Girlguiding and Women’s Institute could face legal challenge over trans exclusion decision
The Good Law Project has said it wants to bring legal proceedings against Girlguiding UK and the Women’s Institute over the charities’ decisions to exclude transgender women and girls from their memberships.
Girlguiding this week announced that it had “reached the difficult decision” that trans girls and young women, and others not recorded as female at birth, would “no longer be able to join Girlguiding as new young members”.
This was followed by a similar announcement from the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, which said that from April it would exclude trans women from formal membership.
The WI said that it made the announcement with the “utmost regret and sadness”, adding: “This is not something we would do unless we felt that we had no other choice.”
The decisions, which have been criticised by other charities and sector leaders, came after the UK Supreme Court ruled in April that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
But the Good Law Project has argued that the law does not require trans women and girls to be excluded, adding that changes to organisations’ policies to exclude trans members “may well be unlawful”.
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Government confirms appointment of next Charity Commission chair
Dame Julia Unwin has been confirmed as the next chair of the Charity Commission.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed that the former Joseph Rowntree Foundation chief executive would join the regulator for a three-year term from 1 January.
The appointment had been expected after Unwin was last month named as the government’s preferred candidate for the position and was endorsed by MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee following a hearing last week.
Unwin, who led the JRF between 2007 and 2016, previously spent five years as a charity commissioner in the late 1990s and was a member of the former social housing regulator the Housing Corporation for nine years.
After leaving the JRF, she chaired the two-year Civil Society Futures inquiry, which reported in 2018.
Unwin was made a dame in 2019 for services to civil society.
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Chief of London Zoo charity steps down amid probe into ‘unacceptable workplace behaviour’
Matthew Gould stepped down last week from the Zoological Society of London, which runs London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, after three years leading the charity.
The ZSL said an investigation into claims of unacceptable workplace behaviour found that Gould’s conduct “fell below the standard [it expected]”.
A spokesperson for the ZSL said: “He resigned before this independent investigation had concluded.
“This matter was addressed promptly and appropriately, and there are no wider implications for our staff or operations.
“We are not sharing any further details on an internal matter.”
Before joining ZSL, Gould was chief executive of NHSX, a unit within the NHS leading digital transformation of the health service. He previously held senior roles at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and was the UK’s ambassador to Israel.
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