NHS: Single-sex Spaces for Staff

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Grand Committee

[Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Arbuthnot, for giving us the opportunity to have this important debate. I declare an interest—it is a voluntary interest, so it is not noted by the House registrar. I chair the AMAR International Charitable Foundation. In the last few years, we have given 1 million medical consultations to the Yazidis and 10 million to others. Therefore, 72 primary health centres have been created and I have a deep and sincere interest in the value of nurses, nursing assistants and women health volunteers. I declare that as a real personal interest.

While thanking the noble Lord, Lord Arbuthnot, could I comment that his history is a little out of date? This may be of use to the Minister, because putting this right is going to be a delicate and tricky exercise. In fact, this goes right back to the 1990s, when all Governments were committed—both sides—to single-sex spaces for patients and nurses throughout our hospital systems. That was building absolutely brilliantly until 2008, when very surprisingly something came out from inside the NHS saying, “Oh dear, we are going to be asked to have single-sex spaces and make women nurses-only protections and we are not going to do that. What are we doing to do?” I happened to see that email. That was when this started to be diverted in 2008.

In 2014, the health Act that offered single-sex recognition throughout the NHS was already being undermined by Annex B—which, after all, is only a comment at the end of the annual nursing statement, yet it was given dominance over an Act of Parliament. I can give the detail of that, obviously. My first request is that that particular aspect should be looked at, because an Act of Parliament should surely be dominant, not an additional and internal measure within the NHS—as I would say of any other government department that was allowed to divert and send it into a different channel.

My second point is that I believe that the Minister will wish to review LGBTQ policies. I know well and highly admire Dr Michael Brady, who has been the LGBTQ health adviser. He is a very wonderful, attractive and intelligent man, who has been pushing his cause very hard indeed. But I wonder whether that is a real priority to look at and, perhaps, change, because if it is not, nothing else will shift with any speed at all.

I thank the Minister and the other speakers. This is a very tricky, embarrassing and difficult subject, because so many people feel so strongly that they have been personally affected. I hope that we will all work together to try to make this as good as possible an improvement and recognition of the Supreme Court judgment.