The Law on Female-Only Hospital Wards

In an interview today on LBC, Labour leader Keir Starmer was questioned about single-sex hospital wards. He confirmed that Labour intends to maintain single-sex services as provided for in the Equality Act 2010 and suggested the use of third-spaces such as side rooms to accommodate transgender patients. This was also reported in the Times as a policy proposed by Wes Streeting, the shadow Health Secretary.

Commenting on this, Barrister Robin Moira White of Old Square Chambers suggested that this was unlawful discrimination, without doubt:

Robin has a large following of people who generally tend to believe that a discrimination law barrister specialising in the law relating to gender identity would 1. know the law, and 2. not misrepresent it without serious reputational damage.

Unfortunately, it is far from clear that third spaces to accommodate transgender people amount to unlawful discrimination. In fact the opposite is true: single-sex services are lawful, mixed-sex hospital wards may be unlawful sex discrimination and failure to provide third-spaces for transgender people may be unlawful gender-reassignment discrimination. The law in this area is complicated but not impossible to understand, especially for competent lawyers.