Attorney general says schools ‘do not have to accommodate’ children’s gender wishes

Suella Braverman says schools can treat pupils who identify as trans as if they were their birth sex because under-18s cannot legally change sex

The attorney-general, Suella Braverman, has declared that schools do not have to accommodate children who want to change gender under current legislation.

The government is currently drawing up formal guidance for schools on gender dysphoria and children who identify as transgender.

In an interview with the Times, Braverman QC said the law states that under-18s cannot legally change their sex, which enables schools to treat all of their pupils by the gender of their birth.

The Conservative MP for Fareham said: Under-18s cannot get a gender recognition certificate, under-18s cannot legally change sex. So again, in the context of schools, I think it's even clearer. A male child who says in a school that they are a trans girl, that they want to be female, is legally still a boy or a male. And schools have a right to treat them as such under the law.