Service providers must fulfil their legal obligations on single-sex spaces ahead of Government approval of a new code of practice, the equality watchdog has said.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has shared its updated statutory code of practice, which reflects the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex, with Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson.
But EHRC’s Chairwoman Baroness Falkner told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that organisations should not await its publication in order to comply with the law.
‘Law of the land’
When Today presenter Anna Foster raised complaints with Lady Falkner that the completion of the update was taking too long, she responded: “The law was laid out pretty clearly in that Supreme Court judgment, and it became the law of the land with the delivery of the judgment.”
Consequently, she continued, Governments, associations, service providers and public functions “should not be necessarily waiting for our guidance in order to get on with implementation.
“They should take independent legal advice — depending on their particular circumstance — as a business, as an organisation, a public authority and get on with it”.
Clear and robust
Announcing the submission of its revised code of practice, the EHRC explained that it followed “two consultation processes” which asked how the regulator “could make the guidance clearer”.
During the consultation period the EHRC said that it heard “from over 50,000 organisations, legal professionals and individuals across England, Scotland and Wales”.
It concluded: “Responses were analysed with robustness, accuracy and speed to produce guidance that provides clarity to service providers, associations and public functions on their legal obligations.
“Following ministerial approval, the UK Government must lay the draft code before Parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force.”
Non-compliance
Last month, the watchdog threatened 19 organisations with regulatory action for wrongly suggesting that men and women who say they are transgender have a legal right to access single-sex spaces and services “according to their self-identified gender”.
According to the EHRC, the affected organisations — which span policing, education, health care and public services — “must respond with assurances that policies will be withdrawn” and “set out any proposed timetable to revise their policies”.
Whistleblowers from University College London recently warned that the institution still allows biological men to use single-sex spaces reserved for women.
Guidance on HMRC’s intranet also came under fire from gender-critical campaigners for advising employees who have ‘transitioned’ to “use the toilet appropriate to your new gender”.
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