Trans inclusive spaces in every hospital, says Streeting as he confirms guidance coming in May after Supreme Court ruling

Joining Nick Ferrari at Breakfast for LBC’s Call the Cabinet, the Health Secretary said it is important these spaces exist as there are “regular breaches on single sex wards”.

It comes as an analysis found that 97% of 198 NHS trusts in England with inpatient facilities have policies allowing trans-identifying biological males to use women only spaces, including wards and changing rooms and toilets.

Mr Streeting said that this is “nothing to do with trans people" but stressed that pressures on the NHS “mean that men and women are in spaces together that I wish they weren’t.”

He added: "I believe very strongly that women's wards should be for biological women. What do we do about tha biological female who is a trans man, looks, sounds, presents, lives, his life as a man is biologically female? We wouldn't put him on a women's ward. That would be degrading for him and humiliating And cruel.

"It would also be distressing for the women. So we need to make sure that we've got trans inclusive spaces too."

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Asked whether he would roll this out in every NHS hospital, Mr Streeting replied: "We've got to".

It comes nearly a year after a historic ruling saw the UK’s highest court confirm that the terms woman and sex in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”, which is supposed to protect single sex spaces in the NHS and hospitals.

However, a year on, the Government has failed to publish guidance on how hospitals and businesses should implement it.

Nick put to Mr Streeting that the local elections are due in May, asking if guidance on the matter will be published by then.

“Yes. Bridget Phillipson is ready to go and chomping at the bit,” Mr Streeting said.

Women and equalities minister Bridget Phillipson’s long-awaited guidance on single-sex spaces is set to come shortly after the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman.

This week, Britain’s equalities watchdog confirmed it had “made adjustments” to guidance set to be issued to businesses and other organisations about separate-sex spaces.

The adjustment was made to the code of practice for services, public functions and associations. It covers nine protected characteristics including age, disability, race and religion or belief.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance was handed to ministers last September. 

LGBTQ+ organisation Stonewall said it was “pleased to see the Government and EHRC working constructively to ensure the code is legally accurate and supports service providers to treat everyone with equal dignity and respect”.

But Maya Forstater, chief executive of gender critical campaign group Sex Matters, accused the Government of having “found another excuse for delaying the guidance” amid what she called “negotiations and horse-trading” on the code’s content.

Ms Phillipson said in a statement on Tuesday: “The code will apply across Great Britain and as we are currently in the pre-election period for the devolved administrations, we are unable to make further announcements on this matter at this time.

"However, we are taking urgent action to meet our intention of laying the code in May and as soon as practicable after the election period, for parliamentary scrutiny.”