Question

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the decision of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16, what action they are taking to secure and ensure safe spaces for females.

The Government has always supported the protection of single-sex spaces to ensure women’s safety, privacy and dignity.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission as Britain’s independent equality watchdog has revised its Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations (the Code) following a six-week consultation. The Code includes practical guidance for service providers, associations and those delivering public functions on how they should comply with the Equality Act 2010, following the Supreme Court ruling.

The Government is considering the draft updated Code and, if the decision is taken to approve it, the Code will be laid before Parliament. Parliament will then have 40 sitting days to consider the Code.

More widely, the Government is continuing to deliver on our commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. This includes embedding domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in five police forces under ‘Raneem’s Law’, to help improve the police response to domestic abuse; taking steps to tackle spiking including introducing a new criminal offence; widening the use of stalking protection orders; and in July announcing £53m investment over the next four years to further tackle domestic abuse.