The Charity Commission has confirmed it is not responsible for enforcing equality legislation after the Women’s Institute (WI) and Girlguiding announced changes to their membership policies.
This week, the WI and Girlguiding announced that they would no longer offer memberships to transgender women and girls, respectively, following a Supreme Court ruling in April, which decided that “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “biological sex”.
In its statement, the WI said that not changing its policies “would leave us at risk of costly legal challenge and potential regulatory action from the Charity Commission”.
A spokesperson for the commission told Civil Society it would only become involved in matters of equality law if a breach of another regulator’s rules indicated a wider failure of governance.
The commission plans to update its Equality Act guidance for charities after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is responsible for enforcing equality legislation, has published its own code of practice.
Following the Supreme Court judgment in April, EHRC has produced a draft updated code of practice but this has not yet been approved by the government.
The commission also confirmed that the Women’s Institute had submitted a serious incident report in line with its guidance.
A spokesperson for the Women’s Institute told Civil Society it had not been contacted by the commission and refused to comment on whether it had received any legal threats over its previous membership policy.
Concerns over policy changes
Both charities express regret at their membership changes but stated they were necessary to comply with the Supreme Court judgment.
Girlguiding did not mention the commission in its statement but similarly emphasised that its trustees had decided to bar people “not recorded female at birth” from membership after consulting “expert legal advice”.
A spokesperson for Girlguiding told Civil Society it had not received any legal threats over its previous membership policy.
Campaigning organisation the Good Law Project criticised Girlguiding and the WI’s policy changes, which it suggested “may well be unlawful” in terms of complying with the Human Rights Act.
Meanwhile, a trustee of Girlguiding North West England announced on social media yesterday that she had decided to step down following the national charity’s policy change.
A petition to allow transgender women and girls back into Girlguiding UK has attracted more than 20,000 signatures.
