The UK government has blocked a controversial Scottish bill, which was passed in December to make it easier for people to change their legal gender. AP
Scotland wants to empower trans people, giving them more liberty to change their gender. But the United Kingdom is not in favour. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has blocked the Gender Recognition Reform Bill passed in Scotland on 22 December.
The legislation, which would make it easier for people to change their legal gender, was blocked by UK ministers, saying it would have an “adverse impact” on equality protections across Great Britain. This is the first time the UK has blocked a Scottish law.
What is the Scottish gender bill?
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill aims to reform the system through which people obtain the gender recognition certificate (GRC).
It does away with the need for a psychiatric diagnosis of gender dysphoria, a sense of unease a person may experience because of the mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. Instead, it introduces a self-identification system.
Under the earlier laws, applicants should have been permanently living in their acquired gender for at least two years before applying for the GRC. The gender bill reduces that to three months and six months for 16 and 17-year-olds. The age at which people can apply for the GRC was already reduced to 16 from 18.
The new Scottish law requires people to send their applications to the Registrar General for Scotland instead of the UK panel.
According to the Scottish government, the old system adversely impacts people applying for gender recognition, adding that the process of getting the GRC can be “demeaning, intrusive, distressing and stressful”.
The gender law brings big changes to the system through which people obtain their gender recognition certificate. AFP
Why is the UK opposed to the bill?
The Sunak government has blocked the legislation which it believes is not compatible with the existing Equalities Act. The UK government’s Scottish secretary Alister Jack is expected to take the legal steps to confirm the move.
In a letter to Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, he said that the bill would have a “significant impact” on protections contained in UK equalities legislation. He cited concerns over its effect on legal rights to run single-sex clubs, associations and schools, as well as rules on equal pay for men and women, according to a report in the BBC.
According to Jack, having “two different gender recognition schemes in the UK” risked creating “significant complications,” including “allowing more fraudulent or bad faith applications”. He announced that he would use Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 for the first time to halt the gender recognition bill after a review by UK government lawyers.
The Rishi Sunak-led government has blocked the bill saying the gender laws are incompatible with the existing Equalities Act which is applicable to the UK. AFP
What is a Section 35 order?
It is dubbed the “nuclear button”, a legal arsenal that the UK government has but has never exercised. The Scotland Act establishing the Scottish Parliament came into the effect in 1998.
Under Section 35 of the Act, a UK secretary of state has the power to stop a bill from getting royal assent and thus preventing it from becoming law. This order can be used only if they have reason to believe that the law in question will hurt legislation across Great Britain.
How can Scotland pass its own laws?
For centuries, after the unification of Great Britain in the 1700s, Scotland did not have a government. However, that changed in 1998.
The Scotland Act allows the Scottish Parliament to make decisions on domestic issues without needing a nod for the UK Parliament. However, the latter has veto powers.
The first minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is responsible for policies formulated by the Scottish government.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon has vowed to oppose the UK government’s move. AFP
Can Scotland challenge the use of Section 35?
Yes, it can. Scottland’s Nicola Sturgeon has called the UK government’s move a “full-frontal attack” on the Scottish Parliament and vowed to oppose it.
Her government is likely to mount a legal challenge, which would be through a judicial review, to assess the lawfulness of the Scotland secretary’s decision. She said that Scottish ministers would “defend” the bill, saying that if the veto succeeded it would be the “first of many”.
In a Today interview Shona Robison, the Scottish government’s social justice secretary, insisted that the gender recognition reform bill would not undermine or change UK equality law. This is an argument the Scottish government has been making for some time, Robison said.
What have critics of the gender bill said?
According to critics, the self-identification process will alter who can access women-only services. This will make the vulnerable to abuse by predatory male offenders, reports The Guardian.
Before the bill was passed, a United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, warned the law could endanger women. Reem Alsalem said it “would potentially open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process of acquiring a gender certificate and the rights that are associated with it”.
Author JK Rowling, who has been an opponent of trans rights, said that “erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives” and the Scottish government’s reforms had “triggered” her.
With inputs from agencies
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