Transport police first to react to gender ruling

A POLICE force has become one of the first to confirm it has changed its strip search policy in the fallout from the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.

- 

British Transport Police (BTP) said it had adopted a new "interim position" which will see trans people held in custody strip-searched by an officer in line with their birth sex.

This means trans women in custody will be searched by male officers, while officers who are trans women will no longer be able to search female detainees.

The public confirmation of a policy change came as the head of Britain's equalities watchdog said Wednesday's ruling means trans women cannot use single-sex female toilets or changing rooms or compete in women's sports.

Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner said the ruling by the UK's highest court was "enormously consequential", as she vowed to pursue organisations that do not update their policies.

The ruling that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act "refer to a biological woman and biological sex" means transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) can be excluded from single-sex spaces if "proportionate", the Supreme Court said.

Baroness Falkner said organisations should be "taking care" to look at the "very readable judgment" to "understand that it does bring clarity, helps them decide what they should do".