New offices, schools, hospitals and shops must have separate single-sex toilets, the Government will confirm this week, after a minister warned children ‘avoid’ using gender-neutral lavatories at school.
Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch is leading proposals to prevent non-residential buildings from being built with ‘universal’ toilets as part of efforts to halt the ‘forced sharing of spaces’.
The plans, understood to have quietly been approved last month, will include changes to building and planning regulations to enshrine separate stalls in new buildings and demand partitions be installed in current unisex facilities, The Telegraph reports.
It comes after Ms Badenoch warned last week that pupils are avoiding going to the toilet during school hours because they only have access to gender-neutral lavatories.
She says it is legal and ‘important’ to provide single-sex spaces for males and females after claims last year that women were finding it hard to find single-sex facilities.
