Gender Recognition Act 2004: Hansard

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The Gender Recognition Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 27 November 2003. It was passed by the House of Lords on 10 February 2004, with 155 votes in favour and 57 against. The House of Commons passed it on 25 May. It received Royal Assent on 1 July 2004.

Below are links to the debates at each stage of the Act’s passage through the UK Parliament:

House of Lords

1st Reading:  27 November 2003

2nd Reading: 18 December 2003

Committee  stage: 13 January 2004 and 14 January 2004

Report stage: 29 January 2004 and 3 February 2004

3rd Reading: 10 February 2004

Consideration of Commons amendments: 8 June 2004

House of Commons

1st Reading: 11 February 2004 (see Commons Journal)

2nd Reading: 23 February 2004

Programme motion: 23 February 2004

Money resolution – 23 February 2004

Committee stage: 9, 11 and 16 March 2004

Remaining stages: 25 May 2004

Royal Assent: 1 July 2004

The legislation was also debated in the Scottish Parliament:

The Scottish Parliament debated a Sewel motion (S2M-00813) on the Gender Recognition Bill on 5 February 2004. You can read what was said during the debate in the Official Report of the meeting.   

The Equal Opportunities Committee took evidence on the issue but was not designated as the lead committee on the Sewel motion. The Justice 1 Committee was the lead committee considering the Sewel motion.

The Equal Opportunities Committee discussed the Gender Recognition Bill on 25 November 2003 and 9 December 2003. You can access the papers and the Official Reports (which contain the transcripts of what was said in public session) for these meetings from this page of the archive website.

The Justice 1 Committee discussed the Gender Recognition Bill at a meeting on 28 January 2004. You can find the papers for this meeting and the Official Report on the archive website. The committee published its report on the Sewel motion on 4 February 2004.