Stonewall warns of challenges of gender guidance on toilets

Businesses across the UK fear that new guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on the use of toilets and changing rooms will be confusing and could "undermine inclusion".

- Libby Brooks

The LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall has written to the newly appointed business and trade secretary, Peter Kyle, and minister, Chris Bryant, to highlight the significant costs of compliance.

The equalities watchdog submitted its formal guidance on how public bodies, businesses and other service providers should respond to April’s landmark supreme court ruling on biological sex to the UK government this month. Its chair, Kishwer Falkner, admitted it would be difficult for many to adapt.

It is expected to closely reflect interim advice released by the watchdog in April, which in effect banned transgender people from using facilities according to their lived gender, and to allow services to request birth certificates to ensure single-sex services are protected.