‘No plans’ to bring back gender reform proposals says minister

The Scottish Government has “no plans” to bring back its gender reform plans following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the definition of ‘woman’ last week.

Social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said she would engage with UK Government counterparts on any plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) in light of the judgment.

She confirmed the government does not back repealing the GRA, which allows trans people to apply for a gender recognition certificate (GRC) to allow legal documents to match their acquired gender.

But Scottish Tory leader Russell Findlay said First Minister John Swinney “owes an apology to the people of Scotland, but especially to women” over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

That legislation was blocked from becoming law by former Scottish secretary Alister Jack in January 2023, one month after the bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament.

It attempted to make the process of applying for a GRC easier by allowing for self-identification and removing medical barriers, but concerns were raised about the impact it would have on UK-wide equality law.

Making a statement in parliament on Tuesday, Somerville said: “There has been commentary as to the implications of this ruling in respect of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill… Following the judgment last week, the Scottish Government has no plans to bring it back.”

But Findlay accused the first minister of being “willing to sacrifice women’s rights, including the right to single-sex spaces and services”.

He added: “John Swinney owes an apology to the people of Scotland, but especially to women. And this harmful ideology must now be rooted out of our entire public sector: schools, prisons, hospitals, and policing. Far too much time and taxpayers’ money has been wasted on this already. The country needs to move on.”

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling confirmed the definition of ‘woman’, ‘man’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological women, men and sex.

This means that trans women and men who hold GRCs are not entitled to access single-sex spaces and services for their acquired gender.

The Scottish Government had argued the opposite, and that for the purposes of its Gender Representation on Public Boards Act – which seeks to ensure gender parity on boards – trans women counted towards the total number of women on a board.

Judges at the Supreme Court have now said this interpretation was incorrect.

Somerville said: “We fully accept the Supreme Court’s judgment and have begun to analyse the impact. We are amending the guidance in the public boards legislation to take account of the ruling.”

She urged the Equality and Human Rights Commission to issue fresh guidance in light of the judgment which would allow the government to revise its own guidance to public bodies.

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said Scottish ministers had “encouraged practice to get ahead of the law” by wrongly interpreting the Equality Act.

She said the cost of revising guidance “will be at considerable cost to those organisations in both time and money”.