New rules for public bodies expected ‘by summer’ after UK gender ruling

For Women Scotland members speaking to the media after the supreme court’s ruling on Wednesday. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Updated guidance for public bodies after the UK supreme court’s ruling that a woman is defined in law by biological sex is expected to be issued by the summer, the head of the equalities regulator said on Thursday.

Lady Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, described the ruling as “enormously consequential”, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are going to have a new statutory code of practice, statutory meaning it will be the law of the land, it will be interpreted by courts as the law of the land. We’re hoping we’re going to have that by the summer.”