Equalities watchdog concludes regulatory action on single-sex space policies

In August 2025, the EHRC wrote to 19 organisations identified through that exercise whose policies were found to have misrepresented the Equality Act 2010 by wrongly suggesting there is an automatic legal right to access single-sex spaces based on self-identification.

These organisations spanned the policing, education and health sectors, the watchdog revealed.

All 19 organisations have now removed the policies in question.

The EHRC added that its action followed the Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers (April 2025), which confirmed that the terms "man", "woman" and "sex" in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.

Trans people continue to be protected from discrimination under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, it said.