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The Conservatives have promised to amend the Equality Act to ensure that the protected characteristic of sex is defined as “biological sex”.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said that for the “safety of women and girls” the “current confusion over the definition of sex and gender” cannot be allowed to continue.
The Conservatives argue the election promise will make it easier for service providers for women and girls, such as those running sessions for victims of domestic violence, to block biological males from attending.
Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party (SNP) are yet to comment on the proposals.
The plan would maintain existing protections for transgender people.
The party says the law has not kept up with “changing interpretations” of sex and gender since it was introduced in 2010.
Some interpret gender to refer strictly to biological sex, while others believe it also applies to people with a Gender Recognition Certificate, a legal document that allows people to change the legal sex on their birth certificate.
“The safety of women and girls is vital and we cannot allow the current confusion around the definitions of sex and gender to continue,” Mr Sunak said.
“The Conservative Party believes this change to the law will provide greater protections in a way that respects the privacy and dignity of everyone in society.”
Writing in The Times, Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said there was “clear confusion among public sector and regulatory bodies about the law and how to respond” and that “clarification” was needed.
She argued the amendment would provide new protections for biological women in places such as hospital wards and rape victim support centers.
Mr Badenoch also criticised Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for “going in circles on this issue”.
The Conservatives have also pledged to make gender reassignment a reserved issue, which would mean there would be uniform policy across the UK.
“We are one UK and it is not realistic for gender recognition to be different in different parts of the country, so we will also be bringing in legislation to ensure that gender recognition is a reserved matter,” she told The Times.
The Equality Act 2010 already allows service providers to exclude particular groups if it is deemed to be a “proportionate means” of achieving a “legitimate aim”.
In 2022, the UK’s equality watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), published guidelines for service providers who want to keep spaces gender-segregated, and provided examples of when they could legally exclude certain groups to do so.
One example concerns access to domestic violence refuges, where the EHRC recommended that it is lawful to bar transgender women from refuges if female victims indicate that they feel uncomfortable.
But the Conservatives say current law is “not clear enough” about when it means biological sex and when it means gender.
In 2022, Judge Haldane concluded: Following a legal challenge by activist groups to gender balance in Scottish public service commissions, it was said the definition of sex in the legislation was “not limited to biological sex or sex assigned at birth”.
The Conservatives argue that “ambiguities” in the law often leave single-sex service providers “vulnerable” to lawsuits, putting the safety of women and girls at risk.
This is not the first time the Conservatives have spoken out about reforming the Equality Act.
She said any changes to the law would require detailed analysis of the disadvantages transgender men and women may suffer in these areas.
