EHRC concludes regulatory action on single sex spaces

[WallaceinAnderland]

EHRC on X:

We have concluded our regulatory action on single-sex space policies. All 19 organisations we contacted in August 2025 have now removed policies that misrepresented the Equality Act 2010

Body of text

In August 2025, the EHRC wrote to 19 organisations identified through this exercise whose policies misrepresented the Equality Act 2010 by wrongly suggesting there is an automatic legal right to access single-sex spaces based on self-identification. These organisations spanned the policing, education and health sectors. All 19 organisations have now removed the policies in question.

The EHRC's action followed the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers (April 2025), which confirmed that the terms "man", "woman" and "sex" in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex. Trans people continue to be protected from discrimination under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.

Only 19? I thought just the audit of NHS Trusts thad thrown up many more. But it's a good start and hopefully will infoem others.

They really should name and shame those organisations. And fix the issues with their pdf (hope they've done so since I tried to open it earlier) as nobody could read/open it, all you could do was print it

We found that all 200-odd trusts in the UK are following policies that misrepresent right of access to single-sex spaces. But we weren’t consulted re the above action…

Perhaps now is the time to show your homework to them.

The PDF just states the same as the main page.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/media-centre/ehrc-concludes-regulatory-action-single-sex-space-policies

Let's hope the Cabinet Office (fgs) was one of those organisations?

@KnottyAuty has been in touch.

Does this translate as 'There's nothing else to wait for, so just get on with it'?

I vaguely recall hearing that they had chosen particularly egregious examples from a variety of organisations as examples to set for others.

Rather than write to every NHS trust and police force for instance, getting one of every type of organisation to backtrack would hopefully bring the rest into line.

(I am sceptical of this because as we all know every bloody one of these organisations will kick and scream and ignore the law until it costs them).

I could be completely misremembering though 🙍

They say 'These organisations spanned the policing, education and health sectors' and we have seen changes recently in all these areas.

Police will now record the sex of criminals, prisons will stop putting men in women's prisons, schools have just released new guidance to provide single sex spaces and health probably covers a wide area where policy is changing, especially backed by the Fife and Darlington court cases.

These are all relatively new so hopefully a lot more to come.

Can I just say to schools:
putting a different sticker on the private cubicle door but still having a mixed sex environment with sinks outside the door, still doesn’t help medically vulnerable pupils. It also will still mean you have pupils going in the private cubicles for sex and drugs.
Also don’t try and alleviate the total privacy problem by getting one of those alarm system activated with ‘help me’ or ‘stop it’. I know schools have tried them. They’re expensive and misused. Try and think why ‘help me’ and ‘stop it’ are preprogrammed in the alarm system in the first place.

Sectioning off toilet blocks so they are in single sex environment means the toilet cubicle doors don’t need to touch the floor (eg a 15cm gap)and there can be space above the door. This means you need single sex washroom areas - particularly useful for girls dealing with periods.

Who is "we" here?

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5353762-nhs-policy-audit-working-party-thread-3

Thanks!

I think the OP heading is a bit misleading ie nothing for instance to do with support services for women.

It is about 19 organisations who after the survey done in 24 made it clear they had been Stonewalled. ie that self identity was a legal concept.

Its universities etc.

Have just posted on another thread more details.

See https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5492034-organisations-changing-policy-since-fridays-glpehrc-decision?reply=150632264

What actually happened though. Did they tell the companies to withdraw their unlawful guidance or did they tell them to replace it with a single sex policy?

My company had a published self id policy, they removed it a few years ago but didn't publicly withdraw it or tell the tw to stay out of the ladies and they refuse to engage in complaints stating they don't have a policy so no one is breaking it. We have toilets with the man and woman signs and plenty of unisex fully contained units so no reason for the T to be in opposite sex facilities.

That was my impression. Alongside an undercurrent of 'you're on your last warning'

They dont need to take action on every case; a few should be instructive.

I really want to know who these 19 organisations are. I'm sure two of them were GG and the WI though.

I am not suggesting it because it is my post but the link I gave above I quoted what the EHRC had done, and it includes the type of organisations they contacted.

I think the OP heading is a bit misleading ie nothing for instance to do with support services for women

I literally copied exactly what the EHRC posted on X. Cut and paste their words, not mine.

https://x.com/EHRC/status/2024423726499135534

Well its that useful to some word "spaces".

In the info on the post on the other thread it is talking about the NHS, Universities, Government Departments and local Authorities.

Does the word "spaces" connection with any oth them?

Obviously I am not criticising you but IMO it is this type of language that decision makers use, be they a politician, or even the EHRC causes the confusion.

Of the types of organisation I listed above how does the phrase relate?

Once again "protect-the-dollz" can see the writing on the wall here https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/comments/1r95ggm/comment/o6b818a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Any pithy quotes for those of us who don’t want to have to break out the brain bleach that would be required to read that particular subreddit?

Fair point

"It's fairly terrible news that not a single one of those 19 organisations received legal advice that they could fight this in the courts.
It suggests that the chance of a successful appeal of GLP vs ECHR is low."

I mention it as an indicator of the complete disconnect from legal reality and why so many trans identifying people seem to now think they can in fact use any public toilet they want