Ms Stella Creasy

Ms Stella Creasy

Labour (Co-op) — Walthamstow

Speaking in the House of Commons on 1 June 2026

Debate

Equality Act 2010: Code of Practice

Contribution

What this place does best is scrutiny. That is why it is so problematic that this legislation is coming forward in a draft form as a negative statutory instrument. This guidance falls apart on hard contact with the real world. I will quote back to the Minister something that she just said in her statement, because businesses in my local community, which just want to be cafés or restaurants, will be troubled by it. She said that the guidance “does not provide…the right for members of the public to challenge one another on their sex and access to those spaces”, but she also said that “where an individual is asked to confirm their sex, this should be done sensitively”. Most businesses will be deeply confused as to whether somebody can be challenged, and frankly they do not want fights between their customers. Does the Minister accept that, to prevent being people’s gender being judged by their appearance—which we know will harm many more people than, I suspect, even those people who wish to see harm through this guidance would like—the safest option for most businesses will be getting rid of women’s toilets altogether? Will that not be an inevitable consequence of this guidance?

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