FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 13/05/2025 (This article has been updated, see UPDATE NOTES)
Translucent has begun the process of taking legal action against the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
We have made this decision because we believe that the commission is acting unlawfully in their response to last month’s Supreme Court judgement on the status of trans people under the Equality Act.
The EHRC has a responsibility to hold a lengthy public consultation when it intends to update its statutory guidance on the implementation of the Equality Act.
They have proposed a two-week consultation. We believe this is too short to adequately collect a broad range of views from stakeholders.
The EHRC have a legal duty to enter this process with an open mind, and not with a settled view on how they will update their guidance.
We believe that the EHRC does not have an open mind and they have come to a settled view on the consequences of this judgment because two senior EHRC personnel have made public statements expressing a seemingly settled view.
This includes the chair of the EHRC who explained to Nick Robinson on Radio 4 what she thought the consequences of the judgement should be.
This includes the chair of the EHRC who explained to Nick Robinson on Radio 4 what she thought the consequences of the judgement should be.
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— TransLucent (@translucent.org.uk) 13 May 2025 at 09:33
We believe that the EHRC intends to open their public consultation with a predetermined outcome. This is not only unfair but also shows a stunning disregard for the views of stakeholders on this issue, which has been of great national interest.
We therefore instructed human rights solicitors at Leigh Day to write a letter as a precursor to potential legal action.
UPDATE NOTES:Â
12/7/25: Over the past two months, our solicitors, Leigh Day, have been in regular contact with the EHRC. They have finally admitted that their Chair, Baroness Falkner, and Commissioner Akua Reindorf were speaking officially on behalf of the EHRC shortly after the FWS v SGM judgment in April 2025. Given that other stakeholders are already taking legal action against the EHRC, our solicitors have advised us to “play the long game” and consider seeking a judicial review of its draft Statutory Guidance once released.
But our fight doesn’t stop here.
With the assistance of Leigh Day, we have made an application to the GANHRIGANHRI The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions brings together and supports national human rights institutions to promote and protect human rights Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions https://ganhri.org (Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions) seeking an investigation into the EHRC, as we believe they have broken the Paris Principles. As far as we are aware, we are the only UK human rights organisation to do so.
We have written to the Parliamentary Estate at Westminster stating that they are unfairly discriminating against trans people regarding toilet provision, giving notice of potential legal action.
We are considering legal action against both the Labour Party and LGBT Labour, as we believe they may be unfairly discriminating against trans people and specifically trans women.
But all this costs money.
If you would like to donate directly to TransLucent, please do so HERE. (https://translucent.org.uk/donate/)
If you would like to donate to our legal action, with ALL donations going via Crowd Justice to Leigh Day, please do so HERE. Â (https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/bin-the-ehrc-single-sex-guidance/)