Is this legal?

Have you not been on holiday abroad? Unisex loos are everywhere.

I've travelled extensively "abroad" and refute your statement. I also lived in a European country in which women would have chased the men out with a feckin' pointed stick if there'd been any suggestion of toilets becoming unisex.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

As an abuse victim - thank you for speaking up about this to them.

Potentially useless contribution but I can't help but say it - I'm just so sad this is going on. I feel let down, marginalised and almost defeated by this shit. Almost. But not quite, so I'll keep speaking up.

Thank you again

Holy shit OP - that update is a bombshell. Of all places where you’d expect companies to be aware of the importance of single sex spaces, ones working with abuse survivors would top my list.

Actually, come to think of it, survivors are overrepresented in this line of work. So if they are training on this, and they have these toilets that do not take survivors particular needs into account, they have shown themselves to be spectacularly ignorant. Or uncaring.

WTF Pinkpanther473 a course about trauma and abuse? With 44% of UK women being victims of either physical or sexual male violence (and that is just the official statistic!), they have a statistical chance of almost 1 in 2 women they train actually being abuse victims and they deny these potential survivors their legal right to privacy and dignity and safety? FFS

Btw, I was at an inaugural meeting of a new libfem group last year and out of a dozen women every single one had experienced male violence. I honestly think that official 44% number is too low.

The only people using the loo in my home are people I know.

I guess they're too woke to see the irony of that situation.

Do you have seperate loos in your home? One for men, one for women?

Thought not.

Do you have men you don’t know coming in off the street to use your toilet?

Thought not.

Every been sexually assaulted by a man, @KooMoo? Ever felt uncontrolled feelings of fear when you're near one?

The toilets at my work are unisex. But they are individual single toilet rooms, which have their own sink and full height doors.

That is completely different to unisex toilets with cubicles.

For people like KooMoo who don't understand what the problem with unisex toilets might be, here are some links to a couple of threads which might help you to understand.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3581606-Resource-thread-with-concrete-examples-of-men-being-grim-in-unisex-toilets

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3203454-What-do-you-use-the-womens-toilets-for

I wouldn't trust some of them to look at my dog through a window..

Big lol.

@KooMoo not sure how you select your colleagues but I'm not allowed to and I wouldn't trust some of them to look at my dog through a window, let alone share toilet facilities with them.

I think, For public loos to be unisex they have to adhere to a certain design such as floor to ceiling doors with it's own enclosed wash basin.

Do you have a urinal in your bathroom at home, that stinks of piss from males you have never met?
THOUGHT NOT

(I can't stand the smell of urinals but I prefer men to use them otherwise they get piss on the seats hence - separate facilities thanks!)

First of all, unisex toilets are perfectly legal but the toilets as described by you are not unisex toilets. Unisex toilets are self-contained rooms with floor to ceiling walls and a lockable door where both the toilet and the washbasin are behind said lockable door for use by just one person at a time and opening directly onto a circulation space like a corridor.

The washbasin does not need to be in the cubicle, it can be in a communal area. The only time a washbasin must be in an enclosed cubicle is when it’s used for more extensive washing, i.e. not just hands, elbows, etc. Paragraph 3 here is the relevant bit:

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1992/3004/regulation/21/made

I’m out.

Thank you that's very considerate.

I think you have a point about the gaps, particularly at the top, but I think that may be a legal requirement to prevent people from being locked up in cubicles.

No, the legal requirement is for separate rooms, so fully-enclosed cubicles, no gaps.

I've lived and worked on 3 continents and travelled to all bar Antarctica and toilets are single sex except if there is only 1 in which case it's unisex - which is generally just a small cafe or some such.

The man in the OP sounds as confused as the OP. He probably thought he'd walked into the wrong toilet and came up with a random excuse.
Same happened to DH at a conference in Poland. He said he'd thought he'd gone into the men's toilets, then heard women come in and panicked he'd gone in the wrong one, so had to try and sneak out.
When he got out he realised it was a unisex one so he'd panicked for nothing.