PCS Proud Statement on Cabinet Office proposed Trans+ Policy and Guidance

PCS Proud is aware that departments across the Civil Service are currently consulting on a policy, handed down from the Government People Group, which constitutes a huge attack on the rights and dignity of trans+ members.

We are expecting trans+ members to be told to use the toilet and facilities that match the sex observed at birth, or universal spaces (including accessible/disabled spaces) where they are in place. 

PCS Proud condemns this move by central government and stands in solidarity with trans+ members. 

Imagine, wanting to go to the toilet at work and having to make a choice: 

• Break the new guidance and risk your job
• Be forced to use a toilet that doesn’t match your gender identity/presentation

Such a move is likely to increase the levels of dysphoria that members experience, but departments don’t seem to be too concerned about this. 

Can you imagine what it would be like for someone to ask what is in your pants before you go to the toilet? 

Can you imagine running into a bathroom between meetings, busting for a pee, to be challenged by a stranger or colleague about whether you should be using that specific toilet? 

This is something that is very real, not just for trans+ people, but for those who are cisgendered. Masc presenting cis-women have been challenged in toilets because they don’t meet the stereotype of ‘what a woman should look like’.  

PCS Proud is grateful for the support of the majority of the NEC that was elected in 2026. However, we remain disappointed by the lack of action, despite conference policy being passed year after year. We call on our General Secretary, Fran Heathcoate, to uphold conference policy and demand that the Cabinet Office stop the attack on trans, nonbinary and intersex members. We will not accept another year of refusing to acknowledge the policy that our union's sovereign body has created.

Regardless of the action (or lack of) from PCS centrally, our Proud National Committee had an emergency meeting to discuss our strategy moving forward with this issue. We will continue fighting, and fighting hard to demand the liberation for all LGBT+ people.