Labour have reneged on promise about single sex spaces - again!

But wasn't this already the case? The single sex exemptions don't mandate the provision of single sex facilities

In effect, aren't they saying that companies can legally choose to segregate facilities by gender identity if they wish, just as they could theoretically segregate by star sign or eye colour? There's nothing in the EA to prevent any of these.

But wasn't this already the case? The single sex exemptions don't mandate the provision of single sex facilities, they just provide a legal support to those who wish to provide them for proportionate reasons should they be sued under the Equalities act. Companies are still allowed to chose not to provide them (and risk being sued for indirect sex discrimination).

What Labour have done is force companies to own their decision to include men rather than claim they are required to do it.

Well said.

It would appear that the government believes equality laws are entirely optional.

Thanks op for the thread. I'll be interested to see if this is presented as yet another decision that's the fault of the previous government, or whether this time they'll have to own it themselves, or whether they're just hoping no-one will notice if they slip it out just before Christmas.

So what else can go by the wayside? No blacks No Irish No Dogs as long as the Landlord says it is is their own policy? No women employees or women not paid the same as men if it is company policy? No disabled access if a building doesn't want pesky wheelchair users cluttering up the place. Not sure Dodds has thought this through. Bring on the court cases.

The announcement was sneaked out in a dry statement from the Government’s Office for Equality and Opportunity earlier this week, and amounts to nothing less than the acceptance of an informal policy of self-ID in shops, gyms and refuges.
The change is buried in a report on the way organisations interpret the single-sex exception in the 2010 Equality Act.

They really do think we're stupid.

https://unherd.com/newsroom/labour-has-broken-its-promises-on-single-sex-spaces/
Sorry couldn't open the link above.
They are turning out to be quite brazenly worse than I expected.

According to Dodds, the replies indicate that some organisations are operating a policy of allowing men to access single-sex spaces which “correspond with their self-identified gender”. But, she argues that this is not a breach of the law so long as they don’t “incorrectly suggest that this is mandated by the Act”. Companies can allow men into women-only toilets and changing rooms, in other words, as long as they claim it’s their own policy and not based on the act.

Can’t open the link. Will this include those poor Darlington nurses who I thought the Heath secretary seemed supportive of?