Private hospitals, clinics and other employers need to continue to take steps to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex.
This is despite a challenge to the ruling being led by transgender judge, Dr Victoria McCloud, who the BBC reports is planning to take the government to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.
The Court also pointed out that transgender people still have legal protection from discrimination.
Legal nonsense
McCloud said the judgement and the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) new guidance violated her human rights and she felt “contained and segregated”.
She argued the court had failed to consider human rights arguments that would have been put by trans people and the judgement had left her with the legal “nonsense” of being “two sexes at once”.
Last week Health & Protection reported that private hospitals and clinics who fall foul of gender rules following the Supreme Court’s clarification of the Equality Act could face pay awards running into the tens of thousands.
Jonathan Mansfield, partner at Spencer West, told Health & Protection organisations will need to review policies and could face pay awards of between £12,000 and £30,000 if successful cases are brought against them.
Comply with law as it stands
Asked earlier today what McCloud’s challenge will mean for private hospitals and other employers, Mansfield told Health & Protection they should focus on complying with the law “as it stands”.
“The law as it stands will be what guides the responses that employers and service providers do now,” McCloud said.
“We are also waiting for guidance to come out from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
“They put out some brief comment on Friday 25 April on the ruling and do’s and don’ts, but not in a lot of detail. So the practical steps will be elaborated on.”
But McCloud also pointed out that if there was a ruling that it was incompatible with the European Court of Human Rights, then that would have to be taken into account by the British Court.
“Potentially the law will change, but the process will take some time and for the moment, we will have to grapple with the law as it stands,” he concluded.
