Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Kate Osborne

Wednesday 19th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

Q14. Privatisation does not work. It does not work for our national health service—we have another amber alert in the NHS blood service, which this week’s Chancellor sold when he was Health Secretary. Nor does it work for our postal service—Royal Mail Group took £758 million in profit last year, yet our universal service obligation is at risk, and workers’ pay and conditions and 10,000 jobs are under threat. Will the Prime Minister continue to let obscene amounts of profit be made while services are cut and stamp prices rise, or will she launch an inquiry into the gross mismanagement of Royal Mail?

[The Prime Minister]

What we need is an efficient postal service that delivers for people across this country. That is what I am focused on, not making ideological points.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Kate Osborne

Wednesday 24th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

8. Whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ban sexual orientation and gender identity conversion therapy that occurs in religious or faith-based settings through prayer healing, faith declarations, religious conversion courses and other non-physical practices.

[The Minister for Women and Equalities (Elizabeth Truss)]

There is no place for the abhorrent practice of conversion therapy in our society. Our proposals will ensure that LGBT people can live their lives free from harm, will stop under-18s making irreversible decisions about their future, and will protect freedom of speech and choice.

[Kate Osborne]

The national LGBT survey found that 51% of conversion therapy happens in religious settings and Government-commissioned research found that adult victims often undertake religious conversion practices voluntarily, so the Government’s proposal to allow informed consent for conversion therapy will permit that abuse to continue and risks introducing consent defences to other forms of abuse, such as domestic violence. Can the Secretary of State confirm whether a conversion therapy ban will cover non-physical conversion practices in religious settings, including prayer? Will she remove the dangerous consent loophole?

[Elizabeth Truss]

What is important is that we ensure that people are not coerced into conversion therapy, but it is also important to protect freedom of speech, the ability of adults to consent and the freedom to express the teachings of—[Interruption.] I hear Opposition Members asking whether freedom of speech is a good thing. Yes, it is.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Kate Osborne

Thursday 15th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point about carbon leakage. We need to make sure that when we work to achieve our net zero target, we are not simply exporting carbon production elsewhere. That is why I am working with G7 partners on the issue of carbon leakage, but I think it is important that the solution is multilateral and embedded in the world trading system rather than unilateral from each individual country, so I am working with like-minded partners across the globe to make sure that we take account of carbon emissions.

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

What recent discussions she has had with UK trade partners on inserting clauses on workers’ rights into future trade deals.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Elizabeth Truss and Kate Osborne

Wednesday 26th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)]

How will the Secretary of State ensure that the voices of survivors of so-called conversion therapy and the people who support them will be heard in the consultation on a Bill to outlaw all conversion therapies, which have no place in all settings and all LGBT+ statuses, regardless of whether someone is consenting or coerced?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend the Minister for Equalities has already met survivors of conversion therapy, and we are determined that they should be closely involved in the consultation we are holding on the forthcoming legislation. I completely agree with the hon. Lady: it is an abhorrent practice that we need to stop in the United Kingdom.