![\"Progress](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/City-firms-have-tightened-trans-policies.jpg\")
\t\tCity firms have been forced to tighten up their trans guidance\t<\/p>\n\t\t\tFriday 14 August 2026 5:00 am
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\tFriday 14 August 2026 11:46 am\n\t<\/p>\n
\t\tCity firms have been forced to tighten up their trans guidance\t<\/p>\n
City firms are being forced to tighten up inclusion policies and prevent transgender staff from using single-sex bathrooms, after the equalities watchdog published fresh directions on enforcing the seismic Supreme Court ruling on gender last year.<\/a><\/p>\n Square Mile giants including Admiral, Coventry Building Society and Santander have all updated their HR procedures to bar trans staff and visitors from female and male facilities, City AM can reveal, in line with the new guidance from the regulator.<\/p>\n Last week, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published its eagerly anticipated code of practice for services organisations clarifying how to interpret the landmark Supreme Court judgment on the definition of sex last April.<\/p>\n The guidance made clear that service providers should restrict single-sex spaces like bathrooms and changing rooms to people of that biological sex unless those facilities were self-contained. It also encouraged firms to provide a \u2018third\u2019 or mixed-sex space on the condition it doesn\u2019t compromise single-sex provision.<\/p>\n The formal code, which clarified initial guidance from the EHRC last year, has forced several financial services firms to reevaluate legacy diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, after several were accused by Sex Matters, a charity, of not conforming to the watchdog\u2019s early guidelines. <\/p>\n \t\tFirms update trans guidelines<\/p>\n In a report from May titled Sex-based rights in the City, the gender-critical organisation listed over a dozen firms it said were failing to restrict access to women-only facilities to biological females. Among the household names called out by Sex Matters were Natwest, Standard Chartered and insurance giant Prudential.<\/p>\n City AM can reveal that the report, combined with last week\u2019s fresh guidance, has triggered several of the named blue-chip firms to update their transgender policies. A spokeswoman for Admiral said that following the EHRC\u2019s code, it had \u201caligned our relevant policies with the legal position\u201d. The FTSE 100 insurer had been waiting for official guidance before changing its policy, which are understood to have previously allowed transgender staff and visitors to use single-sex spaces.<\/p>\n Coventry Building Society, a mutual organisation that was also included in the Sex Matters paper, has also adjusted its policy to \u201cprovide a safe and inclusive environment for all colleagues\u201d, it said. A spokeswoman told City AM that in the wake of the EHRC\u2019s update, the lender is now \u201ccomplying with the legal guidance and ensuring we offer both single-sex spaces and gender neutral spaces\u201d.<\/p>\n The changes underscore the tightrope <\/a>that companies have to walk in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court ruling<\/a> on the definition of a woman last year. In the case, judges defined a woman as someone who is biologically female, and ruled that transgender people should therefore be excluded from women-only spaces. The judgement had vast repercussions for a host of large-cap firms, many of which had originally introduced DEI policies that treated staff based on their identified gender as opposed to biological sex.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n \t\t\tThin end of the wedge? LLPs brace for major tax overhaul<\/a><\/p>\n