Judicial review sought of EHRC code

The EHRC Code of Practice (CoP) restricting trans rights in the wake of the April 2025 Supreme Court comments on the Equality Act 2010 could become statutory as soon as the Secretary of State makes an Order. This could happen at any time.

TransLucent, a trans-led campaigning organisation, is seeking a judicial review of the CoP. TransLucent states that they “believe the Code contains clear errors of law. Specifically, it wrongly states that including trans people in single-sex services is ‘very likely’ to be unlawful direct discrimination, and separately wrongly suggests that offering mixed-sex facilities could itself be direct discrimination against women. We say both statements misstate the law as it currently stands”.

Scrutiny

The Code was, as is usual with such things, “laid before parliament” for 40 days (up to 9 July). That is supposed to allow parliamentary scrutiny. In fact it doesn’t and didn’t.

166 MPs signed the Early Day Motion from Nadia Whittome calling for the CoP to be rejected, but that got them no parliamentary hearing. The parliamentary timetable is almost all controlled by the government. To get scrutiny would require a party, most likely the Lib Dems, to use an “opposition day debate” for it. But the Lib Dems had already had their “opposition day” in February.

The BAD Coalition (Bodily Autonomy and Dignity), initiated by Anti-Capitalist Resistance (ACR) with others, helped coordinate a series of small protests across the country on 9 July, including in Manchester where Workers’ Liberty supporters were also involved.

The Code as it stands is unworkable, and could lead to the exclusion of many trans people from much of public life, mainly by licensing anti-trans vigilantism (“you don’t look like a real woman”).

As TransLucent say the code as drafted, “creates significant risk and burden for multiple groups… Service providers face financial burdens complying with the Code, alongside exposure to costly legal claims if they fail to act appropriately. Trans people risk exclusion from everyday services… Disabled people may face knock-on effects from increased competition for accessible facilities such as toilets and changing rooms. Cisgender women who do not present in stereotypically feminine ways are already reporting being challenged over facility use”.