Single sex toilets

Yesterday the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced that all new public buildings should have separate male and female toilets.

We are concerned, that although Equalities, Local Government, Faith and Communities Minister, Kemi Badenoch, states that 'the Government believes the proposals that we are minded to adopt will have positive equality outcomes for women, older people, pregnant women, those with babies, people who come under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, and disabled people', this will, if implemented, result in the decrease in gender-neutral and unisex public toilets. 

Gender-neutral and unisex toilets remove a number of difficulties around gendered toilet spaces. For example, people transitioning, being forced to use a gendered toilet facility can be challenging: with other toilet users potentially suggesting that you are using the wrong toilet, also that the facilities you might need such bins for sanitary products are not available in all toilets.

"We believe that public buildings should be leading the way in providing best practice facilities - facilities that respect the dignity of all members of our communities, providing ample clean, accessible and safe spaces to go to the toilet, refresh sanitary products and change nappies. Gendered facilities should not be provided at the expense of gender-neutral and unisex facilities.

"We welcome the work the government has undertaken to support the increase of Changing Places toilets. But do feel that more needs to be done to reverse the closure of so many public toilets that local authorities could no longer afford to keep open. A lack of public facilities for many means actively avoiding going too far away from home.

"Despite the claim that this new approach will not impact on the provision of accessible toilet facilities, we are keen to see how this will be ensured. We also call into question the notion that having separate male and female toilets means there will be more provision for women to prevent queues - cubicles in men's toilets would by the government's own plans become unusable by women, in direct contrast to those open to all in gender-neutral and unisex facilities allowing for maximum utilisation - with baby changing and sanitary product bins available to all.

"We look forward to responding to the consultation around the technical changes to building regulations to ensure gender-neutral and unisex toilets are not erased. And in contrast to Kemi Badenoch's call, suggest that government departments wait until the conclusion of this consultation before making any changes in their own buildings.", Mark Delacour, Director of External Affairs.

The government refers to gender-neutral toilets as those with shared waiting and hand-washing facilities and unisex toilets as those with hand-washing facilities in the same private individual space as the toilet.

In November 2021 The Observer reported on Freedom of Information data obtained by local government researcher Jack Shaw, that showed the number of public toilets that local authorities have funded and maintained fell from 3,154 in 2015/16 to 2,556 in 2020/21 – a drop of 19% over six years.

The Royal Society for Public Health's 2019 report said that the effect has been to create a “urinary leash” ,with one in five people stating that a lack of facilities in their neighbourhood means they restrict outings from their homes.