MP asks for clarity on single sex spaces
Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard has written to local health chiefs to demand confirmation that hospitals in Telford and Shropshire are following a landmark Supreme Court ruling regarding biological sex.
The move follows a judgment in April 2025 which clarified that the definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex rather than gender identity.
While the ruling does not change legal protections against discrimination for transgender people, it has sparked a debate over the management of single-sex spaces within the health service.
Letters were sent by the MP to the Chief Executive of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and the head of the Integrated Care Board for the region.
The intervention comes after national reports suggested some NHS policies still allow trans women to use female-only toilets and bathrooms.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has recently consulted on a new Code of Practice to help public bodies implement the legal clarification. Currently, the NHS has stated it is waiting for further ministerial direction on how to provide single-sex spaces based on biology.
Mark Pritchard MP said: “The NHS says it is waiting for EHRC guidance, but it is the Equality Act that organisations must comply with, and the position in law has already been made crystal clear by the Supreme Court judgment.
“To ensure safety and privacy, in particular for women and girls, single sex spaces must be protected in NHS hospitals and other NHS facilities.”
Well said Mr Pritchard.
Regardless of cosmetic surgery and hormone therapy, If a human body has a prostate, It is male.
Simple and irrefutable.
We can dress as we like we can call ourselves what we like but you can not be defined as a woman if you have a male only prostate.