I have some theories on this - I would love a toilet symposium! There’s a few people I know off mumsnet I would like people to meet. @prh47bridge has touched on a massive problem that the government has. It is obvious they are trying to tally everyone’s existing designs into the Supreme Court judgement. It can’t be done because for years businesses have not been following building standards and HSE advice.
Now the focus is on toilets, people have realise what a mess this is. The Government tried to do something about it with Document T (only applies to England and not to schools etc) and the intention is there is very clear - single sex first then universal. They made clear it was as the result to stop the rise of gender neutral designs which aren’t regulated at all.
People have been complaining that universal toilets are discriminatory towards woman for 20 years. That too is documented.
HSE talks about people having the need for separate-sex toilet washrooms.
HSE have told me directly single sex toilets are the only one to have door gaps (that’s design C single sex and design D single sex ambulant). This is clearly an advantage to health and safety to women and children. Bluntly, it is very unlikely rapes take place in single sex toilets with door gaps compared to private toilets. The design where most people collapse and do not get found in time are private designs.
If you look deeply enough into legislation and building regs and standards, they were all built on single sex provision.
The disabled toilet expansion came after WW2 in direct response to having provision for amputees. Businesses weren’t happy about the extra costs. The mixed sex element is because it only requires one. The privacy, as people have found out, is a problem because they are used for sex, drugs, parties (!), sleeping, all sorts.
Worldwide, the best way to get girls to go to school is to build girls toilets. That is well known. I use to sponsor a girl via Plan and that’s what they did. It works.
So why the DfE have signed off on quarter of secondary schools just having mixed sex toilets? It’s madness. However, in a cruel experiment, it has shown what you think may happen, happens. The government need to look what has happened to schools. There’s private companies selling subscriptions to schools for all sorts of monitoring devices and alarms in each private toilet now because of the behaviour and risks inside them.
It’s a massive job getting provision to be equal for women. We’ve never had equal provision because of our biological needs compared to men. Now it’s in danger again.