In recent years the English Pool Association (EPA), an organisation run solely by volunteers, has found itself under the threat of being taken to court by both sides of the transgender debate. As an Association, whilst appearing to be not involved, it has been tirelessly working to find the best way to include all our members. The EPA attempted to contact the government for assistance and attended webinars provided and organised by Sport England providing biological facts between male and females and legal advice was received. The EPA have met with ‘Fair Play For Women’ and spoke with several transgender charities to ensure as much information was available to make any informed decisions.
Sadly, it has taken legal proceedings outside of our organisation for this to be concluded.
The EPA is a member of the International Eightball Pool Federation (IEPF) and has a collaboration agreement with Ultimate Pool Group (UPG) on the professional side of our sport. Both the IEPF and UPGhave reviewed their eligibility criteria for the women’s category in pool and we have taken a committee decision to align ourselves with their updated policies/by-laws.
This has been based on the following recent developments.
UPG obtained an experts report upon the question:
“Was eightball pool a gender affected sport as defined by the Equality Act 2010?”
This report was commissioned to reach a conclusion not only on the question of whether there were biological differences between women born as women and transgender women recognised as women by way of a Gender Recognition Certificate but also whether any biological differences meant that transgender women had an advantage in the specific sport of eight ball pool.
The clear conclusion of the biological and cue sports expert who jointly authored the report was that eightball pool was a gender affected sport and that in cue sports female players have unique disadvantages compared to male players and that transgender women retain male advantages.
Separately the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers was handed down on 16th April 2025.
In this judgment the Supreme Court ruled that a Gender Recognition Certificate does not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) chairwoman Baroness Kishwer Falkner has confirmed that the ruling has brought clarity and that trans women cannot take part in women’s sport and that the EHRC would pursue organisations which do not update their policies.
With effect from 7th May 2025, transgender women will not be eligible to participate in any EPA Women’s category event. This includes team and singles events.
All categories previously titled Men’s will now be known as Open.
The Open category will be open to all regardless of sex.