The Supreme Court has clarified that “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 means biological sex, male or female. Sex Matters has provided practical advice for organisations.
- EBSWA
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
The full judgement is here:
Sex Matters has produced a summary and practical advice:
Despite the welcome clarity of this judgment, there is still much work to be done to ensure that policies and practice in social work are brought into line with the judgment. EBSWA will be producing social work specific comment and suggestions for compliant and evidence based practice. We welcome contributions from members on experiences of working towards evidence based and legally compliant practice. In the meantime members will find the Sex Matters summary and practical advice helpful in bringing the need for change to the attention of colleagues and managers.
There is a template letter provided by Sex Matters which you can adapt and use.
Dear [xxxx]Introduce yourself: I am writing to you as a… / As you know I am a….I am sure you have heard about the recent Supreme Court judgment clarifying that the meaning of the terms “sex”, “man” and “woman” in the Equality Act relate to biological sex, and not to gender identity or having a gender-recognition certificate (GRC). This judgment protects women’s rights, an issue of particular concern to me.The judgment makes the law much easier to understand and apply in order to protect everyone’s rights. But it is disappointing to those who have been advocating for an approach based on gender identity. That approach has been found to be wrong in law. Organisational policies that are not based on the Equality Act’s definition of sex as clarified by the Supreme Court are likely to result in unlawful conduct.I am attaching a briefing from Sex Matters, a human-rights charity that intervened in the case on the winning side, and which was thanked by the Supreme Court for its cogent analysis. The court described this analysis as giving “focus and structure to the argument that ‘sex’, ‘man’ and ‘woman’ should be given a biological meaning”. You can therefore trust that the briefing (which you can also read online at sex-matters.org/supreme-court-advice) and Sex Matters’ recommendations are legally accurate. I hope you find them useful. I recognise that it will take some time for [xxxx] to develop a comprehensive response to the judgment. But I hope you can immediately reassure me and others that [xxx]:1. accepts the Supreme Court judgement and is fully committed to promoting equality, inclusivity, and fairness for all individuals, in line with the Equality Act 20102. recognises the fundamental importance of protecting women and men against sex discrimination, and following the law in relation to spaces and services3. is committed to upholding the protections against discrimination and harassment of transgender people on the basis of gender reassignment in the Equality Act, which do not involve treating people as having changed sex4. respects freedom of belief and is committed to avoiding belief discrimination (note this does not mean that statements by employees advocating non-compliance with the Equality Act will be tolerated)5. will urgently review existing policies and practices to ensure that they are compliant with the law, and share the plan and results of this process transparently. I would like to follow up by sending you a note of particular issues that I am aware of in relation to your policies. If there is a process or person to best direct this to, please let me know. You can also get in touch with Sex Matters at info@sex-matters.org to ask questions or discuss these recommendations. Thank you.
Copy text
Comments