EXPERT WITNESS: Single-sex facilities

EHRC Statutory Code of Practice: services, public functions and associations

Summary:

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s long-awaited Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations comes into force on 5 August 2026. Our legal expert Prof Diana Kloss examines its likely impact, particularly on the provision of single-sex facilities.

This long-awaited revised ‘Services’ Code of Practice has been issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and was laid before Parliament on 21 May 2026¹. Parliament had 40 days to review it, which ended on 9 July. The UK government issued a statutory instrument on 14 July, bringing the code into force on 5 August 2026. The EHRC monitors human rights, protecting equality across nine grounds: age, disability, sex, race, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation and gender reassignment. It is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Cabinet Office.

 

Professor Diana Kloss MBE is a barrister, former part-time employment judge, and author

Author: Kloss D

Tags case law discrimination ehrc equality and human rights commission Equality Act 2010 gender law sex discrimination

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2026 (vol. 23/2) pp41-44

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