糖心logo

Consultation on changes made to the Estate and Policy following the Supreme Court Ruling on the meaning of the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010.

On Wednesday 16 April 2025, the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd versus The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 ruled that the term 'sex' refers only to biological sex and does not include acquired gender (including gender recognised by a Gender Recognition Certificate) in its meaning. Following this ruling the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the body which has statutory responsibility for promoting and enforcing the Equality Act 2010, produced an updated Code of Practice on services, public functions and associations. This Code provides guidance on how the Equality Act should be interpreted by public bodies in their capacity as service providers. It completed its parliamentary scrutiny period and came into force on Wednesday 5 August 2026.

The EHRC’s separate Code of Practice on Employment has not yet been revised to reflect the ruling.           

Public organisations, including higher education institutions, have a duty to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and a duty to ensure that their policies, practices and procedures comply with the legislation as it currently stands.

The University's Implications of Supreme Court Ruling Working Group, formed in June 2025, has considered the changes to policies, practices and procedures it considers necessary in response to the Supreme Court Ruling.

The key changes to the Estate and to policy considered by the Working Group are:

• an increase in the provision of gender neutral and universal facilities, as outlined in the Estates WC audit summary (Word)
• the introduction of an Accommodation allocation policy (Word) which specifies practices to be followed in student room allocation processes
• the removal of phrases which do not comply with the Equality Act 2010 from the Policy and Guidance on Trans Staff and Students (consultation draft) (Word)

A first phase of the process of consultation on what the impact of the changes to be made to the Estate and to policy will be on staff and students was embarked on in November 2025 and was completed in March 2026. The purpose of consultation is to ensure that the impact of the changes on staff and students is considered in a structured way. It is also to ensure that the measures taken to mitigate negative impact are designed and implemented based on feedback given by staff and students.  

In this phase, the stakeholders consulted were the Unions (UCU, Unite and UNISON), staff networks including the LGBTQ+ Employee Network, Saints LGBTQ+, the Disabled Students Network, the Students Wellbeing and Community Forum chaired by the President of Wellbeing and Community, the Directors of Students Services and Student Experience, EDI Directors and Wardens.

Read the Interim report on the first phase of consultation (Word).

The second phase of consultation begins in October 2026 and is targeted at the broader staff and student bodies. All staff and students are therefore invited to submit their comments on the changes using the feedback forms below.

You will need to sign in with your University account to open the feedback forms. This is so that only University staff and students can respond. The forms do not record your name or email address, so your response is anonymous unless you choose to give your name.

A summary of all the changes made to the Policy and Guidance on Trans Staff and Students (Word), including text that has been removed, is also available. You can also read the existing policy (version 2.7), which is under review. 

The consultation process will be open until Saturday 02 January 2027.

At the end of the consultation period a report on feedback collected in both phases of the consultation will be produced. Responses to the feedback and measures that will be taken to mitigate negative impact will also be outlined in the report. The report will be made available on our Equality Impact Assessment pages.