Liberty continues legal challenge against equality watchdog

Liberty has appealed a decision by the High Court (Friday 6 June 2025) to deny it permission to legally challenge the length of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) consultation on changes to its Code of practice.

The EHRC’s interim guidance follows a Supreme Court decision about the definition of the words ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.

Liberty, which announced it had launched legal action on 30 May, has said that any consultation period on the updated Code of practice should be a minimum of 12 weeks, as the previous consultation on this Code was, and has been established in comparable cases.

The EHRC had initially given people just two weeks to respond to the consultation, before later extending this to six weeks. Liberty has said this is “wholly insufficient and simply does not comply with the law”.

Liberty believes that the consultation has “life-changing implications” for how trans people, as well as anyone who is perceived as not conforming to gender norms, access public services, education and social activities. It also has a wider impact on businesses and employers.

Liberty disagrees with the ruling on Friday and contends that due to the significant impact the guidance will have on trans individuals and organisations who require more support to respond, the current consultation period is ‘so unfair as to be unlawful’.

The human rights organisation has now filed its appeal.

Akiko Hart, Liberty’s Director, said:

“We are disappointed by the decision and we are appealing against it. The EHRC’s guidance will have life-changing implications for how all of us access vital services – and will particularly impact trans people and countless hundreds of thousands of service providers and venues in the UK.

“As a public body, the EHRC has a legal duty to conduct a fair and lawful consultation process that allows everyone affected by a decision enough time to respond to it. Previous cases clearly demonstrate that on such an important and consequential issue, where every respondent needs time to carefully prepare a considered response, less than 12 weeks is insufficient.”