Hundreds of firms warn new guidance on single sex spaces is ‘unworkable’ and would cause ‘significant economic harm’

[IwantToRetire]

More than 650 organisations have urged Bridget Phillipson to ‘take immediate action to prevent these proposals from moving forward’

“We, the undersigned businesses and organisations, are writing to express our deep concern at proposals seeking to enforce blanket, mandatory exclusion of trans people from gendered spaces and services.

“The proposals made in the EHRC’s draft Code of Practice under the Equality Act would have serious and far-reaching consequences for UK businesses, our employees, and our customers.

“Many of us have spent years building inclusive environments where all customers and staff feel safe and welcome. These proposals would tell us to act in ways that directly contradict those commitments; undermining trust, damaging reputations, and risking the loss of valued staff and customers.”

They also express concern that the proposals would put them at “constant risk of complaints and litigation from multiple directions”, as well as forcing “business staff into the unacceptable role of ‘gender police’”.

“Such practices are not only deeply invasive, but likely impossible to implement without breaching Article 8 of The Human Rights Act, which protects rights to privacy, and risking discriminating against valued trans customers and colleagues”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/supreme-court-trans-single-sex-spaces-b2826924.html

So women's rights are less important than commercial compliance.

And would that hairdresser be looking to have a legal right to use the toliets of clients similar to that of a delivery driver delivering to a business?

But there’s no way of ensuring anyone using it is respectful! This is giving men a chance to harass women, which many have done in the past, and then relying on them not to. Why give them that opportunity? No decent man demands it.

I suppose they are saying that they've previously pretended that they cant do anything if a woman complains about a man in the ladies. Now they know they have to tell the man to use the mens or unisex.

For something that apparently rarely happens, its a lot of fuss. Especially for the online shops on the list.

"Frankly, the piss on the loo seats is reason enough to have separate male and female loos."

I asked DH about this. He says that he hasn't noticed this in men's toilets, the reason being that there are always urinals provided.

Apparently, according to DH, it's just easier to walk up to a urinal, unzip, pee, zip up again, wash your hands and then leave.

So, I think most men would prefer separate toilets as well.

There is no such law that toilets have to be unisex, even if there is a trend in certain types of venue for this to be the case. The majority of establishments, especially larger ones, still provide single sex facilities as they always have done.

A lot of names on that list are the usual suspects or tiny ransoms but do the patients of the Cleckheaton Group Practice know that their GPs don't support single sex spaces?
I wonder if a staff member has gone a bit rogue by signing up to this list of dafties?
Cleckheaton Group Practice

Toilets are not about being " treated equally" they are about providing facilities which preserve people's need for dignity and privacy whilst they deal with their bodily functions.

I guess they're coming out in solidarity but they do seem to be showing that it can be done 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don’t really like the style of adding multiple links in posts, but in this case it’s super annoying to be told how progressive Spain is and how relaxed all the women are there with respect to sharing intimate spaces with men in light of statistics that tell a slightly different story.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51384434

https://www.statista.com/topics/7672/gender-abuse-in-spain/

https://inspain.news/number-of-rapes-in-spain-increased-by-more-than-53-percent-since-2019/

www.surinenglish.com/spain/sexual-assaults-minors-grow-and-are-increasingly-20240410081621-nt.html

There absolutely is debate in Spain, and should Pedro Sanchez's government collapse, the self I.D law could well be immediately revoked. There was even fierce opposition from within the Spanish socialist group about its implementation.

The Socialists did not get a majority vote at the last election, and the only way they could form a government was by cobbling together alliances with extremist groups.

There is a very strong women's movemnt in Spain and there most certainly is debate.

I think the issue we are in an economic crisis - many businesses will go bust if they have to do this. I personally tend not to frequent places that have single sex toilets- these are often for the younger crowd anyway so it doesn't hugely affect me. I don't see an issue with saying to businesses you need to refurbish your toilets by 2040 or 2045 or something. Seems a reasonable timeframe for the decline of a bathroom. Make it compulsory for larger businesses to do it sooner. Smaller businesses could offer a female companion to go to the toilet with you. I'm a woman and that's just one opinion of a woman.

I personally tend not to frequent places that have single sex toilets- these are often for the younger crowd

What? Did you mean unisex (both sexes in same place)?

