Women will continue to have the right to exclude transgender people from female-only changing rooms, lavatories and swimming sessions, ministers have pledged.

In an apparent change of direction, they said the rights of those who 'identify as women' would not be put ahead of those who are biologically female.

The announcement comes in response to concerns over plans to allow transgender people to legally change their gender without having to undergo medical checks.

Feminists fear it could have unintended consequences such as allowing predatory men to masquerade as transgender to enter women-only spaces.

But a statement from the Government Equalities Office yesterday promised that 'advancing the rights of trans people does not have to compromise women's rights'.

Women will continue to have the right to exclude transgender people from female-only changing rooms, lavatories and swimming sessions, ministers have pledged. File image

It comes after a string of controversial incidents in which women have complained about transgender people being allowed into female-only spaces.

In one case, a woman who requested a female nurse to perform her cervical smear was called in by a person with stubble.

In another a woman who feared men was locked in an NHS women's psychiatric ward with a burly 6ft transgender patient.

Some feminists have hit back with protests. In one, a group of women who were assured they were welcome to swim as self-identifying men at Hampstead men's pond in London arrived in 'mankinis' but were escorted away by police.

Yesterday's Government statement said: 'We are clear we have no intention of amending the Equality Act 2010, the legislation that allows for single-sex spaces.

'Any Gender Recognition Act reform will not change the protected characteristics in the Equality Act.'

It added: 'Providers of women-only services [can choose not to] provide services to trans individuals, provided it is objectively justified on a case-by-case basis.'

Ministers are preparing to announce a consultation on the Gender Recognition Act.

The Government has previously said reform would remove the need for a doctor's diagnosis to allow adults to change their gender but yesterday's statement said that while the current process 'is not working… that does not necessarily mean we are proposing self-declaration of gender'.