In response to the questions about medical staff who are legally recognised as female or those who identify as “transgender women” and if the trusts allow these males to conduct intimate exams on females, only four NHS trusts answered that they recognise the exception allowed in the Equality Act 2010 where being of a particular sex is an “occupational requirement” in which case that employee would be “redeployed into a suitable position” and patients are given the choice of clinician by sex.
Another two trusts answered in an unclear manner such that it was uncertain what measures they were prepared to take and neither had made provisions for female-only services: one trust stated that a risk assessment needed to be undertaken and another wrote that “The Trust has not come across this issue however may need to consider it on basis of genuine occupational requirement in discussion with [the] individual.”
Thus, of the 200 NHS trusts responding, only four (2%) affirmed that they recognised the exception in the Equality Act 2010 and were prepared to offer female-only services to those patients who made that request.