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Shop the collectionEHRC says it will use AI to review consultation responses, instead of reading them.
Update
Faced with a threat of legal action, we’re picking our battles and taking down information about the commission’s consultation on trans rights. As a result, this blog has been updated and amended on Friday 15 August.
We’re not interested in a legal battle to decide whether it was right to publish that information. We’re clear it was in the public interest given the importance of the consultation and the controversy that has already surrounded the commission’s efforts to cut it short.
But we don’t want to get distracted by a sideshow. The fight to defend trans rights is more important than a legal tussle over whether the public has a right to know about a flawed consultation.
Our challenge against the EHRC’s interim guidance goes on. And we’ll keep working to hold the commission to account over its consultation.
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Last month the Equality and Human Rights Commission opened their consultation on their transphobic interim guidance. It was the first and only chance for trans voices to be involved in the ongoing legal process since the Supreme Court refused to allow any trans people in the courtroom for the For Women Scotland case.
In less than six weeks, over 50,000 people sent their submissions. Good Law Project supported over 2,500 people to tell the EHRC what the impact of the guidance on their lives would be.
But the EHRC has decided to ignore some of them. The commission has confirmed that it won’t read all of the consultation responses. Instead of reviewing all the submissions, AI will determine whether people’s stories will be heard. They’ve essentially opened the door to trans voices, only to close it in their faces again.
The EHRC never took the consultation seriously: they proposed an unrealistic two week window, they published transphobic interim guidance in the middle of it and then refused to consult on their legal position. Now, they’re refusing to read responses they did get. This wasn’t a consultation, it was a joke.
We are instructing lawyers to take immediate action and write to the EHRC, and will let you know as soon as we know more.
