Single-sex spaces will not be enforced, warns Baroness Falkner

It is a strange situation we are gonna have to enforce it ourselves, and carry right on with lawfare. Ffs

I would be interested to know what lawyers thought of a man going into women’s toilets in relation to voyeurism offences taking in to account point 10.1b. in this Scottish law below.

Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009
9 Voyeurism
(1)A person (“A”) commits an offence, to be known as the offence of voyeurism, if A does any of the things mentioned in subsections (2) to (5).
(2)The first thing is that A—
(a)without another person (“B”) consenting, and
(b)without any reasonable belief that B consents,
for a purpose mentioned in subsection (6) observes B doing a private act.
(3)The second thing is that A—
(a)without another person (“B”) consenting, and
(b)without any reasonable belief that B consents,
operates equipment with the intention of enabling A or another person (“C”), for a purpose mentioned in subsection (7), to observe B doing a private act.
(4)The third thing is that A—
(a)without another person (“B”) consenting, and
(b)without any reasonable belief that B consents,
records B doing a private act with the intention that A or another person (“C”), for a purpose mentioned in subsection (7), will look at an image of B doing the act.
[F1(4A)The fourth thing is that A—
(a)without another person (“B”) consenting, and
(b)without any reasonable belief that B consents,
operates equipment beneath B's clothing with the intention of enabling A or another person (“C”), for a purpose mentioned in subsection (7), to observe B's genitals or buttocks (whether exposed or covered with underwear) or the underwear covering B's genitals or buttocks, in circumstances where the genitals, buttocks or underwear would not otherwise be visible.
(4B)The fifth thing is that A—
(a)without another person (“B”) consenting, and
(b)without any reasonable belief that B consents,
records an image beneath B's clothing of B's genitals or buttocks (whether exposed or covered with underwear) or the underwear covering B's genitals or buttocks, in circumstances where the genitals, buttocks or underwear would not otherwise be visible, with the intention that A or another person (“C”), for a purpose mentioned in subsection (7), will look at the image.]
(5)The [F2sixth] thing is that A—
(a)installs equipment, or
[F3(b)constructs or adapts a structure or part of a structure, with the intention of enabling A or another person to do an act referred to in subsection (2), (3), (4), (4A) or (4B).]
(6)The purposes referred to in subsection (2) are—
(a)obtaining sexual gratification,
(b)humiliating, distressing or alarming B.
(7)The purposes referred to in subsections (3) [F4, (4), (4A) and (4B)] are—
(a)obtaining sexual gratification (whether for A or C),
(b)humiliating, distressing or alarming B.

10Interpretation of section 9
(1)For the purposes of section 9, a person is doing a private act if the person is in a place which in the circumstances would reasonably be expected to provide privacy, and—
(a)the person's genitals, buttocks or breasts are exposed or covered only with underwear,
(b)the person is using a lavatory, or
(c)the person is doing a sexual act that is not of a kind ordinarily done in public.

———————————————————-
Thoughts on the above

If a woman or girl is using a women’s lavatory there should be a reasonable belief that she does not consent to a man being in there. If a woman or girl is using a women’s lavatory there will be an high possibility of being alarmed or distressed or humiliated by a person of the opposite sex being in there, particularly one with a camera washing his hands and doing his hair, as is suggested on social media.

There’s also the definition of lavatory. This traditionally was the sink area or the whole room including cubicles.

The term lavatory is sometimes used synonymously:
Toilet
WC (although this more correctly refers to the water closet sanitaryware itself)
Bathroom (if it contains a bath)
Loo
Washroom

• Ladies / gents

In the case of DE and FG v West Lothian Council 2026, it was confirmed that the wash basin area should indeed be a private area for single sex use. This should apply to public toilets as this section was discussed as part of indirect discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.

It won't work in most cases as you need to show the purpose

^(6)The purposes referred to in subsection (2) are—
(a)obtaining sexual gratification,
(b)humiliating, distressing or alarming B.^

or there needs to be recording or other equipment involved

So Labour, The Greens, The SNP are prepared for the fallout when people realise that this is a law that can be ignored without consequence. Maybe there are other laws that won't be popular with certain groups of people and they may also decide to ignore that particular law. What will 'liberal' politicians do then? Turn a blind eye?

This is why we need to win the arguments overwhelmingly in the court of public opinion. The polls, such as they are - flawed for various reasons - show movement in the right direction, but the percentages supporting single-sex provision are nowhere near the point where we can expect social enforcement to kick in. That won't happen until more women feel confident that if they challenge a man in a female single-sex space, they will be backed up by the other women present, rather than criticised, tutted at, contradicted or undermined - or just studiously ignored, allowing the intruder to continue to defy the law.

Also for lawyers:

In England and Wales the Sexual Offences Act is different. It actually has a section on public toilets in addition to sections of voyeurism.
It helpfully defines ‘public toilet’ to encompass many different venues. It also loosely defines sexual activity.

If a man went into the women’s toilet, what would reasonably be thought of as sexual? There are a lot of photos and videos of men in women’s toilets on social media doing different things. Who decides where the line is crossed, if not any women also in there who consider it to be sexual? Does there even need there to be a woman present?

71Sexual activity in a public lavatory
F1(1)A person commits an offence if—
(a)he is in a lavatory to which the public or a section of the public has or is permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise,
(b)he intentionally engages in an activity, and,
(c)the activity is sexual.
(2)For the purposes of this section, an activity is sexual if a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances but regardless of any person’s purpose, consider it to be sexual.
(3)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both.]

There’s a thread discussing media responses, the Times article is on that.

Still, that thread has an archive file of the actual Times article rather than the Telegraph’s second hand take 🤷‍♀️