The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the Equality Act’s definition of a woman is based on biological sex.
Five judges unanimously decided that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) should not be treated as a woman under the 2010 Equality Act.
The decision is in response to a challenge brought by campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS), over the inclusion of transgender women with GRCs in the 50 per cent female quota mandated for public boards in Scotland.
The group’s case against the Scottish Government was rejected by judges in Edinburgh in 2022. However, its appeal was allowed by the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning.
The court’s decision will have far-reaching implications for how sex and gender are legally defined and applied across various aspects of UK law. It will also likely affect the rights of transgender women to use single-sex spaces and services.
Ruling welcomed by Britain’s equalities watchdog
Britain’s equalities watchdog has welcomed the ruling as having addressed challenges around single-sex spaces.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chairwoman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said: “Today the Supreme Court ruled that a gender recognition certificate does not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.
“We are pleased that this judgment addresses several of the difficulties we highlighted in our submission to the court, including the challenges faced by those seeking to maintain single-sex spaces and the rights of same-sex attracted persons to form associations.
“As we did not receive the judgment in advance, we will make a more detailed statement once we have had time to consider its implications in full.”
