Unisex-only toilets in schools is unlawful, Attorney General says

Schools offering only ‘gender neutral’ toilets are breaking the law, Attorney General says

• The Attorney General will lay out the Government’s advice on transgender pupils
• Suella Braverman will say schools can stop trans children using female toilets
• She will add those schools that only offer unisex toilets are doing so unlawfully 

Schools which only offer ‘gender netural’ toilets are acting unlawfully, the Attorney General has claimed.

Suella Braverman, the Government’s chief legal advisor, has said schools have a duty of care to offer ‘single-sex toilets’ to students.

She has also hit out at schools ‘transitioning children behind their parents’ backs’ and has labelled calling transgender children by their preferred pronouns a ‘serious intervention’.

Ms Braverman made the remarks as she gets set to lay out the Government’s advice on how schools should deal with transgender pupils in a speech later today at the Policy Exchange think tank.

Writing in today’s Telegraph, the Attorney General said schools can ‘refuse to allow a biologically and legally male child, who identifies as transgender, from using girls’ toilets’.

Suella Braverman will lay out the Government’s legal advice on how school’s should deal with transgender children

She said: ‘There is also a separate duty to provide single-sex toilets in schools, breach of which would be unlawful. The legislative background therefore means that biological male children are generally not permitted to use the female toilets in schools. 

She added that schools which ‘socially transition’ children without the consent of their parents could be in breach of their duty of care and face lawsuits.

Ms Braverman is set to say that teachers referring to transgender children by their preferred pronoun should not be done unless a medical professional has advised them to do so.

Unisex or gender-neutral toilets in schools are ‘unlawful’ the Attorney General has warned

Earlier this year the then-Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, who along with Ms Braverman entered the race for Conservative leader, said children ‘avoid’ using gender-neutral lavatories at school.

Women’s rights groups have long argued that they are ‘disadvantaged’ by gender-neutral toilets that contain both urinals and cubicles.

The Home Office, BBC, Channel 4 offices all have gender-neutral facilities.

The Old Vic theatre also scrapped its men and women toilets and replaced them with ‘self-selection’ facilities that can be used by both genders in October 2019.

It has been reported that NHS hospitals have spent more than £800,000 on gender-neutral toilets in the past four years.

Data obtained by the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) showed nearly 740 new unisex toilets were either built or converted since 2018 — including during the Covid pandemic.

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, in Merseyside, alone spent more than £586,000 on 63 gender-neutral lavatories.

Last month it was announced the NHS’s controversial child Tavistock transgender clinic will shut its doors after a damning report found it was ‘not safe’ for children.

The gender identity service at Tavistock & Portman NHS Foundation Trust will be replaced by regional centres at existing children’s hospitals, which will provide more holistic care with ‘strong links to mental health services’.

An ongoing review of Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) clinic accused it of rushing children into life-altering treatment on puberty blockers.

It comes in response to an ongoing review led by senior paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, who warned the gender clinic was ‘not a safe or viable long-term option’.

She found other mental health issues were ‘overshadowed’ in favour of gender identity issues when children were referred to Tavistock’s Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).

The clinic has been accused of rushing children onto puberty blocking drugs by former patients who feel they weren’t challenged enough.

Dr Cass has called for ‘rapid’ research on the use of the drugs after she found ‘insufficient evidence’ on their benefits.

NHS England said it would set up two new centres run by specialist children’s hospitals in London and the North West. 

They will take responsibility for all of Tavistock child trans patients and waiting lists with the aim to shut down the clinic by next spring.

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