After Years of Talk, UK Bans Gender-Neutral Bathrooms for New Buildings and Rebuilds

“Privacy and dignity” will be protected by new regulations which means a host of commercial and public buildings must have separate loos for men and women, the British government says.

Long-discussed amendments to building regulations making separate loos available for the two sexes in newbuilds and major rebuild projects will take effect later this year, government Secretary of State for Business and Trade and Minister for Women and Equalities Kemi Badenoch has said.

Any new or rebuilt bar, restaurant, office, school, or hospital — most non-domestic buildings, in other words — must provide men’s’ and women’s’ loos rather than what have been called gender-neutral lavatories in order to receive planning permission. The government say this will help protect “safety, privacy and dignity”.

An exception will exist for premises where two sets of loos can’t be provided — for instance where it is too small to have both — but in those cases self-contained facilities where a loo, sink, and hand-dryer inside a single, lockable room would have to be  provided, still ensuring total privacy while in use. These are characterised by the government as “dedicated, self-contained ‘unisex’ toilets which maintain privacy for the single user”.

Badenoch said the rules mean there would be “better provision for women so that our particular biological, health and sanitary needs are met”. The regulations, she said, will: “guide organisations to design unisex and single-sex toilets, ending the rise of so-called gender-neutral mixed sex toilet spaces, which deny privacy and dignity to both men and women”.

Just last week, she revealed schoolgirls in the United Kingdom who had been denied single-sex loos had developed urinary tract infections, such was their aversion to gender-neutral toilets.

Plans to make these changes have been in in the air for several years. A 2020 government-ordered review of “toilet provision” found “increasing numbers of publicly accessible toilets are being converted into ‘gender neutral’ facilities, causing problems for women and older people in particular”.  In 2021 the government made moves to improve the overall provision of public loos by introducing tax relief on the facilities, and in 2022, Badenoch addressed Parliament to make a statement on the issue.

She said: “Women also need safe spaces given their particular biological, health and sanitary needs… Women are also likely to feel less comfortable using mixed sex facilities… The Government is also aware of broader concerns that women’s biological differences are being ‘erased’ in public life.” Badenoch revealed then, in July 2022, that the government intended to amend building regulations “to ensure separate toilets for men and women continues to be provided”.

Responding to the latest announcement that this amendment was actually taking effect this year, state broadcaster the BBC dutifully reported opposition to the plan by long-controversial child transgender charity Mermaids, who complained: “In order to ensure everyone is served fairly and that everyone can feel comfortable using public toilet facilities, not only are gender-specific facilities in which trans people can feel safe in using vital, but gender-neutral facilities are also greatly necessary to ensure non-binary people’s experiences with toilet facilities are one of comfort.”