Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take in response to the guidance by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on single sex spaces in relation to the prison and probation services, published on 4 April as part of the review of The Care and Management of Individuals who are Transgender policy.

The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service take the allocation of transgender prisoners very seriously. Prisoners are allocated to prisons initially according to their legal gender, which for the vast majority will be their sex recorded at birth. Decisions to locate differently, at any point during a sentence, are made on a case-by-case basis by a Complex Case Board - an expert multi-disciplinary panel chaired by a senior operational manager in HMPPS with specialist training.

According to our latest data collection, over 90% of transgender prisoners are held in a prison matching their legal gender.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission's new guidance will not affect our approach, which was recently judged by the High Court to be reasonable and proportionate, and therefore lawful.