Girls developed urinary infections because school had gender-neutral toilets, says Badenoch

Girls at school developed urinary tract infections because they did not want to use gender-neutral toilets, Kemi Badenoch has claimed.

The Women and Equalities Minister said that the school thought they were following correct guidance, but had been advised by an organisation that “wasn’t looking at the equality law”.

It comes as Ms Badenoch urged members of the public on Wednesday to provide examples of state bodies failing to provide single-sex spaces, amid concern that the NHS, local councils and others are misinterpreting guidance.

She told LBC: “We are looking for examples where a public institution is either issuing guidance or has a policy that is not in accordance with the Equalities Act when it comes to single sex spaces.

“If I were to give an example of a school that had gender-neutral toilets and young girls there didn’t want to use the same toilets as boys so they weren’t going to the toilet at school and got urinary tract infections.

She added: “This is obviously a terrible thing but the school thought they were following guidance because they had used some policy analysis by an organisation that wasn’t looking at the equality law.”

Ms Badenoch described the situation as a “scandal”, telling Times Radio that there had been “a report, and this was confirmed by doctors, that there were girls who were not using the toilet in some schools and getting urinary tract infections because they didn’t want to share their toilets with boys”.

NHS overhaul to ‘respect biological sex’

The launch of the “call for input” comes a day after the Health Secretary announced plans to overhaul the NHS constitution to “ensure that biological sex is respected”.

The Department of Health and Social Care said on Tuesday that it is “defining sex as biological sex” with the new document, which underpins NHS care.

Proposed changes will also ensure hospital patients in England have the right to request to be treated on single-sex wards, with transgender people placed in rooms on their own.

The Government Equalities Office said its call for input builds on this, and will move to clear up confusion in what Ms Badenoch described as a “complex” area involving public spaces.

In response to the Government’s “call for input”, Bridget Philipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said that Ms Badenoch “does love nothing more than a culture war”.

She told Times Radio: “It is so transparent what she is doing.

“She is pitching to Conservative members for the leadership contest to come in the Conservative Party, and frankly our country deserves a lot better than it always being about the Conservative Party.”