Phillipson hits back at equalities watchdog in transgender rights row

Bridget Phillipson has urged the equalities watchdog to focus more on helping ministers do their job and less on having public debates amid a continuing row about how long it will take to implement new rules on gender recognition.

- Peter Walker Pippa Crerar

The comments by Phillipson, who is the equalities minister as well as the education secretary, come after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took the unusual step of urging the government to "act with speed" in approving its statutory guidance on responding to a supreme court ruling on transgender rights.

In a decision that delighted gender-critical activists, the supreme court ruled in April that the terms "woman" and "sex" in the Equality Act refer only to a biological woman and to biological sex.

The EHRC compiled statutory guidance on how organisations should interpret the ruling and sent it to ministers for approval. But government officials have said it will take time to properly assess the complex, 300-plus-page document and blamed the watchdog for delays in providing necessary information, including an equalities impact assessment.

Speaking to the Guardian, Phillipson said ministers also had to consult with the devolved UK nations, and that the process was impossible to rush.