Single-sex spaces guidance due to be published, say women's rights campaigners

The government previously said it intended to publish the guidance in May and it is expected the code will be laid today, before Parliament goes into recess.

The code of practice for services, public functions and associations covers nine protected characteristics including age, sex, disability, race and gender reassignment, and has been updated in full for the first time since 2011.

It is aimed at guiding businesses and other organisations such as leisure centres and hospitals on how they can follow equality law, including in provision of single and separate-sex services such as toilets and changing rooms.

It will face parliamentary scrutiny before coming into force.

A draft code was handed to ministers by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last September.

While that version was described by the commission as being “legally sound”, the government gave “feedback” and confirmed last month that some changes have been made to the earlier draft version – understood to be additional examples for service providers on how to implement the updated code.

The latest draft of the code has been produced in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 which said the words ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at gender critical campaign group Sex Matters, said the 2011 version had been “legally flawed” and that women who had objected to services operating on the basis of gender self-identification had been branded “bigots and 'transphobes’”.

She added: “This updated code of practice is long overdue. Confusion flourished during the delay in laying it before Parliament.

“The publication of its replacement will mark an important turning point and a return to upholding women's sex-based rights.”

But Trans+ Solidarity Alliance director Alexandra Parmar-Yee said the guidance must ensure trans people are protected as she described law in this area as “a mess”.

She said: “The earlier draft of this guidance encouraged the policing of everyone's gender based on appearance and was focused entirely on excluding trans people.

“It is vital that any new guidance ditches this and provides clarity and confidence for services and associations to keep operating on a trans-inclusive basis, as the majority do, and protects trans people's participation in public life.”

A leaked draft of the guidance was reported in November as suggesting transgender people could be banned from single-sex spaces based on the way they look – prompting trans rights campaigners to call it “a licence to discriminate based on looks, plain and simple”.

EHRC chairwoman Mary-Ann Stephenson said in December that she did not accept such a characterisation, indicating the guidance would give advice on ensuring “there are services provided for people who can't or don't want to use the services for their biological sex”.