"Services must adhere to the law under the Equality Act for single sex provisions"

[YourSexNotGenderIsOnFire]

With regards to specific refuges for women, the Government has said this:

^"We agree that tailored support is vital to ensuring women receive the right and appropriate types of support and we expect all services commissioned to be gender-informed. Services must adhere to the law under the Equality Act for single sex provisions (www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/contents)."^ (my emphasis)

Taken from here: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/577718 - nb MNHQ I am not asking people to sign this petition, just commenting on the response to it, so please don't move this thread to the petitions board.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what they mean by "Services must adhere to the law under the Equality Act for single sex provisions"? My understanding has always been that the single sex provisions can be relied on by a service provider but were not obliged to do so.

Racking my brain here, and am sure someone more intelligent than me will be along soon, but didn't one of the recent legal cases find that same sex provision should be provided rather than permitted IE that same sex provision shouldn't be an exception??

It says:

Petitions Committee requests a revised response from the Government
The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) have considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt that the response did not directly address the request of petition and have therefore written back to the Government to ask them to provide a revised response.

When the Committee have received a revised response from the Government, this will be published on the website and you will receive an email. If you would not like to receive further updates about this petition, you can unsubscribe below.

Is this how it usually works? Did the organisers request this?

@PurpleWh1teGreen I think (though I'm probably wrong) is that is an exception rather than an exemption (which implies that it has to be applied for)?

Yes - I think that was it!

'Services commissioned under the new duty should be meet Government and the domestic abuse sector quality standards – which include a commitment that support in safe accommodation should be provided in single-gender settings.'

Oh, single-gender. Great. Virtually meaningless.

People often say 'exemption' when the law, the EA 2010, says 'exception'.

Is it not the other way round?

@ArabellaScott

'Services commissioned under the new duty should be meet Government and the domestic abuse sector quality standards – which include a commitment that support in safe accommodation should be provided in single-gender settings.'

Oh, single-gender. Great. Virtually meaningless.

FFS.

Sorry if wrong place to ask just saw thread and tiny hope but maybe false hope. Does that mean all services for domestic violence victims not just refuge have to be single sex and also have to be safe? After refuge women like me often nowhere safe to go at all so I wish never left but too late. If offered anywhere sometimes it's mixed sex. After refuge still need somewhere safe to go. Sorry to post here. Have no support and probably doesn't matter what law says if can't make places do what meant to do but have to keep trying to get through it but doing it alone makes head spin.

@nosafeguardingadults

Sorry if wrong place to ask just saw thread and tiny hope but maybe false hope. Does that mean all services for domestic violence victims not just refuge have to be single sex and also have to be safe? After refuge women like me often nowhere safe to go at all so I wish never left but too late. If offered anywhere sometimes it's mixed sex. After refuge still need somewhere safe to go. Sorry to post here. Have no support and probably doesn't matter what law says if can't make places do what meant to do but have to keep trying to get through it but doing it alone makes head spin.

I guess it depends wether it is a service “commissioned under the new duty” and as such should meet “domestic abuse sector quality standards”.

I have no idea which services would be commissioned under this duty, what that means, or even how you find out.

I suppose it is a matter of which budget the winning service provider bid is commissioned from.

@Melroses I could be wrong here but it is very uncommon for a response to be sent back. I think that it will have been sent back because it didn't answer the question and confused the matter further by conflating sex and gender especially when they say that they must comply with the equality act single sex exemption and then say that they will be single gender (mixed sex then) so the panel sent it back rather than the person who started the petition