Phillipson calls for ‘less public debate’ from EHRC on gender recognition rules

Bridget Phillipson would not put a timescale on implementing the guidance, saying officials were going through the 300-page document ‘line by line’. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press/Shutterstock

Bridget Phillipson has urged the equalities watchdog to focus more on helping ministers do their jobs and less on having public debates as a row continues about how long it will take to implement new rules on gender recognition.

The comments by Phillipson, who is the equalities minister as well as the education secretary, come after the Equality and Human Rights Commission took the unusual step of urging the government to “act with speed” in approving its statutory guidance on responding to a landmark supreme court ruling on transgender rights.