Gender Recognition Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:45 pm on 10 February 2004.

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Photo of Lord Lester of Herne Hill Lord Lester of Herne Hill Liberal Democrat 5:45, 10 February 2004

My Lords, it may be helpful if I draw to the attention of the House the fact that the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights dealt with this matter in our fourth report, when we considered a complaint by the Evangelical Alliance. Those who lead the sort of sad lives that involve reading such documents might be interested to know about the issue. Paragraph 4.38 states:

"the Evangelical Alliance argued that the provisions protecting the privacy of those who have acquired a new gender would violate the right of others under ECHR Article 10"— the free speech guarantee—

"to receive truthful information about a person's gender".

We unanimously—all-party and beyond party—concluded that that argument was unpersuasive.

We first dealt with why Article 10 was not really triggered. We then came to the view that free speech rights had to be balanced against the Article 10 rights of the transsexual person and decided that any court would probably conclude that the clause is,

"a proportionate response to a pressing social need . . . for the purpose of protecting the right of the transsexual person to respect for his or her private life under that paragraph, as determined in judgments of the European Court of Human Rights".

I listened very carefully to the noble Lord, Lord Marlesford, and respectfully say that I do not agree with him. This type of provision is particularly necessary in this Bill because we are concerned with respect for the private lives of this small category of vulnerable persons against the possibility of information being transmitted by persons in an official capacity or by employers in an unnecessary or disproportionate way. Clause 22 carefully balances the need to respect personal privacy against other rights and interests, because Clause 22(4) sets out a variety of circumstances in which it would not be an offence to disclose protected information relating to the individual.

I have carefully considered—as has the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights—the way in which the clause is drafted. We believe that the Bill as a whole is designed to promote rather than invade fundamental rights and freedoms. We conclude that the clause strikes a fair balance and is necessary in order to comply with Article 8 of the convention.