Bridget Phillipson has publicly blamed the Equality and Human Rights Commission after the DfE failed to publish the EHRC’s guidance on single-sex spaces for months. It is still not out…
Phillipson told pool reporters that she would publish the guidance “as soon as I can” and laid the blame at the EHRC’s door for legal problems in their guidance:
“We did require certain additional information from the EHRC, so that has unfortunately slowed the process, but I hope we can make progress, because I know that people want that clarity, but actually the ruling from the Supreme Court was also very clear… We have a new chair that has taken up post at the EHRC. I think she is going to do a fantastic job, and I have every confidence in her… We have experienced difficulties in the past. I’ll be up front about that.”
The Education Secretary is in effect blaming former EHRC chairman Baroness Falkoner. The funny thing is that the new one, Mary-Ann Stephenson, insisted that the guidance was “legally sound” when presented to the government in Summer last year…
Phillipson added: “I hope now we can move into a phase where we can crack on, we can make sure that we’re putting in place the code of practice that we know we need to bring forward, but we do so in a way that is responsible, that follows all of the proper processes.” A barbed quote there – all is not well when it comes to implementing a landmark Supreme Court decision…
