Charity Commission confirms that charities don’t need to rush to abandon trans-inclusion

The Charity Commission for England and Wales has confirmed that charities are within their rights to wait for statutory guidance before abandoning their trans-inclusive policies. It also called for improved clarity from the government, as the lack of guidance on trans policies is damaging the charity sector.

After the Supreme Court ruling that the meaning of ‘woman’ in the Equality Act 2010 was tied to an individual’s assigned sex, the lives of trans people and their allies in the UK were suddenly turned upside down.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) rushed to publish interim guidance stating that trans people should be fully excluded from services aligned with their gender identity. When the EHRC later took down this guidance, service providers and trans people were left with little idea of what was expected of them.

As of this date, Bridget Phillipson – the minister for women and equalities – hasn’t yet published the official code of practice for service providers.

Open letter to Charity Commission

On 10 December 2025, inclusive charity governance consultant Penny Wilson wrote an open letter to David Holdworth, CEO of the Charity Commission. It expressed alarm that charities with trans-inclusive policies were being strong-armed by external actors into adopting trans-exclusive policies.

In particular, Wilson highlighted UK charities that have already taken the decision to adopt trans-hostile policies. Both Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute (WI) recently took the decision to exclude trans girls and women from their membership.

A version of the letter that was open for other charity workers to sign stated that these announcements had:

finally compelled the charity sector to stand to attention.

We are a group of people working and/or volunteering in the UK charity sector who are deeply dismayed by these decisions.

We are alarmed both by the threats these charities have received from transphobic pressure groups and individuals, and by the implications this has for good governance across the voluntary sector.

Transphobes using legal threats as a bludgeon against trans-inclusive charities? Colour us shocked.

Key recommendations

On top of sounding the alarm on this transphobic lawfare, the open letter made five key recommendations to the Charity Commission.

1. Give interim guidance stating that charities don’t need to rush to make changes to their inclusion policies before the official guidance. In particular, the letter stressed that:

where a charity has previously been trans-inclusive and wishes to remain so, the Commission should advise that they wait for legal clarity before taking any action to exclude trans service users or members.

2. Fast-track applications from charities to switch their single-sex objects (i.e., if a charity was ‘women only’) to include all genders. The letter reasoned that this would help to prevent harmful gaps in the charities’ work while waiting for their applications to go through.

3. Monitor and report on incidences of legal threats against trans-inclusive charities. This would help the commission to identify and track this tactic from transphobic pressure groups.

4. State publicly that the commission won’t take action against single-sex charities purely because they haven’t excluded trans people. In particular, the letter highlighted that:

Misunderstandings on this point are already circulating in the public domain and require urgent correction.

5. Remind charities that the commission supports trustees in making their own decisions on how to support their beneficiaries. As such, these charities are:

entitled to rely on their internal policies to support their position on trans inclusion.

Wait and see

In his response to the open letter, Holdsworth wrote that:

You will appreciate that the Commission cannot pre-empt publication of the statutory Code of Practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the regulator responsible for guidance and enforcement of the areas of law covered under the Equality Act 2010. […]

In terms of our regulatory approach whilst the Code of Practice is being finalised, this has been to accept that it can be a reasonable decision for trustees to await the final statutory guidance, or alternatively to seek legal advice relevant to their charity’s position and make changes as they consider necessary.

This confirmed that charities are well within their rights to wait before rushing to exclude trans people. Whilst this is useful knowledge, it would also have been helpful to make it clear before the likes of the WI rushed to chuck trans women out of their ranks.

The charities commissioner also assured the letter-writers that his organisation was talking with charities about how to move forward. He ended with a call for the government to publish its full Code of Practice, to end the uncertainty over trans-inclusion:

We have engaged with several charities concerning their own circumstances, and we are now using insights gained from those discussions alongside wider feedback, concerns and complaints received by us as part of our policy and guidance activity and preparation. All your suggestions of possible next steps are noted, with thanks, and we will consider them as part of that work.

For all the reasons you and others have noted, including to give guidance to charities and other regulators, it is vital that the EHRC’s Code of Practice is published as soon as reasonably practicable. I have now written to Ministers to that effect setting out some of the serious impacts on the sector and the need for urgent improved clarity and guidance.

One thing though

The commission’s assurances will no doubt come as a relief to trans-inclusive charities across the country. It’s truly an outrage that transphobic groups are making threats against charity providers. These bigoted groups are wasting the time and money of third-sector organisations that do vital work – for cis and trans people.

However, we’ve got one thing to ask.

Both Girlguides and the WI affirmed their allyship to trans girls and women. Both expressed their deepest sorrow at ‘having’ to exclude trans people from their ranks. Now that we have confirmation that this was currently unnecessary, how about they take back those decisions – unless that regret was just hollow words?

Featured image via the Canary