Schools face a “high risk” of successful legal challenges if they follow several elements of today’s controversial trans guidance, advice written by the government’s own lawyers reveals.
The leaked legal advice, issued in the last week and obtained by Schools Week, shows Department for Education lawyers flagged concern that several passages in the guidance would fail to stand up to a legal challenge.
Despite the warning, these passages were still included in the official draft guidance published today, which was signed off by Number 10 and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch.
It means the government has issued guidance its own lawyers made clear would likely lead to schools facing legal challenges that they would lose. Other warnings included the department itself would lose a legal challenge over aspects of the guidance.
