Scottish Government Removes Section 4.6 from its Trans & Non-Binary Guidance – PCS Needs to Show Leadership and Defend its Trans+ members!

PCS Proud National Committee

11 Nov 2025 — 8 min read

Throughout this post, we will use Trans+ as an equivalent inclusive term to refer to anyone whose gender identity or expression does not fully correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes but is not limited to trans men, trans women, non-binary, genderfluid, genderqueer, agender or bi-gender. Transitioning is a process in which someone may take steps to affirm their gender, including non-binary genders, and will mean different things to each individual.

Learn more about the terms we use in this article, such as ADC in our Make It Make Sense Guide.

Overview, and what you need to know

The Scottish Government has removed Section 4.6 from its guidance, which said Trans+ staff should use the facilities they feel most comfortable with.
A Scottish Government branch issued an email to its members advising them to continue using the bathrooms they feel most comfortable with.
The PCS Legal Department wrote to all members of the branch to state that the advice contained in the email is not PCS policy nationally.
Both the correspondence from the branch and the PCS Legal Department have been seen by the Scottish Daily Express, The Times and other tabloids.

Section 4.6 and why its removal matters

Section 4.6 of the Scottish Government Trans and Non Binary Equality and Inclusion policy included the following:

‘Trans staff should choose to use the facilities they feel most comfortable with, including using accessible toilets if they prefer.’

The withdrawal of this section of the policy means that it no longer exists and the explicit advice for Trans+ staff to use the facilities they feel most comfortable with in the Scottish Government is no longer present. This means that Trans+ staff working in the Scottish Government can now no longer be certain which bathrooms they can use in the workplace. This endangers Trans+ staff as they will be at risk of being outed as Trans+, or even suffer abuse and discrimination.

What is PCS policy?

PCS has clear policy in place. Motion A317, passed overwhelmingly at ADC24, contains a commitment to the statement “trans women are women, trans men are men; non-binary people are valid”. It also states that PCS should oppose the introduction of any policies within the UK civil service which undermine or remove the existing rights of minorities and/or our allies, including any attempts to politicise our lives or identities.

At this year’s ADC25, motion B266 instructed PCS to defend the right for Trans+ and non-binary people to have equal access to all services and facilities according to their gender identity and to lobby the UK and Scottish Government to promote Trans+ and non-binary people’s rights, and prevent further erosion.

In the same year, motion B265 instructed PCS to organise a campaign of opposition to any guidance that fails to acknowledge the validity of trans and non-binary affirmed gender identity or which promotes a biological essentialist view of what constitutes being a woman or a man: a view widely recognised to be regressive and harmful to all women in particular.

What is PCS doing in Scottish Government?

A Scottish Government PCS branch sent communications to its members to advise Trans+ staff in the Scottish Government to continue to use the bathrooms they felt most comfortable using.

At the time of writing, the Equality Human Rights Commission has not published new guidance and it is not clear, or explicitly stated, that Trans+ staff should not use the bathrooms of their affirmed gender. If such guidance was produced, PCS Proud would oppose this, but would recommend its members not to go against explicit policy. It will take a long time before the EHRC can release its final Code of Practice guidance and there are lots of difficult questions yet to be answered.

At the time of writing, there is no UK-wide bathroom ban, and so no default position. There is nothing to suggest that the branch directed members to act against Scottish Government policy – there is no new policy.

PCS must act to protect Trans+ members

Following the branch’s correspondence to members, the PCS Legal Department wrote to members of the branch to state the following, after the communications from the branch’s Branch Executive Committee were passed from the employer to full-time officers in the union:

"I can confirm that the advice in this email regarding the specific change to policy does not reflect the advice or position of PCS nationally."

"PCS has a duty, in law to ensure that we act with reasonable care and skill when advising our members. It is, therefore, important that we ensure there is no confusion following the branches (sic) email."

"In light of the supreme court judgement, our legal advice is that the employer is able to make this change to their policy and as such, PCS advises all members to follow the terms and guidance of the updated policy."

The PCS Proud National Committee is concerned by this message from the Legal Department of PCS. PCS policy is clear, and this retreat leaves Trans+ members completely at the mercy of the employer. The leadership of PCS, the General Secretary and National Executive Committee, must take control of this situation and fight for its members.

The inference from PCS Legal here is that there has been some form of policy position or legal advice on handling the Supreme Court ruling published to PCS branches – but that is not the case. PCS nationally has been silent on how representatives should defend Trans+ members from changes to policy or from any discrimination arising as a result. This silence has left Trans+ members vulnerable at precisely the moment when clarity and solidarity are most needed.

As a result of this message to all members in the branch – bypassing the branch’s elected Branch Executive Committee – ammunition has been granted to hate groups such as Sex Matters, and the tabloid press, who are hailing the union’s abandonment of its Trans+ members as a victory.

Oppose the Supreme Court Ruling, fight for solidarity

The whole point of our union at this stage should be to build a campaign of solidarity – to oppose the supreme court ruling and the further erosion of Trans+ inclusive policy in the civil service. Our union rightly campaigned against the government’s Rwanda plan and it should do so in favour of Trans+ policy.

If we do not take action here in defence of our Scottish Government members, we will signal to employers across the civil service and the UK more broadly that these attacks will be accepted.

We suggest that the Scottish Government GEC call an emergency meeting on the issue and we call on the Scottish Government GEC to protect its reps in all Scottish Government branches and all Trans+ and Non-binary members in Scottish government.

PCS Proud is clear: we stand with you and all our members and workplace representatives who fight for Trans+ liberation.

A demand should be placed on the Scottish Government and all civil service departments:

No civil service employees should be disciplined for using the bathrooms they feel most comfortable with.

If this demand is not met, the PCS Proud National Committee will campaign for strike action.

Further, we place a demand on the leadership of PCS, its General Secretary and National Executive Committee:

No PCS members or workplace representatives should be disciplined for defending Trans+ and Non-Binary employees in the civil service, in accordance with PCS policy.
Campaign for change and to overturn the UK Supreme Court ruling.
PCS should immediately seek legal advice on how it can defend Trans+ and non-binary members.

PCS Policy under threat

It has been confirmed by a senior national officer that the leadership of PCS intends to review the union’s Trans+ inclusive policy in the wake of the UK Supreme Court ruling. The intention is for the PCS National Executive Committee (NEC) to review changes to policy. PCS Proud opposes this in the strongest terms possible. They will undoubtedly review and implement changes to the policy with a flawed interpretation of the law.

Policy is set at the PCS Annual Delegate Conference (ADC), where motions are written and debated by delegates sent by branch from all over the UK. Conference instructs the National Executive Committee and General Secretary, not the other way around. It would be wholly undemocratic for this change to policy to happen without a motion to conference.

This year, at ADC2025, up to 25 emergency motions written by PCS members in response to the UK Supreme Court ruling were not printed in the conference agenda due to the PCS leadership’s use of rule SR 6.22(g), which is used in order to not print an emergency motion if it is believed it could place the union in legal jeopardy.

Read our statement on this, published at the time:

Discuss at the Proud Members’ Meeting

Proud members can meet with the Proud National Committee between 6 and 8pm every last Tuesday of the month. If you are affected by this, we want to hear from you.

Join PCS Proud

You can update your equality information via PCS Digital to join PCS Proud. There has been an ongoing technical issue which has prevented some members from joining the network. We urgently remind all members to update their equality information, and to signal that they wish to join PCS Proud if they wish to receive emails and updates from the PCS Proud National Committee.

If you are not receiving PCS Proud emails and you think you should be after retrying these steps, please contact the PCS Equality Department.