made. We will get more detail in the next few weeks and certainly by November. However, I shall repeat what I said before on our soft power and our focus on economic development: ODA is not the only tool in our toolkit. When African leaders speak to me, and certainly those in the global South, they do not say they want aid; they say they want economic diversification, inward investment and value addition. Our City of London is one of the biggest providers of capital to African companies—it is those sorts of areas of soft power that we need to focus on. The partnership approach we are now taking is that we are listening to the continent and responding to it.

[Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Lab)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as the vice-chair of the British Council. As has been acknowledged, the British Council is a vital soft power interest for the United Kingdom. I ask my noble friend the Minister to confirm that his department is now actively engaged in how to alleviate the Covid-era loan burden which was provided by the previous Government. Alleviating that Covid-era loan is vital to securing the financial sustainability of the council and its role in supporting British interests and soft power globally in these troubled times.

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

I reassure my noble friend that we are working with the British Council on a plan to return it to financial sustainability. We are committed to a successful British Council that is financially stable, and our funding is over £160 million in 2025-26. FCDO officials are working closely with the British Council on a financial turnaround plan to ensure that its finances are returned to a stable footing and that the council can continue delivering for the UK for years to come.