Male and female toilets could be rebranded as unisex to allow trans people to access them, the head of Britain’s equalities watchdog has said.
Mary-Ann Stephenson, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said ‘straightforward’ changes could make it easier for those ‘who can’t or don’t want to use the services of their biological sex’.
Dr Stephenson, in her first interview since taking the job last month, stressed that there was no need for ‘toilet police’ but that offering alternative facilities or improving signage could help.
She told the BBC: ‘At the moment we have men and women’s toilets, men and women’s changing rooms.
‘They are not policed – you don’t have guards on the door, you don’t have a sort of ‘toilet police’ because the enforcement has to be proportionate to the issue.
‘Generally speaking, these things work through social conventions and social contract – most people obey and follow the rules.’
Mary-Ann Stephenson, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said ‘straightforward’ changes could make it easier for those ‘who can’t or don’t want to use the services of their biological sex’
Giving the example of two self-contained cubicles, one reserved for men and one for women, Dr Stephenson said: ‘The most sensible thing in those circumstances for a service provider to do is to make both of those unisex, if they’re self-contained with a sink, individual lockable rooms.
‘There is no need to say one is for men and one is for women, you could make them both unisex.’
Asked whether trans women were women, Ms Stephenson said the Supreme Court had ruled that under equalities law, women and men were defined based on their biological sex at birth.
But she added that ‘in most social situations I would want to treat people the way they want to be treated’.
Businesses are still awaiting new guidance which will be used to inform their provision of single and separate-sex services, such as toilets and changing rooms, following the Supreme Court’s ruling in April.
In a hugely significant judgment, judges confirmed the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act ‘refer to a biological woman and biological sex’.
New guidance produced by the EHRC is currently being assessed by ministers.
Dr Stephenson, in her first interview since taking the job last month, stressed that there was no need for ‘toilet police’ but that offering alternative facilities or improving signage could help
Dr Stephenson was appointed to her role in July.
The move was met with hostility by some trans campaigners, in part because she had given money to the case of lawyer Allison Bailey, who won part of a tribunal claim that she was discriminated against because she held gender-critical views.
But Dr Stephenson insisted she could still be objective when it comes to trans issues.
She said she gave money to the case because she was frustrated by situations where ‘women were being harassed and losing their jobs on the basis of lawfully held beliefs’.
In a statement earlier this month, a Government spokesman said: ‘We are unapologetic about taking the time to produce legally sound guidance that will guide businesses and organisations, and ensure have the the safety and dignity they deserve; the alternative, issuing rushed and flawed guidance, would be utterly catastrophic and fail women across our country.’