This week Centre for Mental Health, alongside a number of mental health organisations, wrote to Secretary of State Bridget Phillipson and the Chair of the EHRC, to raise concerns about the EHRC Code of Practice published on the 21st May 2026. It follows a letter the Centre wrote alongside a wider group of organisations in December expressing serious concerns about the draft Code of Practice.
The publication of the Code has not reassured the letter signatories that trans and non-binary people’s lives will not be negatively affected by its implementation. We believe it will likely have an impact on their mental health and may make trans and non-binary people seeking support for mental distress or mental illness feel unsafe and unsupported.
As mental health organisations, we also raised concerns about how the Government’s proposed mental health strategy which seeks to “drive a fundamental shift towards prevention – treating people earlier and faster, and supporting those with mental health conditions to live a full life and stay active in education, work, family life and their communities” can be achieved alongside the implementation of this Code. Its implementation may prevent many trans and non-binary people from living a full life in the UK and may contribute to conditions where trans and non-binary people’s mental health is negatively affected.
In the letter, proper parliamentary scrutiny of the Code was also called for, so that such a potentially life-changing piece of guidance can be fully understood and debated.
Marking the publication of the letter, Andy Bell, CEO of Centre for Mental Health said:
“Our thoughts go out to the many trans and non-binary people in the UK who will have felt significant distress, fear and upset since the publication of the EHRC Code of Practice last week. We, like many of them, remain uncertain of what this Code means for them, and how it will be implemented. Such a potentially life-changing piece of guidance deserves proper parliamentary scrutiny and debate and we hope the Government will facilitate that.
It is noteworthy that within a week of the Government announcing a mental health strategy, the Government took action that will significantly negatively affect the mental health of trans and non-binary people. It is difficult to see how any mental health strategy can help us all “live a full life” if the Code leads to mental health providers restricting services to trans people or making them feel less safe when accessing those services.
What is clear is that there remains confusion and concern when what was needed was clarity and compassion. We have called on the Government, EHRC and all service providers to take a calm, considered approach to implementation to ensure that no one is left without access to essential services or without alternative provision.”
The organisations that signed the letter are: Centre for Mental Health; Mind; Mental Health Foundation; Rethink Mental Illness; MHFA England and the Association of Mental Health First Aiders; Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition; National Survivor User Network; Mental Health Matters; Beat; McPin Foundation; Samaritans.
