The Charity Commission has been encouraged to issue immediate guidance following recent decisions by Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute to exclude trans women and girls from their memberships.
Governance consultant Penny Wilson wrote to commission chief executive David Holdsworth yesterday, expressing concern that other charities might now “rush to exclude trans people even when this runs counter to what they think is the best way of delivering their charitable objects”.
She suggested the commission could issue immediate interim guidance, or a regulatory alert, to “wait for forthcoming legal announcements before they exclude trans service users”.
Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute’s announcements last week came after a Supreme Court ruling in April, which decided that “woman” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “biological sex”.
The charities’ decisions came despite the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is responsible for enforcing equality legislation, not yet finalising its updated code of practice on how the judgment should be interpreted.
Wilson asked the commission to explain that it would not currently take regulatory action against charities with single-sex objects not excluding trans people.
The commission last week said it would only intervene over charities compliance with equality law if governance concerns were raised by other regulators.
Wilson asked Holdsworth to encourage charities threatened with legal action for opening their services to trans people to put in a serious incident report, so instances of this can be better tracked.
She urged the commission to fast-track applications from charities with single-sex charitable objects wishing to change them to include all genders.
Wilson also asked Holdsworth to remind charities that they can consider other changes to their policies besides full exclusion of trans people.
Charities can seek legal advice, says commission
A Charity Commission spokesperson said the regulator was considering its response to Wilson’s letter and advised organisations to seek legal advice if they have any concerns.
“The EHRC is the lead regulator for equalities matters and the commission will update our Equality Act guidance for charities only once EHRC’s code is published,” they said.
“This is to avoid potential confusion or misalignment between different sets of advice, and to ensure that commission materials fully reflect the EHRC’s code, as it has the primary remit for interpreting equalities law.
“In the meantime, if individual charities have specific concerns, they can seek their own professional legal advice.
“The commission will update our guidance and support for charities in due course, to assist organisations in navigating these issues.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Taylor-McKnight has launched a group called Third Sector Against Transphobia following the Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute policy changes.
