The Great British PAC is offering to help NHS patients and staff build legal cases against trusts refusing to implement the new statutory guidance on single-sex spaces, after JK Rowling warned that legal action was now inevitable — and pledged to help fund it.
The trigger was an internal email, reported last week by journalist Janet Murray, in which staff at an NHS trust were told there would be "no immediate changes" to policies allowing men who identify as women to be placed on women's hospital wards, despite the EHRC's new statutory guidance on single-sex spaces having just come into force.
Rowling responded within hours. Quote-tweeting Murray's post, she wrote that further legal action was inevitable, and that any female patient or member of staff who needed funding to challenge the trust's approach could apply directly to jkrwf.org.
What is the JK Rowling Women's Fund?
The J.K. Rowling Women's Fund (JKRWF), launched in May 2025, is a privately financed legal fighting fund, not a registered charity, bankrolled by Rowling herself. It exists specifically to support individuals and organisations "fighting to retain women's and girls' sex-based rights" in the workplace, in public life, and in protected single-sex spaces, including cases that enforce the Equality Act 2010 following last year's Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers.
The fund does not provide legal representation itself. Applicants must already have a solicitor, a clear scope for the legal action, and a defined budget and timescale before applying; the JKRWF board then assesses applications against published eligibility criteria for individuals and organisations separately.
In other words: it is designed for people who already have a case moving, not a starting point for people who don't yet know what their legal options are.
That's where the gap sits — and where the Great British PAC wants to help
For many NHS staff and patients affected by trusts quietly declining to update their policies, the JKRWF's own entry requirement is the sticking point: you need a solicitor and a defined case before you can even apply. Most people affected by a decision like this trust's don't have either yet.
That's the gap the Great British PAC says it wants to close. Its lawyers can work with patients or staff affected by a trust's refusal to implement the guidance to put a case together, scope it, and get it to the point where it's ready to go in front of a funder. If that's where you are, get in touch at info@GreatBritishPAC.com.
The wider picture
This is not an isolated flashpoint. We recently reported that nine of Greater Manchester's ten councils have made no changes to their single-sex spaces policies in the fifteen months since the Supreme Court's ruling, and a coalition of London councils has said openly it intends to keep existing "inclusive" arrangements rather than adopt the EHRC's guidance. The NHS trust's email suggests the same pattern of institutional delay is now visible in healthcare settings, where the stakes for patients on single-sex wards are arguably higher than almost anywhere else covered by the guidance.
Rowling's intervention signals that, where public bodies decline to act, she is prepared to underwrite the legal consequences. Whether that pressure moves NHS trusts faster than it has moved local councils remains to be seen.
If you are an NHS patient or staff member affected by a trust's policy on single-sex spaces, the Great British PAC's lawyers can help you put a case together. Please email info@GreatBritishPAC.com. Once you have legal representation and a defined case, you can check your eligibility for funding directly at jkrwf.org.