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On April 16th 2025, the UK Supreme Court published their judgment in the case of For Women Scotland vs. Scottish Ministers. You can read the judgement in full here.
It dealt with the meaning of the words “sex”, “man” and “woman” for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. The Supreme Court decided that in the Equality Act, all of those words have a “biological” meaning (although they did not really define what that means).
As far as we can tell, this ruling has had two main effects:
We are still uncertain as to what the full meaning and impact of this will be, but we do know that it has and continues to cause great anxiety and uncertainty for trans and non-binary people across the UK. We are doing all we can to try and understand what the ruling means and to minimise the impacts it will have on our community’s ability to use services and participate in public life.
We have produced a human rights analysis of the impact of the ruling on trans people, which you can read here. See the pages below for more analysis and updates on the ruling itself and the EHRC’s Code of Practice for services.
1st June 2026: Nadia Whittome MP has tabled a motion in UK Parliament to disapprove the Code. You can use our tool to email your MP and ask them to support the motion and speak out against the Code here.
21st May 2026: The EHRC’s updated Code of Practice was laid before UK Parliament by the UK Minister for Equalities. The Code is very unclear about whether and how trans people can be included in public services, public functions, and associations, but encourages our exclusion in many instances. It is not yet statutory guidance, and must first sit before UK Parliament for 40 days. You can read our summary and analysis of many of the changes it makes here.
14th April 2026: An updated version of the Code of Practice has been sent to the UK Government following requests from the UK Minister for Equalities Bridget Phillipson. In a statement on this updated version of the Code, the Minister said that she expects to lay the Code before the UK Parliament in May 2026. Read our thoughts on how we will interpret the new Code here.
5th September 2025: The EHRC have completed their analysis of consultation responses and handed their amended Code of Practice to the UK Minister for Qualities. While we know that tens of thousands of people responded to the consultation, the EHRC have not published these responses, nor their analysis or the version of the Code that they have submitted to the Ministers. The decision is now with the Minister to decide whether to approve the Code, or ask the EHRC to make changes.
1st July 2025: The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) consultation on their draft Code of Practice has now closed. You can read our full response to the consultation here.
Below you can see all of our pages about the Supreme Court judgement. We’ll continue to update this page when we have new information or resources, but make sure you follow Scottish Trans on social media (Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky) to keep up to date with the latest developments.
Here is a list of some organisations also providing important coverage and information about the judgement:
This isn’t a complete list, and we’re incredibly grateful to everyone who’s given their time and energy responding to the ruling and helping others understand what it means.
We’ve also written several news posts relating to the Supreme Court judgement which you can find here:
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2025
The UK Government laid the EHRC’s updated Code of Practice before UK Parliament on 21st May 2026. These are our initial thoughts on some of the major changes it makes relating to trans people, and how it fails the “three tests” we set out for the Code to be fit for purpose. We may update this page over time as our understanding of the Code changes.
Our statement on the impact the Supreme Court ruling has had on our community over the past year, and the uncertainty we still have to deal with in many aspects of our daily lives.
Together with TransActual and Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, we’ve developed three “tests” to determine whether the new Code of Practice for Services is fit for purpose.
Some important updates that have occurred since April’s Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010, and some ways that you can help.
The EHRC held a public consultation asking if changes to its Code of Practice made in light of the Supreme Court ruling were clear. You can find our full response here.
Updates, news and resources about responses to the Supreme Court ruling
Read our letters to the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice committee about our initial thoughts and concerns regarding the Supreme Court judgement
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is consulting on a new draft Code of Practice for some sections of equality law. The consultation is open until Monday, 30th June at 11:59pm. Read this page to find out more about the consultation, and whether you might wish to respond.
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Scottish Trans is part of the Equality Network
Scottish Trans is the Equality Network project to improve gender identity and gender reassignment equality, rights and inclusion in Scotland. The Equality Network is a leading Scottish lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality and human rights charity.
The Equality Network is a registered Scottish charity: SC037852, and a company limited by guarantee: SC220213.
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