UK Supreme Court makes unanimous decision on definition of a woman

The UK Supreme Court has issued a landmark judgment on how a woman should be defined in law.

The long-running legal challenge centres around how sex-based rights are applied through the UK-wide Equality Act 2010.

They unanimously decided the definition of a “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.

The judges were asked to rule on what that legislation means by “sex” – whether biological sex or “certificated” sex as legally defined by the 2004 Gender Recognition Act.

Delivering the ruling at the London court on Wednesday, Lord Hodge said: “But we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another. It is not.

“The Equality Act 2010 gives transgender people protection, not only against discrimination through the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, but also against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and harassment in substance in their acquired gender.

“This is the application of the principle of discrimination by association. Those statutory protections are available to transgender people, whether or not they possess a gender recognition certificate.”

The case was brought against the Scottish government by campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS).

FWS called on the court to find sex an “immutable biological state”, arguing sex-based protections should only apply to people born female.

The Scottish government argued the protections should also include transgender people with a gender recognition certificate (GRC).

The ruling was made by Lord Reed, Lord Hodge, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lady Rose and Lady Simler.

Campaign group Sex Matters, which made arguments in the case, said the court had given “the right answer”.

Chief executive Maya Forstater said: “We are delighted that the Supreme Court has accepted the arguments of For Women Scotland and rejected the position of the Scottish government.

“The court has given us the right answer: the protected characteristic of sex – male and female – refers to reality, not to paperwork.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.