Kishwer Falkner, chairman of the EHRC from 2020 to 30 November last year, has hit out at Bridget Phillipson over her handling of the single-sex ruling last year. The government delayed new guidance in response to the landmark Supreme Court ruling using a series of excuses…
Replying to a particularly embarrassing puff piece interview in the New Statesman, Falkner – now free to say what was really going on – criticised the Education Secretary:
“My experience of the Minister for Women and Equalities, when chair of the EHRC, was, at best, disinterest and disengagement…
To now read that women “deserve” single sex spaces or that Phillipson needs to go through the EHRC code “thoroughly and properly” is both patronising and disingenuous. She received the code in April 2025, and was fully aware that changes would be made to 3/13 sections impacted by the Supreme Court ruling.
Those changes were submitted on 4 September. To have taken six months on circa 11 pages of text drafted by leading lawyers, implies a level of meticulousness not normally afforded to senior ministers, where decision-making is a prerequisite.
The real reason for the delay is that Phillipson does not like this law as clarified by the Supreme Court. It is possible that she was awaiting the outcome of a Judicial Review in which she argued that female-only lavatories could continue to be seen as single-sex even if they permitted trans women to access them, contrary to the EHRC and Supreme Court position. That ruling is in, and EHRC won on all counts.
This isn’t about “an approach” taken by myself or my board, as that has now been tested in in court. Phillipson has erected a hurdle to application of the law, thus denying women validation of their rights. That is there for all to see.”
Should clarify things…
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