Justice spokesperson, Doug Beattie MC MLA said, “The Supreme Court has, unanimously, ruled that a woman is an adult biological female and identified as the sex at birth. Those from the transgender community exist and this ruling does not take away their rights as a protected group, but it does make it clear that they are transgender not women.

“This ruling has major implications for the application of the Equality legislation in Northern Ireland. It raises several questions for the Justice Minister. 

“Given this supreme court ruling, does it mean that women held in a woman’s prison can take a legal case against the Department of Justice and the Northern Ireland Prison Service, under our equality legislation, if someone who is transgender is placed within her prison accommodation wing? This could affect the present Prison Service ‘Guidelines on the Care and Management of Transgender Prisoners’ and needs to be addressed urgently. 

“It also raises questions for the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. Given this ruling and the findings of the  ‘Independent Review of Data Statistics and Research on Sex and Gender’ the Executive Office must decide if they are going to enforce this Supreme Court ruling. Will they focus their strategy on women and girls or widen it to include the transgender community? The latter, again, could result in a case being brought regarding Northern Ireland Equality legislation regarding the implementation of this strategy.

“It is important that the Equality Commission advise the Executive on this issue at pace and with a sense of urgency. This ruling has a direct impact on the Sex Discrimination (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulation (Northern Ireland) 2006 and the Gender Recognition Act 2004. For Northern Ireland to remain an outlier on this issue would be unthinkable.”