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The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has completed its review of evidence from the UK Government's 2024 call for input exercise on single-sex spaces and is taking regulatory action where policies misrepresent equality law.

In May 2024, the previous government launched a "call for input" seeking examples of policies that wrongly suggest people have a legal right to access single-sex spaces and services according to their self-identified gender. The government referred 404 examples to the EHRC for review.

Following its analysis, the EHRC identified policies that misrepresented the Equality Act 2010, including from organisations across the policing, education and health sectors.

The EHRC is now writing to 19 organisations asking them to review policies that contain language wrongly suggesting there is an automatic legal right to access single-sex spaces based on self-identification.

As the national regulator for equality and human rights in Great Britain, the EHRC has a statutory duty to promote compliance with equality law.

Baroness Kishwer Falkner, Chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:

“We have completed our review of the evidence referred to us by government and are taking proportionate regulatory action where we have identified policies that misrepresent the law.

“These policies contain specific language that wrongly suggests there is an automatic legal right to access single-sex spaces based on self-identification. Organisations need to ensure their policies accurately reflect the law as it stands.

“This is proportionate regulatory action affecting a small number of organisations across different sectors as part of our statutory duty to promote compliance with equality law. We remain committed to supporting both women's rights and trans people's rights within the existing legal framework.”

The organisations must respond with assurances that policies will be withdrawn and to set out any proposed timetable to revise their policies. The EHRC will monitor compliance and consider further regulatory action if necessary.