Health and Care Bill

Lord Berkeley of Knighton Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 9th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)]

My Lords, I always enjoy listening to the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, because he has an absolutist way of delivering his ideas. But his ideas here have prompted other noble Lords to a very sensible suggestion that we need to look further at this.

We have to look at this question with great compassion —compassion for women who feel uncomfortable and compassion for women who are trans. We all know that, sometimes, people are born with mixed chromosomes. It is not black and white. It is a very complex issue. The suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath—I see the noble Lord, Lord Blencathra, nodding —must be the right way forward. It needs to be looked at with great care and in great detail, by people who know what they are talking about.

[Lord Lucas (Con)]

My Lords, I very much agree with the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and others. I was here for 20 years during the struggle for single-sex wards, and it was a notable achievement of the Benches opposite that they got there. I remember, in those long debates, getting a real understanding of the distress that women felt at being made to suffer in mixed-sex wards. I do not think it is right to destroy all that just in the cause of a small group of patients.

The rights of women need to be considered alongside those of trans people. Both matter, both are important, and we should not, as Stonewall has sought to do, bend the law to impossible interpretations and impose that covertly on the National Health Service. We should try openly to discuss this difficult issue and arrive at a compassionate solution that does our very best for all patients. I have faith that if the Minister promises that, we will get that.