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Department of Veterans Affairs says the changes come in response to a Trump executive order ‘defending women’

The Department of Veterans Affairs has imposed new guidelines on VA hospitals nationwide that remove language that explicitly prohibited doctors from discriminating against patients based on their political beliefs or marital status.

The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers.

Under federal law, eligible veterans must be given hospital care and services, and the revised VA hospital rules still instruct medical staff that they cannot discriminate against veterans on the basis of race, color, religion and sex. But language within VA hospital bylaws requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated from these bylaws, raising questions about whether individual workers could now be free to decline to care for patients based on personal characteristics not expressly protected by federal law.

Explicit protections for VA doctors and other medical staff based on their marital status, political party affiliation or union activity have also been removed, documents reviewed by the Guardian show.

The changes also affect chiropractors, certified nurse practitioners, optometrists, podiatrists, licensed clinical social workers and speech therapists.

In making the changes, VA officials citeDonald Trump’s 30 January executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”. The primary purpose of the executive order was to strip most government protections from transgender people. The VA has since ceased providing most gender-affirming care and forbidden a long list of words, including “gender affirming” and “transgender”, from clinical settings.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is the nation’s largest integrated hospital system, with more than 170 hospitals and more than 1,000 clinics. It employs 26,000 doctors and serves 9 million patients annually.

In an emailed response to questions, the VA press secretary, Peter Kasperowicz, did not dispute that language requiring medical staff to treat patients without discriminating on the basis of politics and marital status had been removed from the bylaws , but he said “all eligible veterans will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law”.

He said the rule changes were nothing more than “a formality”, but confirmed that they were made to comply with Trump’s executive order. Kasperowicz also said the revisions were necessary to “ensure VA policy comports with federal law”. He did not say which federal law or laws required these changes.

The VA said federal laws and a 2013 policy directive that prohibits discrimination on the basis of marital status or political affiliation would not allow patients within the categories removed from its bylaws to be excluded from treatment or allow discrimination against medical professionals.

“Under no circumstances whatsoever would VA ever deny appropriate care to any eligible veterans or appropriate employment to any qualified potential employees,” a VA representative said.

Until the recent changes, VA hospitals’ bylaws said that medical staff could not discriminate against patients “on the basis of race, age, color, sex, religion, national origin, politics, marital status or disability in any employment matter”. Now, several of those items – including “national origin,” “politics” and “marital status” – have been removed from that list.

Similarly, the bylaw on “decisions regarding medical staff membership” no longer forbids VA hospitals from discriminating against candidates for staff positions based on national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, membership in a labor organization or “lawful political party affiliation”.

Medical experts said the implications of rule changes uncovered by the Guardian could be far-reaching.

They “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected”, said Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA’s top healthcare official during the Clinton administration. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their “reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use”.

Dr Arthur Caplan, founding head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, called the new rules “extremely disturbing and unethical”.

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“It seems on its face an effort to exert political control over the VA medical staff,” he said. “What we typically tell people in healthcare is: ‘You keep your politics at home and take care of your patients.’” Caplan said the rules opened the door to doctors questioning patients about whether they attended a Trump rally or declining to provide healthcare to a veteran because they wore a button critical of JD Vance or voiced support for gay rights.

“Those views aren’t relevant to caring for patients. So why would we put anyone at risk of losing care that way?” Caplan said.

During the 2024 presidential campaign and throughout the early months of his second term, Trump repeatedly made threats against a host of people whom he saw as his political antagonists, including senators,judgesand then president Joe Biden. He calledjournalistsandDemocrats“the enemy within”.

In interviews, veterans said the impact of the new policy would probably fall hardest on female veterans, LGBTQ+ veterans and those who live in rural areas where there are fewer doctors overall. “I’m lucky. I have my choice of three clinics,” said Tia Christopher, a navy veteran who reported being raped in service in 2000.

Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Christopher advocates on behalf of military sexual trauma survivors throughout the country. Under the new policy, some may have to register at a hospital in another region and travel more than a hundred miles to see a doctor. It “could have a huge ripple effect”, she said.

As concerned as they were about the new policies themselves, medical experts were equally worried about the way they came about. Sources at multiple VA hospitals, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation, told the Guardian that the rule changes were imposed without consultation with the system’s doctors – a characterization the VA’s Kasperowicz did not dispute.

Such a move would run counter to standards established by the Joint Commission, a non-profit organization that accredits hospitals. Kasperowicz said the agency worked with the Joint Commission “to ensure these changes would have no impact on VA’s accreditation”.

