LORD HODGE, LADY ROSE AND LADY SIMLER (with whom Lord Reed and Lord Lloyd-Jones agree):
1. This appeal is concerned with establishing the correct interpretation of the Equality Act 2010 (“the EA 2010”) which seeks to give statutory protection to people who are at risk of suffering from unlawful discrimination. The questions raised by this appeal directly affect women and members of the trans community. On the one hand, women have historically suffered from discrimination in our society and since 1975 have been given statutory protection against discrimination on the ground of sex. On the other hand, the trans community is both historically and currently a vulnerable community which Parliament has more recently sought to protect by statutory provision.
2. It is not the role of the court to adjudicate on the arguments in the public domain on the meaning of gender or sex, nor is it to define the meaning of the word “woman” other than when it is used in the provisions of the EA 2010. It has a more limited role which does not involve making policy. The principal question which the court addresses on this appeal is the meaning of the words which Parliament has used in the EA 2010 in legislating to protect women and members of the trans community against discrimination. Our task is to see if those words can bear a coherent and predictable meaning within the EA 2010 consistently with the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (“the GRA 2004”).
3. As explained more fully below, the EA 2010 seeks to reduce inequality and to protect people with protected characteristics against discrimination. Among the people whom the EA 2010 recognises as having protected characteristics are women, whose protected characteristic is sex, and “transsexual” people, whose protected characteristic is gender reassignment.
4. The question for this court is a matter of statutory interpretation. But before discussing the general approach to statutory interpretation, we set out the structure of this judgment and address the matter of terminology.
5. We discuss terminology, the approach to statutory interpretation and the factual background between paras 6 and 35. We address the historical background to the GRA 2004, its interpretation and its operation between paras 36 and 111. We then between paras 112 and 264 address in some detail the interpretation of the EA 2010 to give its provisions a coherent and predictable meaning. We summarise our reasoning in para 265.
(1) Terminology
6. We are aware of the strength of feeling which has been generated by the disagreements between campaigners seeking to represent the interests of each of these
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