Co-op scraps policy allowing trans staff to use toilets they ‘feel safest’
The Co-op logo (Getty Images)
The Co-operative Group has removed a policy that explicitly allowed trans and non-binary staff to use gendered toilets where they felt “safest”, following new UK guidance on single-sex spaces.
The previous policy told trans employees that, where workplace toilets were gender-specific, they should use the facilities they felt safest in. It also said staff would not be expected to use disabled toilets as an alternative, but were welcome to if they chose.
The Co-op has now removed that language from its transgender and non-binary inclusion policy, which applies to its roughly 54,000 employees. The updated policy instead says that, wherever possible, the retailer will provide individual, lockable gender-neutral facilities, with decisions about access to gendered spaces made “sensitively and on a case-by-case basis,” as reported by The Sunday Times.
The change follows the UK Supreme Court’s April 2025 ruling on the legal meaning of “woman” and “man”, as well as new guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) stating that single-sex spaces should be provided based on biological sex. The guidance came into effect this month across England, Wales and Scotland and applies to a wide range of public and workplace settings.
A spokesperson for the Co-op, which has been a vocal supporter of trans rights, said it updated the policy following legal advice and consultation with its staff networks “to ensure compliance with our legal obligations and to support our trans, non-binary and intersex colleagues”, in a statement to The Sunday Times.
The retailer’s former CEO Shirine Khoury-Haq had told The Telegraph last May that she would “protect trans people to the end” following the Supreme Court ruling. The Co-op has since been hit by significant leadership changes, with Khoury-Haq leaving earlier this year after claims of a “toxic” culture in the workplace. Chair Debbie White also announced her resignation last Monday (10 August).
The Co-op is not the only major UK employer to change its approach. Lloyds Banking Group also removed trans-inclusive toilet provisions in May, directing trans women away from women’s lavatories and toward gender-neutral facilities.
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