I opened a debate in the House of Lords on 24 February on the provision of women-only communal toilets in public buildings, which you can find here, or through my Twitter feed, at @LordLucasCD. 

There has been a steady flow of comment, by and large supportive of the idea that, whatever provision of communal gender-neutral toilets is made, such buildings should always include sufficient women-only toilet capacity for women’s needs. 

I am delighted that the government may be moving to clarify building regulations with this intent. Participation welcome - I am sure that I have more to learn.

A conversation, not an imposition

Do the arguments that I made in my speech carry over into schools? Not necessarily.

Schools are not open to the public. They are closed communities with rules of their own and a shared spirit. They come in a wide range of varieties. I doubt that there is a universally applicable formula.

Nonetheless, I think that there are some common threads that should run through all schools’ thinking on the matter.

Firstly, this should be a conversation, not an imposition. There is a complex set of competing needs and interests, which deserve to be heard and understood. Children, parents and staff should all be talked and listened to.

Secondly, it should be a continuing conversation: needs and perceptions change over time, and there is a lot to learn from the experiences of other schools.

Thirdly, keeping children safe is what matters above all.

Lastly, it is high time that the government provided a plain English guide to the Equality Act, 2010 and the schools-premises regulations, with plenty of real-life examples. The current versions are opaque, with many possible readings of what they really mean. 

The government has left the field to competing interest groups, each of which tilts and embroiders their advice in accordance with their beliefs. The government should make it clear what the rules are, and provide an easy way for them to be enforced at the instigation of parents.

In an ideal world...

To my mind, in an ideal world where a school has the space and finances to order its toilet and changing facilities as it wishes, what I would hope to see is:

1. A large, centrally located gender-neutral communal toilet, with cubicles with top-to-bottom doors and a washroom that is visible to passersby. 

This would be somewhere gender-nonconforming pupils can feel safe and comfortable, and part of the ordinary run of users. 

The pupils whom I have spoken to in schools that offer this seem entirely comfortable with the experience. They recognise that transgender - and all the other aspects of gender-nonconforming children - are a normal, natural aspect of humanity: part of a spectrum in which they share. 

Most such toilets seem to drift into having male and female ends, but I see no harm in that.

2. Easily accessible single-sex toilets or washrooms, in the quantity in which they are needed. 

Girls who are having their periods, particularly if they are very bloody or painful, will often want to use a space where there are no boys. So will girls whose custom or constitution or just the way they feel on the day makes them prefer a single-sex space. Some boys will want their own space, too.

3. Single-sex changing rooms.

4. Such additional spaces as are required to meet the needs of the school community. 

Equal weight

As demand changes, it may be sensible to reallocate toilets from single-sex to gender-neutral. 

There should always be some spaces - ideally single cubicles with a washbasin - which can be allocated to those who need them when they need them. 

As closed communities, where the members are well-known to each other, it may be possible for a school to allow different arrangements to apply to different individuals. But, in such cases, no greater weight should be given to the views of those who might benefit from such arrangements than is given to the views of those who might be inconvenienced by them.

Unlike one new-build school near me, staff should not be expected to share toilets with pupils.

I look forward to listening to your experiences and views, on Twitter as above, or at: lucasr@parliament.uk.

Lord Lucas is a Conservative backbench peer. He tweets as @LordLucasCD