BBC admits it is still letting biological men use women’s lavatories

[IwantToRetire]

In response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the corporation said it would only change its policies once guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is approved by the Government.

In the meantime, the BBC said “sanitary facilities vary” across its estate, which includes studios and offices across the country. Signs will not be changed until the guidance is approved this autumn.
The Supreme Court ruled in April that the word “sex” in the Equality Act refers to biological sex <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/CLNk7/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/16/what-does-the-transgender-rights-ruling-mean/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">and not to a person’s gender identity.

It means that facilities such as lavatories, changing rooms and showers should be segregated by sex and gender.

The EHRC followed this up with interim guidance which confirmed that transwomen – biological males – should not be allowed in such women’s spaces.

And last month, Sir Keir Starmer said public bodies <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/CLNk7/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/06/30/ban-trans-women-from-female-lavatories-starmer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">must implement the ruling “as soon as possible”.

However, the BBC said it would wait until the final guidance is published and signed off by the Government before taking any action.

Full article at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/04/bbc-still-letting-biological-men-use-womens-lavatories/

Also in full at https://archive.is/CLNk7

I think a lot of these organisations are trying to take the heat off. They know it will have to happen, but also that many of their staff will kick up a stink. The more they can point to the bad courts and government, the easier it will be for them, or so they think.

Agree, they want to be seen to be doing the 'right' thing and that they are only changing at the last moment because they are forced to.

That's not surprising for the BBC. Just this morning I've read one article where a woman was referred to as "they" throughout and another where a man was referred to as "she" and "her" throughout.

The BBC are prioritising ideology above all else currently.

Who is shocked?

If BBC gets sued or has to pay out its no money out of the pockets of the management team is it?

Not a single staff member will be sacked or made resign so why would they worry about the breach of the law.

Until such time it becomes a sackable offence to knownly set/retain policy which is not lawful followed by being sued to recover the loss to the public tax fund management will continue to ignore their legal duties.

Really?

what the fuck is wrong with them?

but yeah i agree they will change when they are forced into it so they can say they had no choice

Not surprised really.
But to be fair to them they have a lot of trans and captured staff and they’re probably trying to ease change in gradually to avoid them kicking off.

They are also probably under the deluded opinion that most of their audience think the same as them so they think being seen as “doing the right thing” is to not follow the SC court ruling

Yes, Why stop protecting women and girls until they really have to.

I’m pretty certain the BBC have around 50% female staff, so why are they prepared to break the law on single sex spaces? What some employees desire, ie to allow men into women’s toilets, is completely irrelevant. The law is the law and should be followed otherwise employers are opening themselves wide open to claims from employees who are affected by their employer’s stance.

I'm in two minds about this. I can sympathise as the SC decision was a massive about-face and it will take time for people to come around and realise that they have been misled and that single sex spaces are protected in law. I can see why organisations want to delay to give people time to adjust and to consider their own position re single sex spaces, unisex spaces etc. But also, throughout the many years that this debate has gone on, women have been shown not a shred of sympathy or concern so it is galling to be expected to pussyfoot around and "be kind". If the boot were on the other foot could you imagine the outcry were there any delay to what they wanted.

So, it turns out that the BBC don't care much about the boundaries of women and girls when it comes to privacy and safeguarding.

No matter how long it takes, no matter how many horrific abuse scandals it is revealed that people at the BBC enabled, they, resolutely, will not learn the obvious lessons.

I wonder what's at the heart of this?

Disappointing but not surprising. WTF is their HR department doing (not getting legal advice and putting it in front of senior people it seems). This hurts not just women but the trans ppl who have been misled for years and are continuing to be misled.

I've been in a large law firm office and big university recently and both had conspicuous signage for gender neutral toilets (as well as SS ones). So others are complying.

It won't be long before the Tories or Reform start talking about the BBC toilets in Parliament, I predict.

BBC disabled toilets also get bad press:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-bbc-always-knew-that-russell-brand-was-a-lout/

Oh I didn’t realise a photo was going to pop up too - sorry about that

Archive version.

https://archive.ph/oqElK

Declaration of interest - I am not a Spectator subscriber but know that if I want to view a paywalled article that if I go to http://archive.ph & pop the URL in the box labelled I want to search the archive for saved snapshots then if a snapshot has already been made by someone who does have a subscription it will be displayed.