Gender ruling will not lead to 'toilet police', senior minister says

There are no plans for “toilet police” in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling on gender, a senior minister has suggested.

Pat McFadden acknowledged the Government will have to change its practices following the judgment, but dismissed the notion of policing toilets.

His comments came as the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon remained defiant on the Supreme Court ruling, which declared that the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

Cabinet Office minister Mr McFadden said the Government now needed to “react to the court judgment and the guidance from the EHRC”.

The “logical consequence of the judgment” and the new guidance is that people will have to use toilets, changing rooms and other facilities of their biological sex, he added.

Asked if the latest guidance meant transgender people would be banned from using the toilets of the gender they identify as, Mr McFadden said: “Look, in reality, when you say ban, am I going to be standing outside toilets? I’m probably not.

“There isn’t going to be toilet police. But that is the logical consequence of the court ruling and the EHRC guidance.”

Mr McFadden also insisted the Prime Minister had not changed his view on the definition of a woman.

He said: “Look, we welcome the court judgment that came out last week, and there's been some new guidance from the EHRC as well to authorities and how they should implement this. We'll take that forward now that the guidance has been published.

“All the way through this, he's tried to treat people with dignity and respect, and we've still got to do that in this debate and in responding to the judgment.

“That's what he's tried to do. That's what he said at Prime Minister's Questions the other day, and that's what we've all got to do here.

“We've got some clarity from the court, which is welcome, and we've got some new guidance, which will have to be implemented now in the fields of sport and all sorts of other areas.”

The ruling has been interpreted to mean that transgender women, who are biologically male but identify as women, can be excluded from women-only spaces like toilets and changing rooms.

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The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued new guidance aimed at clearing up questions about what the judgment will mean in practice.

Transgender women “should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities” in workplaces or public-facing services like shops and hospitals, the EHRC said.

The same applies to transgender men, who are biologically female, using men’s toilets.

The watchdog also insisted that transgender people “should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use”.

Ms Sturgeon also gave her first comments on the Supreme Court ruling since it was issued on April 16.

She told the Mail on Sunday “I think my views are well known” when the newspaper approached her on Saturday.

The Scottish Government lost the high-profile case at the UK Supreme Court to campaign group For Women Scotland, and issued a statement in response to the EHRC guidance on Saturday.

It said: “We note the interim update from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and that they intend to hold a consultation with stakeholders on their forthcoming guidance.

“We are keen to work with EHRC to ensure consistent, inclusive and comprehensive guidance is in place following the Supreme Court judgement and, following the postponement of last week’s meeting at their request, have asked to meet with them as soon as possible to discuss further.”

The EHRC had been due to meet with the Scottish Government on Thursday to discuss the provision of single-sex spaces in the NHS.

However, it said that on Wednesday the Scottish Government proposed extending the agenda to include the implications of the Supreme Court judgment.

The regulator then postponed the meeting as it wishes to meet with the UK Government first.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a “clear, medically supervised process” for transitioning, rather than people self-identifying as transgender.

Her comments come days after she clashed with Sir Keir Starmer on the issue and accused Labour ministers of lying about support for female-only spaces following Sir Keir’s U-turn on his views about transgender women.

The Tory leader said she “took a lot of abuse from Labour MPs calling me a homophobe, a transphobe, for saying what the Supreme Court has just ruled” and that she has “no sympathy” for Labour.

“Politics is about making difficult decisions. They need to grow up and be honest about what it is they believe in,” she added.

The latest guidance from the EHRC also says schools must provide single-sex changing facilities to boys and girls over the age of eight.

“Suitable alternative provisions may be required” for transgender pupils, the watchdog said.

The watchdog also said sports clubs and other associations of 25 or more people are allowed to be exclusively for biological men or women.

Such clubs “can be limited to people who each have two protected characteristics”, the guidance said.

This would mean, for example, that a lesbian women’s sports club should not admit transgender women.

The watchdog is working on a more detailed code of practice following the Supreme Court ruling, which it said it aims to provide to the Government for ministerial approval by June.