Very clear article on legal position for retailers and single sex facilities

[ArabellaScott]

https://www.theretailbulletin.com/retail-solutions/legal-do-retailers-have-to-provide-single-sex-toilets-and-changing-rooms-for-their-customers-and-staff-19-05-2025/

Many will find this instructive.

Lays out legal position, risks, and potential ways to approach the issues, in neutral and clear languagge.

I think that is some of the clearest guidance come out of this. I've read as yet. Hopefully retailers will pay attention!

Bloody hell, a retail bulletin issues clear guidance on the SC decision. Something that is apparently beyond the NHS, Universities and too many big organisations for me to be bothered to remember.

I hope the GLP gets sent a copy. It might save their marks supporters some money.

Patrick Overall, you nailed it! Nominative determinism at its finest.

Well, this is written from the point of view of business people. The bottom line is generally fairly clear in situations where ideology clouds facts.

I’ve saved the link and will definitely be using this!

Great! It is clear for employers, too.

And for any business offering services that involve loos, changing rooms etc

This advice is a bit late for some businesses & most of the public sector who have all been sending out their “Our thoughts are with our trans sisters at this difficult time” emails.

I suggest that you avoid sending out messages which express sympathy with one protected group as you will expose your organisation to charges that you are partisan and have ‘picked a side’. And these sorts of communications will be disclosable in any legal proceedings and will be used by your opponent to undermine your credibilty.

I dunno, Operation Let Them Speak is the gift that keeps on giving, especially when it's admissible in court

Thank you for posting this

Thanks for posting this, I came to see if anyone had after it was tweeted by Helen Joyce. My employer definitely guilty of the hand wringing and sympathy towards one side. Guess which side...

Excellent advice. Balanced, clear and taking account of both sides. Hopefully everyone working for any of the foolish organisations who've sent emoting messages simpering over trans people can forward this to HR, legal & management.
And remember to keep a copy of those "sympathy" emails that were sent out - looks like they'll be helpful should you need to take any action against your employer for discrimination.

Nice to see someone legal saying what I suspected.

Interesting that they have chosen to accompany the (very good) article with a photo of Nottingham where an activist group is currently campaigning to make it the UK's first "trans sanctuary city"

Thank you - I am a member of a society, that offers events to members and the general public. They changed some of their toilets to gender neutral a few years ago. I strongly objected and said that I felt members should have been consulted. I also said that I hoped that staff hadn't been effectively bullied into accepting similar in their areas. It reduced significantly the number of single sex toilets. The organisation refused to engage with me on the matter at all. I think I am slightly stuck in that there are some single sex. The gender neutral have enclosed cubicles, no urinals, and communal handwashing. But I still think it was a cheek. Their attitude towards this and me has actually put me off attending.

Yes, I have wondered about M&S changing rooms in my area. I think they are lockable floor to ceiling doors but it just says 'Fitting room' outside. In the women's clothing area there is a large photo of a woman on the wall, whereas in the men's clothing areas, the fitting rooms have a male image on the wall at the entrance. So you'd think they were single sex but I suspect they are mixed sex.

A query on language, categories and types of institution in case any of you can help. A college has duties as an employer to its staff, but what are its duties to students - are they the same as other 'service providers' like a hospital or department store? Or do other categories come into play?

The SC judgement specifically said that if signage were commonly understood to mean 'man' and 'woman' then it needed to refer to biological sex, iirc.

They are mixed sex. Many years ago M & S went down the "men are women if they say they are and are most welcome into our bra fitting changing rooms". (but daren't say it out loud so just mangled language on their signs in the hope nobody notices. They were early adopters of erasing women's boundaries.

Look forward to seeing them finally following the law and protecting women and girls from dodgy men.

Schools have their own regs/standards, I imagine colleges will be covered by the same. I'll try and find them.

Okay, I think this is it:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employers-requirements-part-a-general-conditions

There's a technical annex here that talks about facilities etc for further ed:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6380afe0d3bf7f154043fe94/FE-OS_Annex_2A_SanitarywareAndFacilities-A-C02.pdf

Could be more in here somewhere. Although I'm not an expert.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/school-design-and-construction#strategic-design-advice

The school premises regs on toilets, just for info:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1943/regulation/4/made

Actually, this is useful and has links for relevant regs in England, Wales, and Scotland:

eric.org.uk/information/school-toilet-policy/

Scotland:

www.gov.scot/publications/building-standards-2017-non-domestic/3-environment/312-sanitary-facilities/

Thank you, @ArabellaScott!

Irwin Mitchell are a large company if I recall who do a lot of advertising for personal injury / compensation claims.
Presumably they see this are as some potentially "easy money" given the unprofessional behaviour of so many companies with their trans tantrums in the face of a sober judgement from the highest court in the land.
Expect they're looking forward to the first cases - shooting fish in a barrel so to speak 😃

That's very interesting @MrsOvertonsWindow!
They haven't been slow to spot a business opportunity!

Hahahaha

I've also said about when the no win no fee lawyers decide this is a goldmine...

Click on this picture.

My thoughts are that in reality, the Supreme Court ruling has the ability to save lives and prevent assaults. The reality that single sex toilets are officially single sex toilets is a huge win for health and safety.

There even seem to be arguments on toilets and human rights now. In that case single sex toilets are the best choice for Article 2, the Right to Life. Article 2 means ‘the Government should take appropriate measures to safeguard life by making laws to protect you and, in some circumstances, by taking steps to protect you if your life is at risk. Public authorities should also consider your right to life when making decisions that might put you in danger or that affect your life expectancy.’

Single sex designs are the only ones that can have door gaps in regulations.

I think that single sex toilets are reasonable adjustments for the protected characteristics of disability (including epilepsy at 1% of the population, diabetes and other conditions where you could collapse without warning) and sex (research indicates women are more likely to be spiked and assaulted). It provides the best chance of anyone having a medical emergency to be seen/heard and rescued in time. On average, someone has a stroke and someone has a heart attack every 5 minutes in the UK. Where do people go when they feel ill?

If there is any ambiguity, then the design becomes private. Mixed sex designs are always private.

If you do thorough risk assessments and equality and impact assessments, single sex designs with door gaps will always be safer. For staff and customers

There’s a lot of talk about protecting the most vulnerable. Look at this picture and decide practically which design is best to protect anyone at their most vulnerable. If you think it’s the one on the left, that means single sex toilets.

KTS, have you contacted the EHRC about this?