Health & Social Care
73mentions · last 12 months↓
View full analysis →Scrutiny of government policy and public bodies on women's rights, gender equality, and discrimination across all protected characteristics falls within the remit of this House of Commons select committee. The committee takes oral evidence from ministers, officials, experts and affected individuals across multiple inquiry sessions held throughout the parliamentary year. Members investigate equality and diversity initiatives, examining their effectiveness through expert panels and stakeholder testimony. Recent work has examined women's representation and funding in live comedy, hearing from performers and industry witnesses about barriers to progression. The committee has investigated female entrepreneurship through the Invest in Women Taskforce, exploring support mechanisms for women-led businesses. Separate inquiries have scrutinised the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's regulation of egg donation and freezing, as well as online misogyny in the manosphere and its amplification through media platforms.
32 sessions published in the last 12 months · busiest week: w/c 2 Feb (2 sessions)
Click any cell in the heatmap to see the sessions held that day and the insights extracted from them.
717 insights
15 Jul 2026
The Committee scrutinised how flexible working interacts with disability and fluctuating health conditions at work, across recruitment, retention, occupational health, Access to Work and the Equality Act. Witnesses consistently said flexibility must be personalised and that the current system is too dependent on employer discretion, weak awareness and poor enforcement. They pressed for clearer guidance, stronger enforcement mechanisms, better government signposting and a more joined-up approach between the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the Equality Act 2010. Witnesses also highlighted practical barriers for disabled people in recruitment, the limits of Disability Confident, delays in Access to Work, the patchy quality of occupational health, and the need for earlier education and careers guidance.
08 Jul 2026
The committee examined routes into non-participatory sport roles for girls and women, focusing on sports science, coaching, performance analysis, research, and kit design. Witnesses identified persistent barriers in progression, visibility, funding, pay and security, maternity and caring impacts, and male-default assumptions in research, publishing, and product design. They also welcomed growing government visibility through the women’s sports taskforce and health collective but said much more scale and practical support is needed, especially on solutions that improve retention, evidence quality, and women’s participation and health outcomes.
01 Jul 2026
The committee scrutinised why NIHR rejected two bids for a reconstructive surgery trial for FGM survivors despite a prior government-backed funding commitment, and whether the research process and letters gave applicants enough support or clarity. Witnesses argued the applications needed a multidisciplinary, holistic approach and that the evidence base for clitoral reconstruction remains too weak and uncertain for NHS commissioning. Ministers and NHS/NIHR witnesses stressed that the UK must proceed through peer-reviewed research, safety, effectiveness and value-for-money thresholds, while confirming that deinfibulation and specialist FGM support clinics are already available and that new trial applications are being reopened with wraparound support.
24 Jun 2026
The Committee scrutinised Bridget Phillipson’s handling of the EHRC draft code of practice after the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland, including the Government’s view that the code should give practical guidance while protecting single-sex services on the basis of biological sex and preserving trans people’s rights under the Equality Act. Members also pressed her on the future of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, the promised conversion practices Bill, the socioeconomic duty, ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, BSL access, the public sector equality duty, and the Government’s approach to violence against women and girls and online harms. Phillipson repeatedly said the Government would keep equality law under review, publish the conversion practices Bill soon, commence the socioeconomic duty when ready, and legislate on pay gap reporting as soon as parliamentary time allows, while insisting the EHRC should monitor the code and that the Government would not weaken the Equality Act.
17 Jun 2026
The Committee examined routes into non-playing roles in sport for girls and women, focusing on officiating and coaching in tennis, football and judo. Witnesses described longstanding barriers such as sexism, abuse, fitness tests, weak signposting, costs, and poor representation in leadership, but also said progress is being made through mentoring, women’s pathways, better kit/facilities, and more supportive safeguarding. Key positions included calls for more female decision-makers, more holistic fitness standards, stronger school-based signposting, and better support for non-employed officials, especially around maternity and financial security.
09 Jun 2026
The Committee scrutinised the EHRC’s revised code of practice after the Supreme Court judgment, focusing on how it affects single-sex services, trans people, women’s safety, Article 8 rights, data handling, sport, prisons and health settings. The EHRC said the code is guidance explaining existing law rather than making new law, that the Government had been asked to withdraw outdated guidance, and that the Commission will need further sector-specific guidance and monitoring. It also said the law permits single-sex provision on a biological-sex basis, with alternative provision where needed, while prioritising enforcement because of constrained resources.
01 Jul 2026