Single-sex services and the Equality Act 2010: an essential update for almshouse charity trustees
Wednesday 5 August 2026: updated EHRC guidance for service providers comes into effect
Information supplied for almshouse charities by Almshouse Association, Panel of Consultant, Wrigleys Solicitors LLP. Partners in Wrigleys Solicitors’ Charities team, Alacoque Marvin and Joanna Blackman, consider the impact on almshouses of recent clarifications to equality law and guidance.
In April 2025, the Supreme Court clarified in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers that “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) means biological sex, or sex registered at birth. This is an important clarification for almshouse charities providing single-sex or separate-sex services to almshouse beneficiaries.
The general rule under the Act is that service providers must not discriminate because of a protected characteristic, including sex or gender reassignment. This means that, unless an exception applies, an almshouse charity should not exclude someone because of their sex or trans status, or segregate men and women. This article looks at relevant exceptions under the Act and trustees’ duties to ensure compliance.
The meaning of “sex” and “gender reassignment”
The protected characteristic of sex refers to being a man or a woman. The Supreme Court has confirmed that, for the purposes of the Act, this means biological sex and this is not changed by a Gender Recognition Certificate which changes someone’s legal sex for other purposes.
The protected characteristic of gender reassignment applies broadly to people who are proposing to undergo, are undergoing, or have undergone a process of reassigning sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.
The charities exception
The Act includes a specific exception for charities, that allows a charity to discriminate by limiting the group of people it helps in certain circumstances. This is known as the ‘charities exception’. An almshouse charity may rely on the charities exception where the charity’s governing document only allows people who share a protected characteristic (such as sex) to benefit, and where the restriction can be justified because it either (a) prevents or compensates for a disadvantage linked to that characteristic, or (b) it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
For almshouse charities, the starting point is therefore the charitable instrument: for example, a trust deed, Charity Commission Scheme, articles or constitution. Trustees should check whether the governing document clearly restricts benefits to people who share a protected characteristic (e.g. men or women) and if it does, they should assess whether that restriction can still be justified in current times.
Proportionality requires trustees to consider whether the restriction is appropriate and necessary, whether the reasons outweigh the discriminatory impact, and whether a less discriminatory route could achieve the same aim. Trustees must carefully document the charity’s legitimate aim and proportionality assessment, and keep this under routine review.
Single-sex and separate-sex services
Separate services for men and women may be lawful where a joint service would be less effective and where this approach is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
A single-sex service may be lawful where providing it to one sex only is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim and one of the statutory criteria applies. The criteria include that only one sex has need of the service and that a joint service would be less effective.
Where the exception applies, service providers can defend direct sex discrimination claims from people who are excluded on the basis of their sex.
The Supreme Court ruling means that a service which includes trans people whose biological sex is different from the intended beneficiary group is not a single-sex service for the purposes of the Act. For example, if a women-only almshouse charity admits trans women, the service will be mixed sex and the charity will be unable to rely on the single-sex exception to defend sex discrimination claims brought by men.
There is a further exception which enables service providers to exclude a trans person whose biological sex falls within the intended group. For example, a women-only almshouse charity may be able to turn away a trans man applying to become a resident, but only if that decision is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim, taking into account the individual circumstances and the reasonable impact on other residents. This must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Practical steps for trustees
Trustees should review their governing document (and in particular their purposes), admissions criteria, resident information, policies and staff guidance. Consideration should be given to the charity’s values and ethos, the needs and expectations of residents, stakeholder and donor views, reputational risk, and the possibility of complaints or claims from people with different protected characteristics.
Where a restriction is intended to be based on sex, documents should be clear what this means. Policies and practices must ensure confidentiality, compliant data handling, and respectful communication when asking for and handling sensitive information, including about sex or gender reassignment.
Decisions should be reasoned, evidenced, carefully documented and regularly reviewed.
If it is determined on review that the charities’ exception or other exceptions no longer apply, the charity’s purposes would need to be changed, and legal advice may be required.
EHRC Code and Charity Commission update
The new EHRC Code of Practice has now been published and comes into effect on 5 August 2026. It is available here: Equality Act 2010: Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations, 2026 – GOV.UK.
The Charity Commission has issued an interim update stating that charities should take steps to comply with the Code and the clarified legal position on the meaning of sex. It aims to publish updated charity guidance in the Autumn, but has made clear that charities do not need to wait for that guidance before seeking to comply with the law. The Commission has stated that unreasonable delay in taking steps towards compliance may be considered a breach of trustee responsibilities. Almshouse charity trustees should therefore treat this as a prompt to review and seek advice on relevant policy and practice.
The information in this article is necessarily of a general nature. The law stated is correct as at 28 July 2026. Charities should seek specific legal advice in relation to specific situations.
Please contact Alacoque Marvin or Joanna Blackman at Wrigleys Solicitors LLP with any queries arising from this article.
posted 5 August 2026