Transgender women will be barred from using female-only spaces in schools, hospitals, leisure centres and cinemas under new guidance expected to be submitted to ministers later this month.
Requests from campaigners to water down rules restricting a trans person’s ability to use the services of their chosen gender have reportedly been rejected by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
The guidance will say transgender athletes can be excluded from single-sex sport events and that women can object to the presence of a trans woman in changing rooms.
It will apply to any organisation providing services to the public, including shops with changing rooms, gyms, government departments, the NHS and prisons, the Times reported.
It follows a consultation prompted by a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year which said the terms “woman” and “sex” must be interpreted as biological sex under the Equality Act.
The updated guidance is expected to be sent to Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson before the end of the month. She will approve it if it is deemed legally sound before it goes to Parliament where it could face scrutiny from MPs.
“The law is the law, and the law's not going to change,” a source familiar with the consultation told the Times.
Trans rights groups have warned the move could breach human rights and have vowed to mount legal challenges. Concerns have also been raised about the EHRC’s use of artificial intelligence in analysing more than 50,000 consultation responses.
Campaigners accused the watchdog of "ignoring" their views because AI had used categorised replies during the consultation.
The EHRC defended its approach, saying AI was used "under supervision" to support its legal analysis and ensure “robustness, accuracy and speed”.
It added that it was "working at pace" to finalise the guidance.
The final guidance is not expected to mandate the provision of single-sex spaces, but it will clarify that where they do exist, such as women’s toilets and changing rooms, trans women can lawfully be excluded.
Birth certificates will be allowed to be requested by services to confirm eligibility for access.
The EHRC is also expected to advise that services consider alternative facilities for trans people, acknowledging that in essential areas like lavatories, it would be unreasonable to leave someone without access.
A source added: “The EHRC can’t publish final guidance that is in complete contravention of the Supreme Court verdict, however much some might like them to.”
