Equality Commission must issue clear guidance on Supreme Court sex ruling now

The Equality Commission “can no longer sit on its hands” over last year’s Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman – and must now get on with issuing guidance to public bodies on single-sex spaces, the DUP leader has said.

Gavin Robinson was responding to Thursday’s ruling by the United Kingdom’s top judges, which made clear that EU rights don’t automatically overrule Westminster legislation.

placeholder image — Susan Smith (left) and Marion Calder (right) co-directors of For Women Scotland outside the Supreme Court in London. Photo: Lucy North/PA Wire

He said the Supreme Court judgment had been “a difficult day for the common sense deniers in Northern Ireland”.

The same court had previously ruled that sex in law is defined by biology, not by self-declared gender identity. However, the implications of the ruling in Northern Ireland have been unclear, as the Equality Commission (ECNI) had said the Windsor Framework meant a different legal context applied here.

The DUP boss said: “For too long, Sinn Fein, Alliance and the SDLP, along with some well funded Commissions, have tied themselves in knots trying to avoid the most basic of facts. They can’t define a woman.

“The Court has made clear that Article 2 of the Windsor Framework cannot be stretched to import wider interpretations of rights through the back door. That removes the excuse that has been used to delay clarity on the application of the law in Northern Ireland.

“The Equality Commission can no longer sit on its hands. It must now get on with issuing guidance to public bodies confirming that the Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of a woman applies in Northern Ireland.

“Public bodies, the civil service, Councils and schools deserve clarity and the public expects common sense”.

He said the judgment “should mark a reset” and public bodies must now “bring an end to the confusion”.

A spokesperson for ECNI said: “As part of our application to the court to clarify how the judgment in ‘For Women Scotland’ should be applied in Northern Ireland, we always stressed that it should be held until the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in ‘Dillon and others’. This was agreed by the Court on 27 January 2026, and the matter has been scheduled for review on 1 June 2026. We will consider the implications of this detailed judgment in advance of that.”