Speeches by Dodds.

“Well, policies must be lawful rather than unlawful—that is, of course, important. In fact, there is now case law making it clear that belief is a protected characteristic, as we know, again going back to the Equality Act, which was produced by the previous Labour Government. Obviously, as a new Government, we also want…”

“I am not completely sure what comes under that definition. I have met with a number of groups within the Foreign Office who have asked me to meet with them. That has included, for example, the cancer network. I have also met with the LGBT+ network. I was particularly keen to have a discussion with it because, of course…”

“Absolutely.”

“We believe that exploration is very important. We have the previous Government’s consultation to examine, which was contributed to by a very large number of people. That indicated a range of situations where people had been subject to what they described as conversion practices. Of course, it will be really important f…”

“The mission is for a decade, so I want us to make sure that we are in the right direction by the five-year point, but you are right. Of course, we need to look really carefully at the measures to assess this. The Home Office, as you would expect, is particularly focused on how we can ensure that we really are looking a…”

“This was not just in the King’s Speech; it was in our manifesto as well. It is something we are strongly committed to. We are working on a draft Bill right now and we will be publishing it later this Session, so this is something that we really are pushing forward on. As I said, we need to make sure that we have a Bill…”

“The Committee will be aware that the Online Safety Act is coming into practice. Much of that is focused on protecting children, but there are other measures, particularly around vulnerable adults. I know that the Government are going to be looking very carefully at the operation of that, particularly in areas where we …”

“In our manifesto, we committed to enacting that provision, which is often known as dual discrimination and sometimes called combined discrimination. We are committed to strengthening protections against that kind of discrimination. We are determined to make that change. We are looking carefully at how we are going to b…”

“Absolutely. This is a real challenge. If we are being completely frank, we saw the Race Disparity Unit set up by Theresa May, which was intended to improve the quality of data gathering and use across Government on issues to do with racial and ethnic inequality, and I would argue there was not a huge amount of impetus …”

“We are making three changes when it comes to the broad sexual harassment machinery. Aside from the NDAs question, the Employment Rights Bill will require employers to take all reasonable steps against sexual harassment, and we are introducing other changes as well. You are right that they are in relation to employees r…”

“The equality action plans within the Employment Rights Bill will be focused on gender pay gap-related action and menopause action plans. Those action plans will enable the opening up of space around a whole range of different issues. We are going to be working on ensuring that there is appropriate information for emplo…”

“I will quickly talk about the VAWG ministerial board, and then I am sure there are many other examples that Bridget will mention. I represent OEO on that board; clearly, there are representatives of a number of different Government Departments. Hopefully, members of the Committee will be aware that we have made the fir…”

“I do not want to hold up the Committee, but I could not agree more. It is exactly the same for me and, I think, for the other Ministers as well.”

“I hope that we will have the legislation that we committed to in our manifesto in place. I hope that we will have driven change on those core missions—halving violence against women and girls and a number of others as well. Above all, I hope we will have a country where there is more opportunity for people wherever the…”

“I have seen the evidence that has been produced by the Committee, and we have all been very moved by a lot of the discussions that have gone on within the Committee. If I may say so, Chair, your leadership on this has been incredibly impressive. Obviously, the loss of a child is an incredibly difficult time; miscarriag…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers) for securing this debate on such an important topic, and I am grateful to the other Members who are in the Chamber. This Government are aware of the implications of the US Government’s initial decision to pause their overseas financial assistance while they undertake…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member for that really important point and for his kind words. He is right to pay tribute to the incredible civil society that we have working on these issues right across the United Kingdom. He refers to the important work that church groups do with communities affected by HIV/AIDS and other …”

“We are very clear that Israeli efforts to undermine a two-state solution through settlement building, settler violence and punitive economic measures are unacceptable. We are aware that settlement expansion reached record levels in the past year, which was very disturbing, and of course it has been accompanied by an in…”

“I am grateful to the right hon. Member for his comments. The UK Government are clear that Iran has long destabilised the middle east. That has obviously been done through military means, but it has also given financial and political support to its proxies and partners, including Iranian-aligned militia groups in Iraq a…”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her important question. The UK has sought to invest in the ceasefire. That was the reason why, just last week, we announced additional humanitarian support and support in relation to much-needed services in Gaza, so that we could ensure that that surge in aid, which is so necessary, …”