Toilet use at Holyrood will not be ‘policed’, MSPs told

Holyrood will not be policing its toilets following an interim decision to bar transgender people from using the facilities of their preferred gender, MSPs have been told.

Concerns were raised at Holyrood over this month’s decision by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) on toilet facilities.

Green co-leader Patrick Harvie referenced an open letter to the parliamentary decision-making body, saying that this expressed “serious concerns about the decision that has been made recently” to ban transgender people from the toilet facilities of their preferred gender.

The letter has been signed by 17 MSPs from four political parties, and 31 members of staff, Mr Harvie said.

Raising the issue in an urgent question at Holyrood, Harvie demanded a commitment that “nobody will be asked to provide birth certificates or other paperwork” when using a toilet if someone suspects them of being transgender.

Christine Grahame, a member of the SPCB, told the Green co-leader: “I can assure him this is not going to be policed by the corporate body.”

She added: “We are certainly not monitoring the use of public facilities as a corporate body.”

Her comments came after the SPCB announced the change earlier this month, with the move coming in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

Judges there made clear the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex” – with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) stating as a result that in workplaces which are open to the public, transgender people should not be permitted to use facilities which correspond with their identified gender.

Speaking about the SPCB’s decision, Ms Grahame insisted: “There is nothing in here that will take away from the rights of anybody entering this Parliament.”

Adding that Holyrood decision makers were awaiting “full guidance from EHRC” she said the current poliicy was “simply interim” – appealing to those concerned about the change with “bear with the corporate body until we are able to do a full consultation”.

Ms Grahame stressed the SPCB had made a “collective and cross-party decision” on the matter, which sought to “provide assurance it is committed to offering an inclusive experience for all of those who work in and visit Holyrood”.

Equalities campaigners, however, had already complained the decision leaves transgender people feeling excluded at the “heart of Scotland’s democracy”.

But Ms Grahame said: “I certainly hope and expect that this will not put anybody in this Parliament into a hostile environment, that is not the culture within this building.

“This is simply an interim decision, an interim practical choice we made to comply with the Supreme Court ruling.

“There is now a full consultation going ahead and I fully expect at the end of that, members will see that important balance of the rights of individuals, whatever their position, is dealt with appropriately and with sensitivity.”