Women and Equalities Committee — hearing of 17 June 2026: transcript & video · Polyfact

Create my account Learn more

United Kingdom en

Language

Videos

United Kingdom en

Language

Learn more Log in Create my account

Women and Equalities Committee

17 June 2026

Speaker dots

Speakers in the chapter
Colour: political group
Grey: no group

Tap or click a chapter's dots to see names and groups.

Contents updated on 17 Jun 2026

The Chair sets out the inquiry focus on women’s routes into non‑playing roles in sport, before witnesses outline how they entered officiating and describe the mentoring, emotional support and structural barriers affecting women’s progression in tennis, judo and football.

Layout

Layout Balanced Video, transcript and chat in equal parts Video Larger player Reading Wider transcript

Legend

Transcript markers

text Sentence being played
text Search result
text Intervention cited by the link you opened

Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.

More options

Official source

Offset

Transcript offset

0s

Text size

Export

Select segments to export (Word)

0 segments selected

Committee mandate and officials’ career routes

16:41

Committee opening and witnesses’ entry routes

16:41

Committee chair: opening and witness introductions

16:41

Q—Committee member: routes into officiating

17:28

Witnesses: barriers faced entering officiating

19:28

Support, mentoring and emotional burden

22:45

Emotional burden and need for support networks

22:45

Formal mentoring structures in tennis, judo and football

23:53

Women officials’ progression and structural barriers

26:20

Career progression and remaining barriers for women officials

26:20

Chair to Lisa: women officials in combat sports

31:30

Rachel and Alison: barriers and pipeline in tennis officiating

35:13

Coaching and officiating pathways for women

40:01

Women coaches in judo — representation and impact

40:01

Alex and Lisa: female coaches’ representation in judo

40:01

Alex and Lisa: impact of women coaches and effective interventions

43:51

Women’s progression in officiating — barriers and programmes

48:09

Sian: barriers to women’s progression in elite officiating

48:09

Committee: diversity in officiating and targeted programmes

52:18

Effectiveness of initiatives and need for early signposting

56:08

Progression pathways and tokenism concerns

59:11

Christine: equal access to high‑profile matches

59:11

Tokenism concerns — witnesses’ experiences

01:04:58

Organisational pathways and merit-based selection

01:06:35

Football: flexible progression and women-only pathway

01:10:21

Women officials — safeguarding and working conditions

01:12:08

Sexism, abuse and safeguarding of women officials

01:12:08

French Open sexist remarks — impact on tennis officials

01:12:08

Sian and Lisa: culture of respect and gendered abuse

01:15:35

Safeguarding and reporting mechanisms for abused officials

01:20:03

Online abuse of officials and monitoring responses

01:24:31

Employment conditions, maternity protection and funding reforms

01:27:41

Employment status across sports officiating

01:27:41

Maternity, fitness standards and return‑to‑work policies

01:32:18

Future reforms: financial support and structural barriers

01:35:21

Women and Equalities Committee

17 June 2026

Women and Equalities Committee Wed, 17 Jun 2026 Actual start 14:05 House of Commons

16:40 - 17:28

Speaker 1

Order, order. Good afternoon and welcome to the Women and Equalities Select Committee. Today we are holding an oral evidence session on routes into non-playing roles in sports for girls and for women. And I'm really excited about this session. We'll hear from Alison Hughes MBE, Gold Badge Chair Umpire at the International Tennis Federation and Grand Slam team; Sian Massey-Ellis MBE, Premier League Assistant Referee and FIFA Video Match Official at the Professional Game Match Officials; and Lisa Rivers, World Judo Tour Referee, International Judo Federation.

I'm really excited to be able to hear what you have to share with us today. We've had some really interesting inquiry so far sessions, and I know that this will be equally as interesting. So thank you very much for coming. And I am going to hand straight over to my colleague Kim.

17:28 - 17:43

Speaker 3

Thanks, Sasha. And thank you all for coming today. I'm slightly intimidated by so many competent referees and umpires. I just want to understand actually from each of you really how you got into officiating in the first place. Whoever wants to start.

17:43 - 17:53

Speaker 2

So I was 14 when I started refereeing, and my dad was a football referee. And actually I wanted a paper round because I wanted some money to go out with my friends.

The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers

Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.

The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.

House of Commons

Read the full session, transcribed live

Unlock word-for-word transcripts, AI summaries and chat on every parliamentary session.

Live transcript, every speaker identified
AI summaries and chat on every session
Alerts the moment your keywords are said

Every video is free to watch, live and on replay, no account needed.

Already have an account? Log in

Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.

House of Commons

Read the full session, transcribed live

Unlock word-for-word transcripts, AI summaries and chat on every parliamentary session.

Live transcript, every speaker identified
AI summaries and chat on every session
Alerts the moment your keywords are said

Every video is free to watch, live and on replay, no account needed.

Already have an account? Log in

Keyboard shortcuts

Playback

Play / pause: Space
Back / forward 15 s: ←→
Back / forward 10 s: JL
Full screen: F

Chapters and transcript

Previous / next chapter: PN
Search the transcript: /
Turn follow on / off: S
Copy the current sentence as a quote: C
Show this help: ?

Single-key shortcuts J, L, N, P, C, S, / and ?. Turn them off if you use voice control or assistive tech that types letters.

Inactive while a text field, a button or the chat has focus.