THE UK equalities watchdog’s “transphobic” code of practice is set to face a legal challenge, it has been announced.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance on the use of toilets and changing rooms as single-sex spaces came into force on Wednesday, August 5.
The code bans transgender women from female facilities and transgender men from male facilities, and has been condemned as amounting to “segregation”.
Despite more than 160 MPs voicing their opposition to the code and more than 15,000 people writing to MPs during the 40-day scrutiny period in the Westminster Parliament, it passed and will now come into force.
The code was updated by the EHRC following the Supreme Court ruling in April 2025, which stated that under the Equality Act 2010 the definition of a woman related to biological sex.
The Scottish Greens condemned the code coming into force as the number of recorded hate crimes charges with a transgender aggravator hit record levels in Scotland.
The EHRC guidance is not legally binding, but Good Law Project, who are supporting claimants seeking a judicial review of the code, say they believe it is not only “unlawful” but “completely against human rights”.
A pre-action letter sent to the EHRC and Angela Rayner, as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, says the guidance is being challenged for “unlawful misstatements of the law”.
The code is imposed by the UK Government and provides statutory guidance for service providers.
However, the Good Law Project and claimants are challenging several passages of the code. It references a section which states that under the guidance, if a service provider admits trans people into a “service intended for the opposite sex”, then that does not qualify as a single-sex space.
The challenge is against the assertion in the code that “a service like this is very likely to amount to unlawful sex discrimination against the people of the opposite sex who are not allowed to use it”. The pre-action letter also highlights passages from the code which state that offering a mixed-sex service alongside a single-sex service “must be open to all service users”.
The letter also sets out that the legal challenge will also challenge similar guidance in the same vein referenced later in the code.
It states that the claimants “consider that these sentences fundamentally misstate the law”.
“The correct position in law is that when a service provider decides on what basis to provide access to their services, all their choices are governed by fact-specific proportionality and reasonableness questions,” the letter reads.
It states that the challenge will be on two grounds: “First, that the relevant passages are unlawful misstatements of the underlying law.
"In the alternative, that if the proposed statements reflect a correct interpretation of the EA [Equality Act] 2010, then the statutory framework is not compatible with Articles 8 and 11 ECHR [European Convention on Human Rights], read alone or with Article 14 ECHR, and in the alternative they seek a declaration of incompatibility pursuant to section 4(2) of the Human Rights Act 1998 (“the HRA”).”
Article 8 of the ECHR is the right to respect for your private life, Article 11 protects the right to freedom of assembly and association, and Article 14 protects people from discrimination.
Jess O’Thomson, Good Law Project’s trans rights lead, said: “It’s difficult to believe just how far backwards our government has gone on trans human rights.
“This Labour government pushed through its transphobic guidance in the face of opposition from many MPs, including nearly a hundred of its own backbenchers. It’s not just immensely harmful. We think it’s unlawful, and completely against human rights. So this challenge is absolutely essential.”
A spokesperson for the EHRC said: “We are unable to comment on any threat of legal action at this stage.”
It comes as hate crime figures from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) showed there were 104 charges where transgender identity was an aggravator in 2025-26. This was a 21% increase from the previous year and the highest total since records began in 2010.
Condemning the guidance as it comes into force, Kate Nevens, the Greens equalities spokesperson, said: “This is a major setback for human rights and a day that many trans people, and those who love them, have been dreading.
"The new guidance will shut trans people out of spaces and services they have used safely for years. It sends a message that they are less welcome in public life and forces them to weigh up the risk of humiliation or confrontation every time they leave the house.
“This comes at a time when hate crimes are rising and many trans people already feel increasingly vulnerable simply because of who they are.”
Nevens added that the guidance invites “suspicion, confrontation and intrusive questioning” of anyone who doesn’t “conform to narrow ideas of how people should look”.
