Civil servants defy official trans guidance

Telegraph

03-05-2025

Civil servants have defied official trans guidance from the equalities watchdog.
The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said interim advice issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) was 'not fit for purpose'.
The watchdog declared last week that trans women should not be allowed to use female lavatories after the Supreme Court ruled they were not legally women.
It told employers, pubs, shops and hospitals that they must all act in line with the judgment.
But the PCS said the guidance was 'damaging' and 'impossible to implement' in a statement from Fran Heathcote, its general secretary, and Martin Cavanagh, its president.
'The current interim guidance published by the EHRC is clearly not fit for purpose and is damaging in its advice and will be impossible to implement,' the union said.
'PCS is committed to a thorough response to the announced consultation and campaign that any guidance issued puts support and dignity for all at its heart.'
The union said it was 'carefully considering' its own policies in light of the ruling to make sure they were 'fully inclusive'.
'As an equalities-focused union, PCS remains steadfast in promoting and championing the workplace rights of women, trans, and LGBT+ workers,' it said.
Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, said civil servants who believed the ruling was 'impossible to implement' should resign.
'PCS's furious reaction to the EHRC's interim guidance on the implications of the Supreme Court judgment for single sex services and spaces reads more like a statement from a men's rights group than one from a Civil Service union concerned to uphold the rights of all its members, including women,' she said.
'The judgment painstakingly considered how the Equality Act protects everybody's human rights and the EHRC's advice accurately reflects this.
'Civil servants who find a law that was passed by Parliament in 2010 'impossible to implement' because of their own fringe belief system should resign and stop collecting a public salary.'
In its interim guidance, the EHRC also warned that only offering mixed-sex lavatories could amount to indirect sex discrimination against women.
'If somebody identifies as trans, they do not change sex for the purposes of the [Equality] Act, even if they have a gender recognition certificate,' the guidance said.
'A trans woman is a biological man. A trans man is a biological woman.'
The watchdog said mixed-sex lavatories or changing rooms should be provided 'where possible' in addition to single-sex lavatories.
Guidance on when competitive sports must be single-sex will be set out separately by the EHRC 'in due course'.
Schools were told single-sex lavatories must be provided for boys and girls aged eight and over, and single-sex changing facilities for boys and girls aged 11 and over.
The EHRC further clarified that members of an association with 25 members or more can be limited to men or women only, and can also be limited to gay men or lesbian women.
The guidance said a lesbian-only association should not admit trans women, and associations for gay men should not admit trans men.
Earlier this week, Baroness Falkner, the chairman of the EHRC, wrote: 'At the EHRC we uphold and enforce the Equality Act.
'That means incorporating the Supreme Court's ruling into all our guidance and explaining what it means to employers, service providers and other duty-bearers who must put it into practice.
'Our response will continue to be firmly grounded in the law. I can wholeheartedly reassure all who rely on us that every explanation of equality law from the EHRC will be accurate and authoritative. That is our job.
'The law it [the judgment] sets out is effective immediately. Those with duties under the Equality Act should be following it and taking specialist legal advice where necessary.'