At its annual convention in Chicago this week, the American Medical Association’s 733-member policymaking body passed a resolution reaffirming “its commitment to medical staff self-governance … and urges all healthcare institutions, including the US Department of Veterans Affairs, to ensure that any amendments to medical staff bylaws are subject to approval by medical staff in accordance with Joint Commission standards”.

The changes are part of a larger attack on the independence of medicine and science by the Trump administration, Caplan said, which has included restrictions and cuts at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, last week fired every member of a key panel that advises the government on vaccines. The Guardian has earlierreportedon a VA edict forbidding agency researchers from publishing in scientific journals without clearance from the agency’s political appointees.

This article and its headline were amended on 18 June 2025. An earlier version said that under the new rules, medical staff could refuse to treat veterans based on their beliefs or marital status, and that candidates for hospital positions could face discrimination on grounds of further characteristics removed from the bylaws. After publication, the VA contacted the Guardian citing a 2013 policy directive that it says will continue to protect patients from discrimination despite the redactions in its bylaws; the VA also cited federal law protecting staff from discrimination. The VA further emphasized that federal law gives all eligible veterans access to hospital services. The VA’s comments on this were added.

Read, who was found guilty of drunk driving, was accused of fatally striking her boyfriend, Boston officer John O’Keefe

A jury has foundKaren Readnot guilty of second-degree murder, but guilty of drunk driving in the death of her police officer boyfriend in a divisive and high-profile case that dueling lawyers presented as either a tragic love story or a sinister cover-up.

Read, 45, was accused of fatally striking her boyfriend,Bostonpolice officer John O’Keefe, 46, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a house party where other local police and a federal agent were closing out a night of drinking in 2022.

She was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene, but jurors – who had begun deliberating on 13 June – dismissed the main charges that would have landed her with a hefty jail term.

Cheers from the crowd outside could be heard in the courtroom as the verdict was read. With cheering supporters, Read departed the courthouse with her attorneys and family.

“No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have,” Read said.

It was a huge victory for Read’s lawyers, who have long asserted she was framed by police after dropping O’Keefe off at a party at the home of a fellow officer. Prosecutors argued the 45-year-old Read hit O’Keefe, 46, with her SUV before driving away, but the defense maintained O’Keefe was killed inside the home and later dragged outside in a conspiracy orchestrated by police that included planting evidence.

Meanwhile, prosecutors described Read as a scorned lover who chose to leave O’Keefe dying in the snow after striking him with her SUV outside the house party.

It was the state’s second attempt to convict Read. The first Read trial ended on 1 July 2024 in a mistrial due to a hung jury.

Describing O’Keefe as a “good man” who “helped people”, special prosecutor Hank Brennan told jurors during closing arguments that O’Keefe needed help the night he died and the only person who could provide it was Read. Instead, she drove away in her SUV.

“She was drunk. She hit him and she left him to die,” he said.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson rejected the idea that there was ever a collision at all. He and the defense called forward expert witnesses who agreed.

“There is no evidence that John was hit by a car. None. This case should be over right now, done, because there was no collision,” Jackson said during closing arguments.

Read’s father, Bill Read, told reporters outside the courthouse he felt relief and “tremendous thanks” to God when the verdict was read.

“We need to get our life back together, and we will,” he said.

Asked why he thought the second trial’s outcome was different, he said: “Another year of information circulating in the public, and people are aware of what’s happened.”

Diplomats to look for ‘indications of hostility towards citizens, culture or founding principles of United States’

Foreign students will be required to unlock their social media profiles to allow US diplomats to review their online activity before receiving educational and exchange visas, the state department has announced. Those who fail to do so will be suspected of hiding that activity from US officials.

The new guidance, unveiled by the state department on Wednesday, directs US diplomats to conduct an online presence review to look for “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”.

A cable separately obtained by Politico also instructs diplomats to flag any “advocacy for, aid or support for foreign terrorists and other threats to US national security” and “support for unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence”.

The screening for “antisemitic” activity matches similar guidance given at US Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security and has been criticised as an effort to crack down on opposition to the conduct of Israel’s war in Gaza.

The new state department checks are directed at students and other applicants for visas in the F, M and J categories, which refer to academic and vocational education, as well as cultural exchanges.

“It is an expectation from American citizens that their government will make every effort to make our country safer, and that is exactly what theTrump administrationis doing every single day,” said a senior state department official, adding that Marco Rubio was “helping to make America and its universities safer while bringing the state Department into the 21st century”.

