EDINBURGH Council has condemned the UK equalities watchdog’s guidance on single-sex spaces in a new report.
Ahead of a meeting of the authority’s Policy and Sustainability Committee next week, officials published a 15-page report on the implementation of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) code of practice.
The report, following on from a vote held by councillors last month, instructed council leader Jane Meagher to write to Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson urging them to withdraw it.
The EHRC code, which has been decried as “segregation” for transgender people, came into force on August 5.
The guidance was updated following the Supreme Court ruling in April last year that said women are defined by biological sex under the Equality Act 2010, rather than by gender.
The EHRC code, which is facing a legal challenge backed by the Good Law Project, contains instructions for businesses and public bodies on how to operate under the law following the Supreme Court ruling.
Local authorities, such as City of Edinburgh Council, a Labour minority administration, are one of many service providers at the forefront of implementing the guidance, which covers bathrooms, changing facilities, and sports teams.
“Council agrees to condemn the new guidance from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission as discriminatory against trans people, unworkable and potentially incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights,” the report explains.
“Council asks the Council Leader (shared with other parties for input/discussion on the letters in the spirit of helpfulness) to write to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women and Equalities of the UK Government, urging them to: Withdraw the Code of Practice [and] take legislative action to create an equalities framework that protects trans people's safety, dignity and humanity, clarify the current legislative protections for trans people, and to share this letter with the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Equalities and International Development of the Scottish Government.”
Edinburgh City Council is currently undertaking a detailed property report “covering legal context, current provision and options for a proposed programme of works” – which will include costings and delivery timeframe. It will be presented to the committee in October this year.
The report also gives insight into some of the issues that local authorities will face implementing the code of practice, particularly in relation to bathrooms.
Last year, just weeks after the Supreme Court ruling, a judge ordered that Scottish schools must provide single-sex toilets for students after parents brought a case to court against the Scottish Borders Council.
The local authority had installed only gender-neutral toilets at Earlston primary school, which had recently opened at the time of the case being heard.
Edinburgh Council noted this precedent, and the appendix of the report states that this “goes against modern best practice of designing schools with solely single-cubicle, gender-neutral toilet facilities”.
It added that this has “caused some Edinburgh schools to have to label previously gender-neutral toilets as gender segregated”.
Edinburgh Council also undertook an assessment of the authority’s property estate – comprising of 282 buildings and 16 public toilets – which identified “gaps in accessible provision”.
“The result of the Supreme Court judgment is that, where single-sex toilets are offered, transgender persons are not able to use the toilet associated with their affirmed gender and may not be able to use the toilet associated with their gender assigned at birth,” the report reads.
“Alternative provision may therefore be required to ensure that transgender and non-binary persons are not left without a facility to use.”
It added that temporary signage changes are being made across council properties to “increase the number of toilets that can be used by transgender and non-binary persons.”
The report adds: “Moving forward, the feasibility study will assess the availability of toilets for transgender and non-binary persons and those with accessibility needs across the Council’s estate. Once this study has been completed, options will be presented for Committee to consider for securing better toilet provision for those persons.”
It also added that the Willow Service – which works with women aged over 18 involved in the justice system – now operates “as a single-sex service in line with the 2010 Act and is therefore only open to those assigned female at birth”.
“Alternative service provision is now made on a gender-neutral basis to ensure that transgender and non-binary persons, both those previously accessing the Willow Service and new service users, are able to access appropriate justice services,” the report adds.
