Suella Braverman to warn teachers it's 'unlawful' for children of different sexes to share toilets

8 August 2022, 11:17

Attorney General Suella Braverman is set to give a speech on Wednesday warning schools that it is unlawful to allow children of different biological sexes to share toilets.

The Attorney General will warn against children of different biological sexes sharing toilet facilities, in order to protect single-sex safe spaces, The Daily Mail reports.

Mrs Braverman will also say that there is no legal obligation to accommodate transgender pupils’ preferred pronouns or to allow children to wear the uniform of a different gender.

The speech comes as a precursor to guidance expected to be published by the Department for Education this autumn, advising schools on how to support children dealing with gender dysphoria.

In an interview with The Times in May the Attorney General said: "A male child who says in a school that they are a trans girl, that they want to be female, is legally still a boy or a male. And they can be treated as such under the law. And schools have a right to treat them as such under the law.

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"They don’t have to say ‘OK, we’re going to let you change your pronoun or let you wear a skirt or call yourself a girl’s name."

When asked in the interview if a pupil who is born male should be allowed to use female toilets, Mrs Braverman also argued the importance of single-sex toilets and other 'safe spaces' for biological males and females.

"They shouldn’t allow that [male born] child to go into girls’ toilets. I think protecting single-sex spaces for biological females and biological males is really important, particularly in schools.

"There’s no duty on schools to compromise on single-sex spaces. From a safeguarding point of view you can argue that there is a duty on schools to preserve single-sex spaces."

Mrs Braverman's speech to Policy Exchange will come nearly two weeks after the reports that the NHS Tavistock Centre, the only dedicated gender identity clinic for children in the UK, will close down and be replaced by regional centres.

An interim review earlier in the year found the clinic had struggled to deal with a growing number of referrals, and that staff had felt under pressure to adopt an 'unquestioning affirmative approach'.