Women's toilets and changing rooms to be protected from today as new single-sex rules come into force

Women's toilets and changing rooms will be for women only from today as new single-sex rules come into force.

The code of practice, released nearly a year-and-a-half after the landmark Supreme Court ruling on biological sex, provides legally accurate, impartial and up-to-date guidance on existing law - and has now come into effect.

The document, which gives "up-to-date examples of how the Equality Act applies to everyday situations", can be used by courts to clear up challenges to the ruling.

Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson previously said the code of guidance is likely to be heavily used in court because the issue is a "very contested space".

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Britain's equalities regulator has insisted that the updated guidance does not create any new law - or new legal obligations.

But it has clarified rules for cafes and leisure centres, which will now receive legally accurate, impartial and up-to-date guidance on how to safeguard women's spaces.

The draft guidance, published in May, was the first update to the document in more than a decade and was described by Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairwoman Mary-Ann Stephenson as a "major milestone".

The new guidance confirms a service must be used on the basis of biological sex to qualify as a single-sex space under the Equality Act.

Single-sex toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards and refuges all fall under the new guidance.

Unisex services, such as self-contained lockable cubicles, can still mean toilets and changing rooms are available to both genders - with the code noting that it would be "very unlikely to be proportionate to put a trans person in a position where there is no service that they are allowed to use".

The Government has come under heavy criticism for the lengthy delay to update guidance after the April 2025 Supreme Court ruling.

Suella Braverman, Reform UK's equalities spokeswoman, said Labour had to be "dragged kicking and screaming into adopting simple common sense and protecting women's-only spaces".

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"The Government and EHRC now have no excuse in not enforcing and upholding the law," she added.

"That means getting tough with civil servants and public sector bodies who continue to buy into nonsensical woke definitions of gender and threaten the rights and privacy of British women and girls."

For Women Scotland, the group behind the original Supreme Court ruling, previously told GB News it had been a long wait with "a lot of lies and misdirection" along the way.

"Businesses and public bodies should now stop giving an ear to any organisation who tried to argue that the Code was wrong and pay heed to those of us whose interpretation of the Equality Act was vindicated by the most senior judges in the land," it added.

Labour has repeatedly insisted it was "taking the time to get this right" and said many businesses would already be compliant with code.

Analysis has also revealed the cost of protecting women's spaces - with nearly 13,000 toilets and more than 5,000 changing rooms thought to have to change as a result of the guidance.

New signage may also need to be issued for at least 18,000 services, according to figures from the EHRC.

Councils could also see a £20.6million bill for cleaning new-look facilities and may have to pay £14.2million a year for building new single-sex spaces.

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