Women of WRN Manchester have been involved in a courageous push-back against their City Council in defence of single sex spaces, by harnessing and deploying the legal prowess of Akua Reindorf, KC.
The story begins in February 2022, on a dark day for women’s sex-based rights when Manchester City Council (MCC) passed a motion/resolution with the title, ‘Trans Rights Are Human Rights’, declaring that ‘trans men are men, trans women are women, non-binary people are non-binary and trans rights are human rights’. Once passed, this motion gave unwelcome credibility to a nonsensical mantra in relation to the provision of Council services.
The motion was passed apparently unanimously at a full Council meeting without any questions on the implications for female-only services and no Equality Impact Assessment.
Members of WRN Manchester took immediate action, and working together with Labour Women’s Declaration (LWD), they have spent more than two years holding the Council to account and highlighting the implications of the motion on single sex services.
Cath Dyson of WRN Greater Manchester explains further:
“All Executive Members of the Council, the Director of Equality and Engagement and the City Solicitor have been contacted about our concerns. Do they fully understand the implications of the ‘Trans Rights are Human Rights’ motion on the delivery of council services including: leisure services such as women-only swimming sessions and toilets; personal social care from a carer; residential accommodation such as a nursing or care home; schools; funding of community groups for example decisions to fund single sex services such as domestic abuse services; homeless hostels; youth and children’s services; and data collection?
We have submitted FOIs, visited Leisure Centres and emailed Centre Managers. We also attended a Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee where a resident explained that women attending women only swimming sessions, some who may have experienced sexual violence, would rightly expect it to be women only. The Committee Chair responded ‘... I’m going to stop you … this is about equality and inclusion … I’m not going to allow that point’. It was also made clear by the Director of Equality and Engagement that they were implementing a policy of ‘Transwomen are women’, when we asked for clarification about what was meant by ‘fully inclusive of all women’ and we received the following reply, ‘Fully inclusive to all women means just that, all women (including trans women)’.
MCC and GLL (who provide the leisure services for MCC) defend the indefensible, telling us that inclusion of men in women’s services (and not telling those female service users) is about inclusion and equality. This is in spite of an up to date Equality Impact Assessment stating ‘There may be barriers to participation for women which may include less disposable time, an intimidating environment, or they may not feel as comfortable accessing all sessions available at the centre due to cultural or religious beliefs. This shows a surprising level of cognitive dissonance that recognises the specific needs of women, including those of faith, e.g. Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women, while simultaneously allowing males into these services. It's also worth noting that during the consultation on this Equality Impact Assessment they never once mentioned the 2022 motion to leisure service users. In effect MCC are implementing gender self ID as a service provider and as an employer, with its ‘Commitment to being a trans and non-binary inclusive workplace’ ”
Knowing that there have been a series of successful outcomes in employment tribunal cases that involved the misinterpretation of Equality law, WRN Manchester and LWD put together a request, with pro bono support from a solicitor within the networks, for Legal Advice from the brilliant Akua Reindorf KC, of Cloister Chambers.
Akua Reindorf KC concludes that MCC did not comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) in applying this motion to Council policies and services and is therefore at risk of acting unlawfully.
The Legal Advice is detailed and measured, but clear in its conclusions that,
It is unlikely a court would find that MCC complied with the PSED in passing the Resolution.
If MCC operationalises the Resolution in areas of separate or single-sex services (which it currently is) it is acting unlawfully.
MCC is likely to be placing itself in legal jeopardy if it insists on adopting a case-by-case approach to its separate or single-sex services.
It is not lawful for MCC to operate separate or single sex services on a self-ID basis.
It is possible that providing unisex services or self-ID services contravenes laws other than the Equality Act including, Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, Children Act 1989 and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the Human Rights Act 1998.
Problems in data collection are capable of causing MCC legal difficulties in its compliance with the PSED.
WRN Manchester women are determined to continue using all available mechanisms to challenge MCC - this is unfinished business and remains an ongoing campaign.
WRN Manchester have produced an Executive Summary with advice for WRN Members. Links to both the summary and the full Legal Advice are shared below, along with the MCC response which was commissioned from Dan Squires KC.
Notes for members wanting to use the advice:
This Legal Advice draws on evidence gathered by Manchester residents who are members of Women’s Rights Network (WRN) and Labour Women’s Declaration (LWD). It was commissioned jointly by WRN and LWD and sent to MCC in July 2024. We waited to make the Advice document publicly available until we had received a response from MCC. They responded on 25 October with what we consider to be inadequate legal advice from Dan Squires KC.
MCC’s barrister would have known that there is no evidence that MCC have “conscientiously considered” the impact on women of allowing a male who identifies as a woman into single sex spaces, when advising that (in his view) there is a need for this to be done to be acting lawfully. Therefore, MCC have been and continue to be acting unlawfully and demonstrate a careless disregard for women and their need for single sex services, for their safety, dignity and privacy.
All these documents, including a summary of the key points made by Akua Reindorf KC, are available to download here.
We hope that Akua Reindor KC’s Legal Advice will be of value to those fighting to protect women’s single sex spaces in other local authorities and organisations who provide services for the public. Please make use of it.
Read the full document to check what is relevant for your situation.
Use exact quotes from the Legal Advice, referencing the section and page number, and including the URL to the full document.
