Toilets weren’t specifically mentioned in the Supreme Court judgement. But there may be some rejigging of work/leisure/shop toilet facilities after today.
Here’s what I hope will happen and the reason it’s best for everyone:
I hope people will make sure their premises have mostly single sex toilets with door gaps, at least floor to door gaps - as the evidence suggests they save people’s lives and prevent assaults.
The document for this is DocumentT because if you refurbish your toilet facilities this is the government guidance from 2024 (exceptions are listed, including schools).
Document T says you must have single sex facilities (designs C and/or D). If you have no room for multiple toilets - like a small cafe - you can have a universal toilet A and/or B, the mixed sex toilet. If you have room you must have single sex toilets then you can also have a universal toilet(s).
Confusingly, the design for universal toilets (fully enclosed with a sink in) can be used for single sex. The difference is the sign on it.
HOWEVER
The toilet design that is SAFEST for everyone are the single sex ones C and D. But with door gaps at least at floor-to-door level, big enough to see if someone has collapsed.
This is what the Health and Safety Executive said to me: ‘Gaps under doors into a single-sex cubicle are permissible, so for the cubicle layouts shown by Type C and Type D. Admittedly, this is not specifically mentioned or illustrated in the guidance, nor in contrast is it expressly stated or explained as a matter
to consider.’
‘Floor to ceiling partitions are described for fully enclosed toilets and the specification
for Type A – fully enclosed self-contained ambulant universal toilet and Type B – fully
enclosed self-contained universal toilet both describe a full height door. The section
drawings do not show any gaps under the door to these two toilet types toilets.’
‘On people collapsing within an enclosed toilet, outward opening toilet doors are
preferable for all types of toilets ….if the door is inward opening, it should have an emergency release mechanism so that the door is capable of being opened outward, from the outside, in case of emergency, such as when a person has collapsed while inside the toilet room or cubicle. This provides the emergency support for people with conditions such as asthma, epilepsy, diabetes or where the risk of collapse exists.’
What happens in reality in these private toilet cubicles is that children and adults collapse and aren’t found until it’s too late. I have examples of this in schools and in public toilets.
Ironically people like the privacy of these enclosed designs but fail to realise that they aren’t truly secure as they need a emergency release mechanism to open outwards as a body gets in the way of an inwards opening door.
I have scientific evidence these designs are less easy to ventilate from air borne diseases, and keep clean (logically you can’t swill bleach and a mop round as easily as the partitions and door stop the circulation and drainage).
It is a huge concern that toilet safety hasn’t been analysed properly. I can find no study (for public or school toilets) where a fully enclosed design was safety tested against a design with a door gap.
I have asked for an equality impact assessment for girls and invisible disabilities in comparable secondary school designs and the DfE say they have no records. The DfE designs in the 2023 design document mention privacy multiple times in the toilet section but never safety. Now the gaps for secondary schools are down to 5mm. When I question about safety, the DfE referred me to healthy and safety legislation from 1974.
I asked the government for how the toilets in Document T were safe for those with invisible disabilities. They pointed me to their commissioned report from a private company that was supposed ‘to carry out research into the requirements of the population of England in the built environment, in particular disabled people and people with long-term health conditions’ (so those with a greater risk of collapse) and report back with recommendations with ‘the ultimate purpose of providing data to inform future policy and guidance’, in space requirements and design of toilet facilities.
If you examine the document it does not mention the health conditions listed above by the HSE. It doesn’t even mention heart attacks (one every five minutes) which are medically more likely to happen in a toilet when you ‘push’. However, they recommended enclosing some types of designs - evidence for enclosing was an opinion piece which stated this: ‘A better solution, supported by many transactivists, and increasingly found in trendy nightclubs and restaurants, is to eliminate gender-segregated facilities entirely and treat the public restroom as one single open space with fully enclosed stalls.’ The activists who wrote this article hadn’t safety tested designs. To be fair they weren’t thinking about people with long term health conditions.
What I have found evidence for is that more sex (consent and without consent) goes on in private cubicles, particularly mixed sex ones. Various groups have reported this happening in schools. This would seem obvious, as there are no witnesses. One parent described mix sex private cubicles as rape cubicles. The data for rapes in public toilets and inside school premises are very depressing. It is very difficult to link to the toilet’s exact design but I have evidence to suggest assaults and privacy is linked, particularly with mixed sex toilets. There really needs to be a detailed urgent impact assessment done.
In your workplace or leisure facility (or school) you need to make reasonable adjustments to keep people with invisible disabilities safe, and anyone who is having a medical emergency. This is in various disability and health and safety at work legislation. I don’t think adjusting a full height door’s hinges to open outwards by the time you’ve realised someone has collapsed is enough. A defibrillator is going to be less successful by then.
I don’t think designers have done any of the above maliciously, they have prioritised privacy, a big part being that no toilet blocks were guaranteed as single sex spaces.
I am not a legal bod or an architect but a woman who has experience of what happens when toilet design saves lives and when things go wrong. So I started researching, collating stories, doing FOIs, and contacting the government. It inspires me that women can make such a difference as they did today.
We have a real opportunity here to get back to prioritising SAFETY for everyone.