I'm sure I've read, multiple times, that men don't like it when there are no urinals as it slows everything down.
I, for one, however, do not wish to walk past a load of men at the urinals (or even just the urinals or just the men) in the toilets, I guess this is why they often don't make the men's gender neutral, just the women's. Conversely I don't want the men to also be able to use the women's provision in addition to the men's - there's often a long queue and that would just make it longer, quite apart from the safety, privacy and dignity aspect.

So, I think most men would prefer separate toilets as well.

My DH would agree. We went to Manchester where many ’liberal’ restaurants had uni sex toilets. One with toilets in a cubicle but you had to wash your hands all together. The other had a sign of unisex with urinals and unisex without urinals. He went to the former but the latter might have well had a welcome mat saying here’s the loo for any man who wants to make women uncomfortable.

Yet this is ‘progression’

I would go unlikely as imo signing political letters is a sacking for gross misconduct option. They have provided evidence for any ET discrimination cases for 2+ PC.

More worrying has the pratice a male saying he is female or a female saying she is male?

And seeing how they may only have 1 male doctor how would they manage someone looking for same sex care?

No business will go bust in the UK over this as the building regs and commercial sign off require the building to be built to the legal specifications of having single sex blocks or single with sink units.

In real life it is a sign issue and telling staff its misconduct leading to a discipliany and possible sacking if they continue use the other sexes toilet or changing rooms or harrass staff within that provision. Staff have no case as they only have lawful access to their own sexes provision.

If the business open to the public clear signs that the police will be called if there are problems removes the need for staff to "police" anything.

If a business choose to buy or build a property which fails to meet the current building standards that business choose to employ unprofessional contractors who should have professional insurance or if all else fails sue the LA for signoff if they think that the public tax fund should pay for their poor business decisions.

When I heard this on the news I wondered if it was to do with Ben & Jerry's signing the trans letter. I can see how Ben & Jerry's might do something like that and Unilever might hit the roof and demand they take their name off the letter. Just a hypothesis but that could be why he's stepped down.

What exactly is it that you think businesses have to do here? No toilet refurbishment is necessary.

There is a restaurant near me that has unisex loos (cubicles and then shared handwashing) - the men quite often don’t bother to close the doors when peeing, which is nice.

There are so many reasons women don’t want to share the loo with men. When I was younger the loo was a bit of a sanctuary on nights out, etc - somewhere you knew you could escape to where men couldn’t follow.

Funny. I can’t find anything that backs up Louise’s claim that unisex toilets are the law in Spain 🤔 AI says this.

He opted for the money ($326m÷2) and kept his job and tried to keep the control over the sold business and flounced when his employer objected to his not following their policy.

Unilever is being rather clear that they are getting out of politics so another staff member may be looking for a new job soon.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/19/ben-jerrys-unilever-ceo-ince-cream-david-stever

Yes both did have sinks and were like a little room rather than a cubicle if you know what I mean. Not sure about the ratio, the Victorian did have quite a few staff but for all but two of us it was a base and they wouldn't be there all day.

I mean, Louise isn’t sure if she is Spanish or American, so it’s understandable that she might get something like that wrong…

Its 1 unit per 25 staff expected to be onsite at a given time so thats provision ( in theory) for 100 employees

The HSE says its 25 employees:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/toilets.htm

I wonder do they know they are on the list? The toilet provision they have looks fine - unisex cubicles, single-sex... what changes do they have to make that would ruin them financially?

The one thing I notice is that there is no accessible toilet listed - I hope that's just an oversight. 'Ambulant' toilets have grab rails etc and so are helpful for people who need a bit of extra support, but who are mobile. Importantly, they are not wheelchair accessible. An accessible toilet has space for a wheelchair to enter, turn and allow for transfer from chair to toilet.

Ambulant toilets are a useful halfway house for people who don't need all the adaptations of an accessible toilet, but need some extra support not available in the standard toilets. But they do not meet the requirement for wheelchair accessible toilets:
Approved Document M: Access to and use of buildings, Vol 2

Previous posters have reported seeing baby changing facilities in the disabled toilets, which seems obviously wrong, and sure enough it is not allowed:
5.5 ...Wheelchair-accessible unisex toilets should not be used for baby changing.