Supreme Court rules 'woman' in Equality Act DOES refer to biological sex in landmark case

The definition of a woman and sex in the Equality Act relates to a biological woman and biological sex, the Supreme Court has ruled as it unanimously allowed an appeal from a campaign group.

Campaign group For Women (FWS) brought a series of challenges - including to the UK's highest court - over the definition of "woman" in Scottish legislation mandating 50% female representation on public boards. The dispute centres on whether someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) recognising their gender as female should be treated as a woman under the 2010 Equality Act. FWS has previously said not tying the definition of sex to its "ordinary meaning" could have far-reaching consequences for sex-based rights, as well as "everyday single-sex services" like toilets and hospital wards.

However, lawyers for the Scottish Government told the UK Supreme Court at a hearing in November that a person with a GRC is "recognised in law" as having changed sex.

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In a ruling on Wednesday, justices at the UK's highest court unanimously ruled in FWS's favour. Lord Hodge, sitting with Lords Reed and Lloyd-Jones alongside Ladies Rose and Simler, said the "central question" is how the words "woman" and "sex" are defined in the 2019 Equality Act.

He continued: "The terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex."

During the hearing in November, Aidan O'Neill KC, for FWS, told justices the Scottish ministers' position that sex, man and woman in the Equality Act refer to "certificated sex" - as the sex on a person's birth certificate whether or not amended by a gender recognition certificate (GRC) - is "just wrong and should be rejected by the court".

But Ruth Crawford KC, for the Scottish Government, said a person who becomes a woman "in consequence of a GRC" is entitled to those protections "just as much as others enjoy those protections who are recorded as a woman at birth".

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