Ruling means Highland schools with unisex toilets must provide single-sex options

Highland Council schools with unisex toilets must now be adapted to have single-sex facilities.

Lady Ross KC told the Court of Session in Edinburgh last week that she would issue a court order making clear that state schools across the country needed to provide separate toilet facilities for girls and boys based on biological sex.

This comes after the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that transgender women are not legally women.

Previously, the council said Alness Academy, Wick High, Inverness Royal Academy and Charleston Academy had unisex facilities.

Highland Council refused to say which schools in the region were affected but said it was reviewing its toilet provision arrangements as a “priority”.

The court order comes after parents had taken legal action after they were concerned about unisex toilets at Earlston Primary School in the Scottish Borders council area.

Highland Council reviewing toilet provision arrangements ‘as a priority’

A Highland Council spokesperson said: “The council is carefully considering the implications of the ruling in the recent court case and will be reviewing the arrangements for toilet provision across its school estate as a priority.”

The schools will now be required to offer single-sex toilets.

In 2021, parents and pupils at Culloden Academy said plans for unisex toilets at the school were “problematic”.

At the time, the council said that unisex toilets are used at Alness Academy, Wick High School, Inverness Royal Academy and Charleston Academy and can help reduce vandalism.

Ultimately, the council said it would change one facility to boys’ toilets, another to girls’ and a third would be unisex.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has released interim guidance on how organisations should interpret the UK Supreme Court’s ruling that a woman is defined by biological sex in law.

In schools, it says: “Schools must provide separate single-sex toilets for boys and girls over the age of 8.

“It is also compulsory for them to provide single-sex changing facilities for boys and girls over the age of 11.

“Pupils who identify as trans girls (biological boys) should not be permitted to use the girls’ toilet or changing facilities, and pupils who identify as trans boys (biological girls) should not be permitted to use the boys’ toilet or changing facilities.

“Suitable alternative provisions may be required.”