The Trump administration paused the issuance of new education visas late last month as it mulled new social media vetting strategies. The US had also targeted Chinese students for special scrutiny amid a tense negotiation over tariffs and the supply of rare-earth metals and minerals to the United States.

The state department directive allowed diplomatic posts to resume the scheduling of interviews for educational and exchange visas, but added that consular officers would conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of all applicants applying for F, M and J visas.

“To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for F, M and J non-immigrant visas will be asked to adjust the privacy settings on all their social media profiles to ‘public’”, the official said. “The enhanced social media vetting will ensure we are properly screening every single person attempting to visit our country.”

Midwest set to experience temperatures in the 90s (30s celsius) and east coast also to be affected

Summer will make a dramatic entrance in the US this week with a heat dome that will bring stifling temperatures and uncomfortable humidity to millions.

The heat will be particularly worrisome this weekend across wide stretches of Nebraska, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, where forecasters are warning of extreme temperature impacts.

This will be the first stretch of true summertime weather for many from the midwest to the east coast, said Tom Kines, a meteorologist at the private weather company AccuWeather.

“A lot of those folks have been saying, where’s summer? Well, buckle up, because it’s coming,” said Kines. The humid conditions will make places that exceed 90F (30C) feel as much as 20F hotter, said Kines.

A heat dome occurs when a large area of high pressure in the upper atmosphere acts as a reservoir that traps heat and humidity, said Ricky Castro, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Illinois.

According to the NWS Weather Prediction Center, daytime temperatures will be in the 90s and overnight temperatures will only drop to the mid-70s from the Great Lakes to the east coast during the heatwave that’s expected to last into next week.

Moisture blown north from the Gulf of Mexico is fueling the muggy weather, said Jacob Asherman, a Weather Prediction Center meteorologist. This influx of Gulf moisture is fairly typical during late spring and summer, he said.

The heat will be widespread into next week. On Friday, Denver could reach 100F, according to the weather service. Chicago temperatures could reach 96F on Sunday. On Tuesday, Washington DC could see a high of 99F and New York City could reach 96F.

Several states in the midwest could see dangerous temperature impacts over the weekend, according to a weather service measure that rates the risk from zero to four. Parts of Nebraska and Kansas will be in the highest category on the scale on Saturday, meaning that anyone without effective cooling or sufficient hydration could face health risks. On Sunday, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois also see a category 4 rating.

Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the air, and the heat index is what the temperature feels like when the humidity outside is factored in, according to the weather service.

When humans sweat, it cools the body down because it absorbs and removes heat as it evaporates off the skin. The air is saturated with water on humid days, which makes it harder for sweat to evaporate. Hot and humid days can be dangerous when the body is unable to cool itself off and can exacerbate pre-existing health conditions and even lead to heatstroke.

Minimizing direct sun exposure, wearing loose and light-colored clothing, staying hydrated and spending time in air-conditioned spaces are ways to cool down during extreme heat, according to the NWS.

Some parts of the US, such as Phoenix, Arizona, are famously hot without the mugginess. Phoenix and nearby desert regions experience this so-called “dry heat” due to being located far away from large water bodies, mountains that block moist air masses and weather patterns that bring scarce precipitation.

Sweat evaporates faster in dry climates compared with humid ones. This can be dangerous because it is easy to underestimate how dehydrated you are, according to Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health System.

In places such as Iowa, crops can affect the humidity in summer months. Plants feel the effects of hot weather and some people in the midwest are familiar with “corn sweat”, which is when crops move water to their leaves and other surfaces so it can evaporate, according to the Ohio State University.

Iowa, farmer Ryan Marquardt said corn sweat was “not as bad as a sauna, but it definitely would have a sauna effect. It’s humid in there [the cornfield], so you’re gonna sweat.”

Cornfield contributions to the overall humidity are much lower compared with the humidity winds carry from the Gulf of Mexico, according to OSU.

Known as Sam the Wheels, he filmed aspects of community life in south London, including Brixton riots of 1981

Clovis Salmon, regarded as the first black documentary film-maker in the UK, has died at the age of 98.

His family said he died at King’s College hospital in Camberwell on Wednesday morning.

Salmon was best-known for filming the Brixton riots in 1981. Often using a concealed camera to avoid getting it confiscated by police officers, he captured scenes of overturned cars, smouldering buildings and growing anger at police tactics.

