All entries on Feminist Legal Clinic’s News Digest Blog are extracts from news articles and other publications, with the source available at the link at the bottom. The content is not originally generated by Feminist Legal Clinic and does not necessarily reflect our views.
The Government is advertising for a senior civil servant to “lead on trans equality”.
A new policy manager at the Cabinet Office will focus on the “implications” of 2025’s judgment, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the term “women” in the Equality Act referred to biological sex, meaning trans women are not women under equalities law.
However, Bridget Phillipson, the women and equalities minister, has continued to block the publication of guidance that would force business and public bodies to protect women-only spaces.
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, said: “We are in the absurd situation that civil servants are advising Bridget Phillipson on the EHRC code of practice while the head of the Civil Service is claiming he cannot tell those staff members what rules are lawful until the guidance is finalised.
“Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office is telling individual government departments to take their own legal advice rather than developing a single, standard policy that follows the law. This is an untenable position. Sex Matters will be considering its legal options.”
Source: Civil Service to hire trans equality chief as Labour dithers over Supreme Court ruling