Single-sex spaces – such as changing rooms, toilets and hospital wards – must be used on the basis of biological sex, new guidance from the equalities watchdog has confirmed.<\/p>\n
This means, for instance, that a trans woman – a biological male who identifies as a woman – should not use female toilets or changing rooms, according to the code of practice.<\/p>\n
The guidance, produced by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and now approved by ministers, makes it clear that transgender people should be offered a third or a gender-neutral space.<\/p>\n
However, the code states that leaving a trans person without access to any services or facilities would be unlikely to be proportionate.<\/p>\n
The guidance was published on Thursday following the landmark Supreme Court ruling last year that the definition of a woman under the Equality Act should be based on biological sex.<\/p>\n
The code of practice sets out how associations, businesses and services open to the public should organise their facilities.<\/p>\n
Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson said the aim was to allow people to live free from discrimination and harassment.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Our focus has always been making sure organisations have clear, accessible guidance on how to implement the law,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
Within the guidance, it was recommended that gender neutral toilets or changing rooms should have self-contained lockable areas with floor-to-ceiling walls and wash basins.<\/p>\n
It also said if a service had two toilets – one for men and one for women – they could be changed into unisex facilities.<\/p>\n
The EHRC said it did not think the requirements would be too onerous as services could decide to let trans people use toilets for disabled people.<\/p>\n
With the guidance now before parliament, MPs and peers have 40 days to raise any concerns. If there are no objections the guidance becomes statutory.<\/p>\n
The guidance was first sent to the government in September 2025.<\/p>\n
The EHRC said it expected ministers to spend six weeks examining it before either asking for revisions or placing it before parliament.<\/p>\n
Instead, the government said it would deal with the issue \u00ab\u00a0thoroughly and carefully\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
EHRC chair Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson said she hoped people would read the code with an \u00ab\u00a0open mind\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I think we do need to broaden out the debates, and we need to start from a point of saying, how do we make sure that everyone has access to the services they need, and that will be different things for different people,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Single-sex spaces – such as changing rooms, toilets and hospital wards – must be used on the basis of biological sex, new guidance from the equalities watchdog has confirmed. This means, for instance, that a trans woman – a biological male who identifies as a woman – should not use female toilets or changing rooms, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}