Asked to explain the riots, one of his interviewees said: “Jobs, money, National Front, and all the rest, we’d just had enough, so we just explode.”

In aninterview for the Guardian in 2021, Salmon said he filmed everything he saw during the riots. “For three days, I went up and down different places, everywhere I heard that they were fighting, riding my bike. And I always take my camera with me.”

Salmon came to Brixton from Jamaica in 1954 as part of the Windrush generation and has left behind an archive with hundreds of hours of footage covering many aspects of community life in southLondon. In the Great Conflict of Somerleyton Road, he documented a struggle to build the first black church in Brixton in the mid-1960s.

He was also known locally as Sam the Wheels for his cycle repair business and his collection of secondhand bikes that tumbled on to the pavement of his house on Railton Road.

Salmon’s varied career included stints working in factories in Jamaica and cane fields in Florida, and later as a deacon in a Pentecostal church in London. As a mechanic, for Holdsworth Cycles, he could build wheels twice as fast as his white colleagues and soon earned a reputation as the“fastest wheel builder in Britain”.

Salmon’s significance as a film-maker was not recognised until very late in his life. In 2021 his documentaries featured at the Barbican arts centre in London, as part of its Decolonising Lens series. And last year he was awarded an OBE for services to culture and the black community.

Mark Sealy, director of the arts agency Autograph, said: “Sam was a maverick self-taught recorder of black life, and probably Britain’s most important overlooked black film-maker.”

Lucy Davies, director of 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, has been promoting Salmon’s work since 2006 and is coordinating a project to digitise his archive and make it accessible online. “Sam got his flowers in the end, but not until the end of his life,” she said.

Davies added: “Sam did something that was unique – he filmed and documented the black community of Brixton at a time when the only other recording of the community was done by established media like the BBC or Pathé News.

“And because he kept going over many decades, his work serves as an archive of the black community in the postwar migration period.”

She added: “He took it upon himself to document his own community during a really important period without any external support.”

He is survived by his wife, Delores. In a statement his family said: “He was a proud father of five children, grandfather to 10, and great-grandfather to many.”

An installation of bicycles remains on Railton Road in his honour.

Jennifer Abbott, 69, was found dead in her Camden flat with tape on her mouth

A missing diamond-encrusted Rolex watch may be linked to the stabbing of a 69-year-old woman who was found dead in her north London flat, the Metropolitan police have said.

Jennifer Abbott, who was known professionally as Sarah Steinberg, was discovered fatally injured with tape on her mouth.

She had last been seen three days earlier, on 10 June, walking her pet corgi in Camden.

An ambulance crew was called to Abbott’s home in Mornington Place, Camden, at about 6pm on 13 June and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Her pet corgi had been shut in the bathroom for three days, but survived.

Police said a postmortem examination was carried out on Sunday and gave the cause of death as sharp force trauma.

Detectives are keeping an open mind about the possible motive for the murder but are appealing for information about the watch, which they believe is missing from Abbott’s address.

A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, told PA Media that her son went out to help Abbott’s niece and the pair discovered her body.

The neighbour said: “My son broke the door down. We heard her niece shouting: ‘Somebody help me, somebody help’ and we went out and asked: ‘What’s wrong?’ She said: ‘I haven’t heard from my aunty in four days. Something’s wrong – break the door down.’

“I was holding the door open downstairs and my son was upstairs and then I heard her niece screaming and saying: ‘Oh my God, she’s been murdered.’ She had tape across her mouth.

“Her corgi was locked in the bathroom for three days. That poor dog, he couldn’t even drink any water, it’s amazing he was even still alive.”

The neighbour added that Abbott “had done a lot of things in her life”.

They added: “She was a doctor but she was also an actor and director in America. She’d directed a movie and I looked at it on YouTube and saw her interviewed in Los Angeles. She was a character. She was lovely.”

No arrests have been made in connection with Abbott’s death.

The Met Ch Supt Jason Stewart said the force was working closely with colleagues in the homicide team to establish exactly what had happened and were appealing for information from the public.

He said: “Were you out in Camden on Friday? Perhaps you had been coming home from work, or at an event nearby? Did you see or hear anything around Mornington Place that struck you as being unusual?

“Someone must have seen or heard something and no piece of information is too small. It could be the crucial clue that leads us to identify Jennifer’s murderer.”

Stewart added: “Extra patrols continue in the area while my officers remain at the crime scene. I would urge anyone who has any information, or who may be worried, to speak to them.”

