The update exists because of one case: For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16. In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that "sex" in the Equality Act means biological sex, not the sex recorded on a Gender Recognition Certificate. The EHRC consulted twice on how to reflect that in its guidance, the second time specifically on the Supreme Court's implications, before submitting a final draft to government in September 2025 and laying it before Parliament in May 2026.

Does this apply to employers, or only service providers?

This is the detail easiest to get wrong. Employment lawyers at Lewis Silkin have pointed out that the Code covers services, public functions and associations, not employment directly, and that the EHRC's separate Employment Code of Practice has no confirmed timetable for its own review. For a facilities team, that distinction matters: workplace toilets and changing rooms sit in a genuine grey area, since they're provided to employees rather than the public, but lawyers at Hill Dickinson note the updated Code still has illustrative value for employers defending indirect discrimination claims over exactly this kind of provision.

What does good practice look like in a washroom?

This is where IWFM, the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management, has taken a clear position. It continues to recommend the approach used by Sport England: fully enclosed, self-contained toilet facilities, as a practical option that works for everyone using a building rather than requiring a binary choice. IWFM has also been direct about the operational scale of the problem, warning that the changes present what it calls significant and unworkable building and people management challenges for the sector.

Separately, the LGBT+ in FM network has published its own guidance, "Support People Through Change," aimed at trans and non-binary staff, frontline managers and organisational leaders. It's explicit that the guidance reflects the law as it currently stands, not a fixed endpoint, and its stated aim is to offer, in its own words, a clear, humane place to start.

Is this over, or is more change coming?

Not over. Several law firms tracking this, including DAC Beachcroft, have flagged that further legal challenge to the Code itself remains possible now it's in force. And the employment-specific version of this guidance, the one that would apply more directly to internal workplace policy rather than public-facing services, hasn't been written yet.

For FM and HR leaders, the practical takeaway isn't a single fixed policy to copy. It's that washroom and changing provision, EDI policy and day-to-day management practice all need reviewing against a legal position that is real, in force, and still moving. Anyone making estate or policy decisions off the back of it should get advice specific to their own organisation rather than relying on any single article, including this one.

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