Supreme Court victory, one year on: why the reluctance to implement the ruling?
Even a judgement from the highest court in the land has not been enough to change policies in both public- and private-sector workplaces.
Exactly a year ago, I wrote this to celebrate the amazing victory at the Supreme Court. We all hoped this would clarify, once and for all, that a woman is indeed an adult human female, and that single-sex provision would never be challenged again.
However, the magnificent For Women Scotland trio – and all those grassroots organisations that had fought so hard for that win, suffering the indignity of cancelation, demonisation and threats to livelihoods and sometimes their lives for daring to change trans ideology – were not able to retire and bask in victory. Because on the first birthday of that triumph, it’s been a case of two steps forward, one (and a half) steps back. The fight is still on.
I discussed this with Penny Dee on her excellent podcast:
We also discussed this issue at Battle of Ideas North recently – listen here:
On Saturday, I attended and spoke at one of the many ‘#One Year Later – we’re back’ protests organised by #199 Days Later. With its apt slogan ‘#TickTock’, it was an inspiring show of solidarity and determination to thousands of us who are furious that the Labour Government - which parrots compliance with the clarification of the equality law – continues to scandalously drag its feet on issuing and implementing Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance.
The minister for women and equalities, Bridget Phillipson, has used every ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuse going. The former chair of the EHRC, Baroness Falkner, believes Phillipson’s tardiness in publishing the guidance is because she is scared of trans rights activists (TRAs) in her party and in the unions. Disgracefully, in response, a ‘Labour source’ responded with Labour’s go-to accusation of stoking up ‘culture wars’ to close down criticism. Yesterday, we were told that Phillipson has asked the EHRC to ‘tone down’ the guidance to make it ‘more inclusive’, with a commitment to publish once parliament resumes after prorogation in May. Critics think this is just more delaying tactics and undue political interference.
Smears about tone and culture wars won’t distract us from the facts. The consequence of the government letting the Code of Practice gather dust has been a belligerent institutional refusal to change policies to comply with the law. Instead, NGOs, HR departments, public-sector organisations from the NHS to universities, charities, trade unions, private-sector EDI managers, etc, have boasted of their continued commitment to trans inclusion, at the expense of women.
This was the theme of many of the short, three-minute speeches at the Manchester #OneYearLater protest. One very striking example was given by a former police detective and co-founder of Police SEEN UK, Charlotte Cadden, and she has kindly given us permission to reproduce her speech below. You can watch my speech on the film below as well. In the meantime, despite all these challenges, let’s acknowledge that the reason the UK is dubbed TERF ISLAND is precisely because bottom-up activism has changed the conversation on sex and gender, and I have no doubt that the sheer dogged and dedication of campaigners will prevail in the end.
Happy Supreme Court Ruling anniversary!
Claire
Speech on policing at 199 Days Later event, Manchester
Charlotte Cadden
Thanks to the 199 Days Later grassroots collective for organising these incredible events across the UK and Europe.
I am not speaking on behalf of any organisation today.
Thanks to For Women Scotland for taking the fight for women’s rights to the Supreme Court and winning.
As a former police officer in Greater Manchester Police and the Met, I am here to tell you what went wrong in policing and why chief constables refused to welcome the Supreme Court judgement in April 2025.
The judgement confirmed what we knew all along: that a woman is an adult human female.
What did go wrong?
In short – it was the combined efforts of Stonewall & the national Police LGBTQIA+ Network, now led by Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine of Northumbria Police.
Let’s take a look at Exhibit Reference CC1: Trans Guidance for the Policing Sector, published in 2018. This was the beginning of the prioritisation of gender identity over sex by policing. Here’s an example from that guidance: individuals who identify as gender-fluid may require two warrant cards to reflect their gender on different days.
So who endorsed it? The National Police Chiefs Council, the National LGBT Police Network, the Police Federation and Unison.
Trans Guidance for the Policing Sector is a safeguarding failure for women, children and LGB people. One of Chief Constable Jardine’s first priorities as national LGBTQ lead was to enable male Police Officers who identified as women & lesbians, to strip search vulnerable women in custody.
So let’s take a look at exhibit reference CC2: Chief Constables’ Council Minutes, December 2021
Chief Constable Jardine attended the National Police Chiefs Council in Dec 2021 to ask all the other chief constables to allow policemen who say they are women, to be permitted to strip search vulnerable women in custody, which is against Police and Criminal Evidence Act rules.
Q: How many of the 46 chief constables agreed?
A: All of them!
When this policy was agreed, the Women’s Rights Network challenged it because they knew it was unlawful. Respect to Cathy Larkman for raising the red flag on this safeguarding failure!
What needs to happen now?
Chief Constables should apologise to women (instead of to Peter Tatchell) for not applying the Equality Act correctly over the past 10 years
The College of Policing to buy-in unbiased training on the Equality Act 2010, the Gender Recognition Act, and Workplace Health & Safety Regulations 1992
For anyone in the Police worried about unlawful workplace policies or wanting to have their gender-critical beliefs upheld, consider joining @PoliceSEENUK
For any LGB police employees worried about their rights to be same-sex attracted, consider joining LGB Alliance. I can highly recommend!
Finally, a massive thanks to FairCop, Harry Miller, Sarah Philimore, Linzi Smith, the FSU, WRN and LGB Alliance for continuing to hold the police to account.
Charlotte Cadden is the co-founder of Police SEEN UK.