The equalities watchdog has closed an investigation into a series of internal complaints against its chair after the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, ordered a review of the process.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that following the review of how complaints against Kishwer Falkner had been dealt with, it had decided to close the investigation against her.
The EHRC’s board would now “work through any outstanding issues with all parties in confidence”, a statement added.
Falkner, who had denied wrongdoing, said she was “grateful to see an end to this investigation into unsubstantiated claims against me”.
In May, it emerged that the EHRC was examining what the Guardian understands were 40 complaints made against her by 12 current or former staff members at the EHRC.
Allies of Falkner portrayed the investigation as a “witch-hunt” against her by pro-transgender rights staff members after the EHRC under her leadership backed changing the Equality Act 2010 so that the protected characteristic of sex would mean biological sex, which would allow transgender women to be barred from single-sex spaces.
However, sources in the organisation said this was a mischaracterisation of the complaints, saying that while some were partly connected with transgender policy, the wider worries were about a lack of independence and impartiality by the EHRC.
Channel 4 News revealed details about some of the complaints in May, saying that they showed “a toxic culture” inside the EHRC, including claims of bullying, harassment and discrimination.
Following the Channel 4 reporting, the EHRC board paused the investigation into Falkner and was unable to agree a way forward. In response, Badenoch, who holds the equalities brief as well as being trade and business secretary, asked a leading lawyer to step in and look at the process in July.
The EHRC statement on Tuesday said the organisation “cooperated fully with the review and its board has now considered guidance which has flowed from it”.
The EHRC’s interim deputy chair, Lesley Sawyers, who is also the EHRC commissioner for Scotland, “has decided that the investigation into the chairwoman should now close”.
The statement added: “The board will also be conducting a full review of the process failures which occurred as well as a review of its own rules and governance to implement any necessary changes.”
In her statement, Falkner, who was formerly a Liberal Democrat but sits as a crossbench peer, said the EHRC was “united in our focus on protecting and promoting equality and everyone’s human rights. Now that these matters are reaching a conclusion, I hope we will be given the time and space needed to reset and renew our efforts to deliver for the British people”.
The EHRC, she said, “has been going through a transformation programme, to take clearer and more measurable action as the country’s regulator of equality law. Our staff are the most important element of achieving this change. I am proud that most have embraced the journey with a clear-eyed focus on the end goal – becoming the trusted equality regulator that serves everyone”.
Falkner’s words appear to allude to the move by the EHRC under her tenure to take a stance in the debate on trans rights that broadly aligns with that of Badenoch and the government, in supporting a change to the Equality Act.
When she took the role at the EHRC in 2021, Falkner provoked some controversy by arguing in a newspaper interview that it was “entirely reasonable” if some people did not accept that people who identified as a different sex to which they were born were legitimately of that sex.
