EHRC updates guidance on how to apply supreme court ruling on gender

Changes follow concern that original code created a legal minefield for organisations implementing it The equalities watchdog has updated its guidance on how to implement the supreme court ruling on gender after the government requested changes to the original proposals submitted last year. In a statement, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that after feedback from the government, as well as consultation responses and extra legal advice, it had made changes to what is officially known as the code of practice. It follows concern from a number of MPs and groups representing transgender people that the original code, sent to ministers in September under the EHRC’s then chair, Kishwer Falkner, created a legal minefield for organisations implementing it and risked in effect excluding transgender people from much of the public realm. The code sets out how businesses and other organisations should respond in practical terms to the supreme court ruling that sex in the Equality Act refers only to biological sex. A government source said the changes did not mean the guidance was being weakened and that they would provide maximum clarity on how organisations could provide se