We are now focusing on digitising and streamlining the process, and reducing the fee. We hope these changes will make the process less bureaucratic for transgender people. At this stage, we are not proposing further legislative guidance, but we will keep this under review.
We need to keep the pressure on for new legislative guidance. Ann Sinnott's JR is extremely important.
Three cheers for Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)
The Hansard record is not accurate for Baroness Berridge's response.
Hansard: Yes, the Equality Act has an exemption, so that single-sex spaces can be provided and, where justified, somebody can be refused access to that space.
What I heard her say: Yes indeed, the Equality Act has an exemption so that single sex spaces can be provided and actually, where it is justified, someone can be refused access - where it is justified to that space.
She strongly emphasised that the single sex exceptions are to be justified for the space and not for the individual trans person who would like access. This helps dispel any lingering confusion about 'case by case' caused by EHRC guidance. The fact that there is still so much lingering confusion shows that we need new statutory guidance that accurately reflects the law.