In letter to culture secretary, carnival’s chair says more money ‘essential’ to event’s future, but does not give a figure

The future of theNotting Hill carnivalcould be in jeopardy without “urgent funding” from the government, according to a leaked letter from its organisers.

The carnival’s chair, Ian Comfort, has written to the culture secretary,Lisa Nandy, to request public money, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

It follows a review of the festival in westLondonthat began in 1966, which identified “critical public safety concerns” that needed additional funding to address, the letter said.

Comfort wrote that the money was “essential to safeguarding the future and public safety of this iconic event”, but did not state a figure.

The independent safety review, whose findings and recommendations have not been made public, was commissioned by the carnival’s organisers and paid for at a cost of £100,000 by the Greater London Authority (GLA), Kensington and Chelsea council and Westminster city council.

In the leaked letter to Nandy, Comfort also referred to a separate report published in April by the London Assembly. He said the research highlighted the increasing strain placed on the Metropolitan police during large-scale public events.

“Limited resourcing has restricted the police service’s ability to respond to growing operational pressures,” Comfort said in the letter.

He went on to say that increased investment in stewarding and crowd management was “now essential to allow the police to focus on their primary role of crime prevention and public protection”.

Comfort added that a failure to secure immediate additional funding “risks compromising public safety and jeopardising the future of the carnival”.

The carnival chair said although the GLA and the two councils had provided “substantial support” for stewarding during past festivals, they could no longer “meet the growing operational requirements identified in the review”.

The Met police’s assistant commissioner, Matt Twist, previously raised concerns of a “mass casualty event” at the carnival due to crowd density.

Giving evidence to the London Assembly police and crime committee last September, Twist said: “While we acknowledge that crime often gets the headlines, the thing that worries me most is the crowd density and the potential for a mass casualty event.”

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The carnival, second only to Brazil’s Rio carnival in size and considered to be the largest street event in Europe, attracts about 2 million people over the August bank holiday weekend. This year’s event is scheduled to take place on 24 and 25 August.

The Met had about 7,000 officers on duty for last year’s festivities, drawn from local policing teams and specialist units.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport told the BBC it would “respond to the letter in due course”.

Claudia Jones, a Trinidadian human rights activist based in London, put on an indoor Caribbean carnival at St Pancras Town Hall (now Camden Town Hall) in north London in 1959, which is credited with inspiring Notting Hill carnival.

In 1966 the first outdoor festival took place on the streets of Notting Hill, with Rhaune Laslett, a social worker of Native American and Russian descent, organising an event for local children.

According to the carnival’s website, Laslett was a community activist with a history of addressing inter-cultural tension in the area since the violent race riots of the 1950s and set out to include the local West Indian community in her event.

The organisers of Notting Hill carnival have been contacted for comment.

Head of monitoring boards urges justice secretary to suspend rollout of Pava in England and Wales

The rollout of synthetic pepper spray for use to incapacitate jailed children is “wholly irresponsible” while black and minority prisoners are more likely to be subjected to force than white inmates, a watchdog has said.

Elisabeth Davies, the national chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards, whose members operate in every prison inEnglandand Wales, said the justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, should pause the use of Pava spray in youth offending institutions (YOIs) until ministers had addressed the disproportionate use of force on minority prisoners.

“There is clear racial disproportionality when it comes to the use of force,” she told the Guardian. “It is therefore, I think, wholly irresponsible to expand use-of-force measures before disproportionality issues are addressed.”

Mahmoodauthorised the rollout of Pavaacross YOIs in England and Wales in April amid growing demands from the Prison Officers’ Association (POA) to protect staff from attacks.

The government’s “use of force” evaluation report, published in April, found black prisoners were nearly twice as likely as white prisoners to experience Pava and baton use. Using official data to March 2023, the report found that 409 of every 1,000 black inmates were subjected to use of force, compared with 208.6 per 1,000 white prisoners.

Davies urged ministers to hold back on rolling out Pava spray in the youth system until the racial disparities were properly addressed.

“We’ve got evidence that the growing reliance on visible weapons – such as the rollout of Pava spray in the male youth state and the trial of Tasers in the adult male prison state – is deeply concerning for people with lived experience,” she said. “Our board members have been told that the visible presence patterns make [prisoners] feel constantly afraid, and that’s increasing tension rather than easing it.”

According to the IMB’s national annual report, released on Wednesday, black prisoners at HMP Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent were significantly more likely to have force applied to them than white prisoners.

