NHS: Single-sex Spaces for Staff

Baroness Levitt Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2025 Grand Committee

[Baroness Levitt (Lab)]

My Lords, I do not know whether I had met many trans people up until maybe two years ago, but, two years ago, our son started his transition journey—at least, that is when we became aware of it. As a result, this afternoon, I speak to your Lordships first as the parent of a trans child. However, I also speak as a proud feminist—something I have been all my life.

I say this because I believe to the marrow of my bones that my feminism and my belief in the rights of trans people are not, and never should be, in conflict. Even as recently as the 1980s, when I was at university, I was told confidently that feminists were not proper women and that, if I went around being—I quote—“strident about women’s lib”, I would never find a husband. Many of the women I knew started conversations with expressions such as, “Of course, I’m not a feminist, but”. I just do not think those things would be said today. Maybe people have just got used to us feminists and do not fear us anymore in the way they once did just because we lived our lives differently from those who were, at the time, the mainstream.

I speak of this today because, even just as a woman, never mind as a proud feminist, I have experience of being part of a section of society that has not only been discriminated against but for which physical safety is always an issue. Even before the issue of these rights became personal because of our son, I would have argued for the rights of the trans community because discrimination is discrimination. There is no hierarchy of protected characteristics. The rights that I have because I was born a woman do not trump those of trans people any more than my rights as a woman are more important than those of the disabled.

The third capacity in which I speak today is as a lawyer. Here, I am afraid, I must disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Arbuthnot, for whom I have the most immense respect. I deeply regret the interim guidance, or update, put out by the Equality and Human Rights Commission last Friday evening—without having consulted anyone, it appears. What the law requires, which remains unchanged by the Supreme Court judgment, is that decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis as to whether there is a legitimate reason to exclude any section of the community from a particular space or organisation and whether doing so is a proportionate way of achieving that aim. That is what the NHS should do, whether in relation to staff, patients or visitors.

The EHRC interim guidance contains inaccuracies and misstates the law. It has marginalised and frightened the trans community. That should be a matter of real concern to any of us who care about the rights and safety of everyone in our society.