Civil service under pressure to ‘break the law’ on single-sex spaces

A civil servant has criticised activists for attempting to subvert the protection of women-only spaces.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the female employee was “ambushed” by two colleagues asking her to sign a petition against the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s plan to restrict toilets on the basis of biological sex and end paid leave for ‘gender reassignment’.

She reflected: “I should be able to come to work without being lobbied or asked to take a position on a contested issue. I know it will not have occurred to them I may be for these changes. Because of the ambush, I didn’t feel able to express my views.”

Impartiality

Fiona McAnena, Director of Campaigns at Sex Matters, commented: “It’s astonishing that some civil servants have been allowed to doorstep their colleagues with a petition demanding that the department breaks the law.”

She explained: “Asking colleagues to object to the lawful provision of single-sex toilets at work feels very far from the objective, evidence-based approach the public has a right to expect.

“The department must follow the law, yet women going in to work at the Ministry of Housing are being asked to sign a petition calling for men to be allowed to use the women’s toilets if those men say they are women. It’s bordering on hostile for women”.

Legal case

The Christian Institute is currently pursuing a legal action to challenge the decision of the Civil Service in Great Britain to ‘permit and/or authorise’ the participation of civil servants in Pride marches under the banner of the Civil Service.

Under the Civil Service Code, all employees are expected to carry out their roles with “integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality”. They must also “ensure individual personal and political views do not, and are not perceived to, influence our advice or actions”.

Deputy Director Simon Calvert said: “I have been working in public policy for decades. I’ve been shocked by how many civil servants wear Pride lanyards in our meetings with them, even when those meetings are specifically about conflicts with that ideology.

“Sitting in front of a phalanx of civil servants in rainbow lanyards gives the impression that their minds are closed on the issues we are discussing. It certainly does not communicate the kind of neutrality that taxpayers expect of civil servants.”