At HMP Birmingham, the category B jail once known as Winson Green, there was evidence of “clear racial disparities in the use of force”, despite the diversity of prison staff and the introduction of cultural awareness training.

Amid a deepening overcrowding crisis, some prison officers will be trialled with stun guns this summer, while the Conservatives have said some should begiven access to live ammunition.

It follows anattack on three officersat HMP Frankland by Hashem Abedi, a terrorist involved in the Manchester Arena bombing.

Davies said prison officers showed “remarkable bravery’ in challenging conditions but the majority of assaults were actually between inmates.

“We’re seeing violence driven by overcrowding, by mental health crisis and rapid drug use,” she said. “One of the most effective ways to reduce violence is through strong and respectable relationships between staff and prisoners.”

Squirted from a canister, Pava spray, or pelargonic acid vanillylamide, causes searing pain and discomfort in the eyes for about 40 minutes and a burning sensation to skin. It was rolled out in men’s prisons in England andWalesin 2018.

There are three publicly run YOIs and one that is privately run, holding young offenders up to the age of 21. According to government statistics covering 2022, most children in prison were from ethnic minorities.

Data obtained in April by theHoward Leaguethrough freedom of information requests showed that black men were almost three times more likely to be sprayed with Pava than white men in prison, and young black men under the age of 25 were five times more likely to be sprayed than their white counterparts.

Responding to Davies, Mark Fairhurst, the national chair of the POA, said IMB members were “not the ones on the receiving end of life-changing injuries” from violent youths.

“It would be wholly irresponsible of the government not to give my brave colleagues the protections they need when dealing with violence,” he said. “Using the ethnicity or age of offenders to excuse their violent behaviour is shameful … Nobody should ever enter their workplace and be expected to become a victim.”

A Youth Custody Service spokesperson said: “Pava will only be used as a last resort to protect staff and young people from serious harm, such as violent incidents involving weapons. Staff will receive specialist training, and every use will be closely scrutinised with strict controls in place.”

Campaign group threatens legal action over ‘intolerable’ delays to new policies required after landmark case

The Scottish government has been given a deadline to implement the UK supreme court’s ruling on biological sex across all public bodies or face further legal challenges.

Sex Matters, the UK-wide gender-critical campaign group, has threatened legal action in 14 days if ministers continue “intolerable” delays to new policies and guidance required byApril’s landmark rulingthat the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 does not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates.

The move reflects ongoing frustration among gender-critical campaign groups at what For Women Scotland, who brought the supreme court case,described as “extraordinary pushback”since the unanimous judgment.

Politicians,LGBT+ rights groupsandprominent supportershave raised concerns that the ruling could result in the erosion of rights, privacy and dignity of trans people across the UK.

These fears were increased after the equality watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) brought out interim advice soon after the judgment which, they said, amounted to a blanket ban on trans people using toilets of their lived gender, which many in the community said effectively excluded them from public spaces.

The ruling has wide-ranging implications for service providers, public bodies and businesses, with the EHRC currently consulting on a revised code of practice that will provide a practical guide on implementation.

However, the Sex Matters letter says the consultation is “not an invitation – particularly to public authorities – to act in a way that is unlawful in the meantime”. Sex Matters intervened in the supreme court case that was brought by For WomenScotlandagainst the Scottish government over a law aimed at improving gender representation on public boards.

Maya Forstater, a founder of Sex Matters, said the supreme court was clear that legal protection for trans people “does not translate into a right to use opposite-sex services”, adding that allowing trans women to use women’s toilets, showers and changing rooms had “created a hostile environment for women”.

Sex Matters is particularly concerned about the Scottish government’s guidance for schools, which encourage teaching staff offer flexible arrangements for young transgender people and states that the use of toilets is governed by social convention rather than law.

The Good Law Project, which is challenging the EHRC’s interim advice in court next month, revealed earlier this week that the commissionappeared to be rolling backon its initial blanket position.

Last weekend, For Women Scotland co-director Susan Smith encouraged individuals to “keep pressure on MSPs and MPs”, and make use of the fighting fund announced by the author and activist, JK Rowling, to launch their own actions.

Rowling said the fund was “not going to be sharing any details or figures about applications and inquiries, as it’s a private fund, not a fundraising charity, and funding details are strictly confidential”.

A Scottish government spokesperson said that they would respond to the letter in due course.

They said: “The Scottish government has been clear that we accept the supreme court judgment. We are reviewing policies, guidance and legislation potentially impacted by the judgment.”