A NEW committee chaired by Basingstoke MP Maria Miller will look at the challenges that transgender people face as its first piece of work.

As previously reported, the town’s MP Maria Miller was named as the chair of Parliament’s new Women and Equalities Committee, in June.

The committee was set up on June 3 to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Government’s Equalities Office and it will look at the Government’s performance on equalities issues including gender, age, race and disability issues.

And it has been announced that the committee’s first inquiry will consider how far, and in what ways, transgender people have still yet to achieve full equality, and how outstanding issues can most effectively be addressed.

The committee is urging transgender people to submit evidence on a number of transgender issues such as the effectiveness of the Equality Act 2010, employment and workplace issues including in the armed forces, transphobia in the media, issues affecting transgender people in the criminal justice system, access to gender reassignment treatment under the NHS and issues involving young transgender people in the education system.

Mrs Miller said: “Many trans people still face discrimination and unfair treatment in their work, schools, healthcare and other important services.

“Transphobia and hate crimes are a cruel reminder that we still have a great deal to do to achieve true equality for everyone.

"I hope that trans people will feel able to share their experiences with our inquiry, so that the committee can make recommendations for improving people’s lives.”