The British government is expected to reveal new laws which will require all newly built public buildings to have distinct male and female toilets.
New offices, schools, hospitals and entertainment venues will be required to have separate male and female facilities in a move which has been described as an effort to curb the growing number of buildings that only have gender neutral options.
The Sunday Telegraph has reported that the new regulations were approved by Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch last month, and are expected to be publicly released within the next few days.
Badenoch recently claimed that some school students were avoiding going to the toilet during school hours because they only have access to gender-neutral facilities. The minister also said she was concerned that in some venues women were finding it hard to locate single-sex facilities.
It is understood that the new rules will apply to buildings over a certain size, but there are members of the Johnson government who were pushing for the rules to apply to any premises that is used as a business.
The proposal will also set out conditions for any gender neutral toilets that are installed alongside gender specific facilities. The plans will reportedly include changes to building and planning regulations to ensure separate stalls and partitions are installed in current unisex toilets.
OIP Staff
You can support our work by subscribing to our Patreon
or contributing to our GoFundMe campaign.
