EHRC admits employers don’t have to provide single-sex toilets

The UK’s equalities watchdog has clarified that employers are not required to provide single-sex toilets in offices and public spaces.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) conceded a clause in its interim guidance on single-sex facilities stating that it was “compulsory” for employers to provide single-sex toilets, was not accurate.

Responding to a pre-action letter from Good Law Project, attorneys acting on behalf of the EHRC clarified that the clause meant to say “where separate facilities are lawfully provided for ‘men’ and ‘women’, this means for biological men and women” and that where a toilet “is in a separate room the door of which is capable of being secured from inside,” the employer will satisfy its obligations.

The EHRC published interim guidance for single-sex service providers in April following a Supreme Court ruling which found that the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of women and sex refer to “biological women” and “biological sex” respectively.

The guidance recommended that trans people be excluded from public facilities associated with their gender identity and, in some cases, their birth sex.

Good Law Project filed a pre-action legal challenge letter against the regulator over its guidance on 6 June. It said in a statement that it believes the EHRC’s “modified position remains wrong” and intends to argue this before a High Court.

The EHRC’s response to the Good law Project also downplays importance of the interim guidance, describing it mere as “some observations – brief and high level” which “remains subject to change as appropriate”.

A public consultation into the EHRC’s guidance for single-sex service providers has been heavily criticised by human rights organisations who argue it has been rushed.

Critics claimed that the consultation period, originally set to last just two weeks but has now been extended to six weeks, was “unlawful“.

EHRC chair, Kishwer Falkner, said in a Women’s Equalities Committee meeting earlier this month that the regulator had tried to “strike the balance between accuracy and clarity on the one hand, and speed [on the other].”

She estimated that the final draft of the guidance could become legally binding within “seven or eight months.”

PinkNews has contacted the EHRC for comment.