Single Sex Spaces in the NHS - our Response

On 15 Oct 2026, the NHS finally released updated guidance on single sex spaces, largely confirming that access to single-sex spaces is based on biological sex. This means for example that men who identify as trans should not be placed in women’s wards or enter womens’ changing rooms or toilets. This is the statement LVW has released in response:

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Liberal Voice for Women are pleased to see the updated guidance on single-sex spaces from NHS England, finally bringing the NHS in line with the Equality Act 2010 following the Supreme Court Ruling in 2025. We look forward to prompt implementation by all providers of NHS-funded care.

We note the exceptions for urgent care and certain treatment settings. The guidance sets out very clearly how provision of those services differs from expectations around ward, sleeping and toileting arrangements, all of which are covered by the NHS' Constitutional Pledge to same-sex accommodation. Where urgent clinical need becomes paramount, we call on all NHS providers to hold themselves accountable to implementing the guidance and the law in the spirit in which they are intended and not to use these exceptions as a way to ignore the guidance or declare it unworkable.

We highlight the portion of the guidance relating to the recording and measurement of breaches of the same-sex accommodation requirement. While the intent is excellent, the waters are muddied by the existence of documentation – including NHS records – which allows self-ID of sex. This has allowed incorrect data to be collected into NHS systems and for individual medical records to be corrupted by the replacement of 'sex' with 'gender identity'. We hope that the NHS will fully implement the recommendations in the Sullivan Review published in March 2025. This will support the guidance released yesterday and allow NHS employees to perform their roles without fear of error or backlash.

Liberal Voice for Women notes the previous practice of accommodating people of the opposite-sex in single-sex wards and staff changing rooms and toilets has had harmful effects on women, including the rape of a woman on a men’s mental health ward and the traumatising of abuse victims in nurses’ changing rooms. Liberal Democrat MPs have spoken several times in recent years about Patient Voice, including listening to women, and we hope to see this guidance welcomed by our Lib Dem MPs as something women across the NHS – from staff to patients – have been asking for.