All new public buildings will be required to have single-sex male and female toilets, the Government announced on Sunday.
The planned changes to the regulations will mean all new non-domestic public and private buildings will have to provide separate single-sex toilets for women and men.
The Government claims that gender neutral facilities leave women and elderly people who have dignity and privacy concerns ‘unfairly disadvantaged’.
Kemi Badenoch, Minister for Women and Equalities, said: ‘It is important that everybody has privacy and dignity when using public facilities. Yet the move towards “gender neutral” toilets has removed this fundamental right for women and girls.
‘These proposals will ensure every new building in England is required to provide separate male and female or unisex facilities, and publish guidance to explain the difference, protecting the dignity, privacy and safety of all.’
The new guidelines will also encourage the consideration of self-contained toilets, which are a fully enclosed toilet room with a wash hand basin for individual use.
Pro-LGBTQ+ activists have often emphasised the importance of gender-neutral toilets, including Conservative MP Caroline Nokes.
Responding to yesterday’s announcement, Nokes told PinkNews: ‘What matters most when it comes to toilets is design. I always point at Portcullis House in Parliament which has bathrooms on every floor, nobody refers to them as gender-neutral bathrooms – they are just bathrooms.
‘If you have lavatory facilities that are each self-contained units, with their own wash basin and hand drier, and wall-to-ceiling walls and doors, and men remember to put the seat down, there really is nothing to complain about.’
‘What we all want is nice, clean, private loos, and in new builds in particular that ought not to be impossible,’ she added.
If this article was of interest, then check out our feature, 'Time to talk toilets'.
