New toilet law hits 13,000 loos across England from August 5 | UK | News

A new toilet rule is being enacted which will affect toilets and changing rooms in England, Scotland and Wales from August.

From August 5, a law on single-sex toilets will come into force; This means that only people of the biologically corresponding gender can access these toilets.

The British watchdog updated the law following a Supreme Court decision hailed by campaigners as a victory confirming that “women are women and men are men”, while others called it “incredibly worrying for the trans community”.

The code of practice, which covers England, Scotland and Wales and was published in draft form in May, confirmed that a service must be used on the basis of biological sex to be classed as single-sex under the Equality Act, according to a court ruling in April 2025.

This means single-sex toilets, changing rooms, hospital wards and shelters should be used according to the gender a person was born with, not the gender they identify with.

It is argued that unisex services such as self-contained lockable cubicles could still ensure that toilets and changing rooms are provided to everyone, and the law states that placing a transgender person in a position where there are no services they are permitted to use would be “very unlikely to be proportionate”.

Analysis by the Press Association suggests around 13,000 toilets and more than 5,000 changing rooms in gyms, hospitals and leisure centers across Britain may need to be renovated at a cost of millions of dollars when the new guidance comes into force.

At least 18,000 signs may also need to be replaced, according to figures obtained by PA.

Public sector bodies such as local councils are estimated to face total unadjusted costs of £20.6 million for cleaning new-look facilities and annual unadjusted costs of £14.2 million for civil works; However, these amounts may increase further.

The law, updated for the first time in more than a decade, was published eight months after it was handed over from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), despite criticism from the Government for the delay; The government insisted it was “taking the time to fix this”.

The updated guidance will affect service providers such as restaurants, leisure venues and hairdressers; public functions such as council services; and associations such as local sports clubs with at least 25 members.

Women in Scotland (FWS), which is behind the High Court case, previously said: “It is important to remember that the Bill does not represent a change in the law but merely a practical aid to implementation.

“If businesses comply with the law, there shouldn’t be a need for major changes.”

But a spokesperson for the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance described the guidance as “useless” and said it could “cause widespread harm to transgender people and those who do not conform to gender stereotypes, and throw businesses and charities into the crossfire of endless litigation.”

A Government spokesman previously said the legal guidance was “about giving organizations the guidance they need, not about changing the law or creating new rules” and suggested “many businesses will already be broadly compliant with the rules so there will be no cost.”