The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee is currently conducting its Stage 1 examination of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland ) Bill.
Written submisisons
The call for written submissions on the Bill closed at midnight on Monday 16 May. The Committee received 10,800 written responses to its short questionnaire. Of these, 59% of those who responded disagreed with the overall purpose of the Bill; 38% agreed; and 3% indicated that they did not know. A further 800 groups and individuals responded to the Committee’s invitation to submit more detailed comments (due to the volume, these are not all yet available to view). Overall, we believe this is over five times more than any previous Bill before the Scottish Parliament.
Oral evidence
Public oral evidence sessions began on the morning of Tuesday 17 May, less than 12 hours after the call for evidence closed. Invitations were issued to at least some witnesses before the deadline for written submissions had passed.
It subsequently emerged that the Committee also met with Scottish Government officials on 15 March, and held two private informal sessions with ‘people with lived experience’ on 26 April and 3 May. None of these sessions were recorded in the Official Report, although an extensive note was later published for each of the lived experience sessions. The note of the session with government officials is very limited and does not record their responses.
Evidence sessions are likely to continue every Tuesday until the Scottish Parliament rises at the end of June.
The Committee has so far seen two panels separately each week. The theme of each panel is not described by the Committee, although it is obvious in some cases. One session (31 May) simply grouped together those with a critical perspective on the Bill.
The Committee has not announced its full plans for the remaining oral evidence sessions, making it impossible to assess the different perspectives it has planned to consider. Instead, these are announced each week for the following week, when the Committee issues its papers for that meeting, usually on the Thursday before 4.30pm; the exception is this week, due to the Bank Holiday.
The Cabinet Secretary in charge of a Bill is usually the final witness in Stage 1 oral hearings in the Scottish Parliament.
The table below sets out who has appeared on each panel, links to what evidence they have submitted, and notes any other relevant public position, where evidence was not submitted. Note that on the first panel planned for 7 June, none of the witnesses have submitted written evidence. We will update this as information is made available.
| Date | Topic | Witness/organisation | Meeting record | Written evidence | Should gender dyphoria diagnosis be removed/ supports self-identification (a) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 March | Scottish Government officials | Note of meeiting | N/A | n/a | |
| 26 April | Trans lived experience | Private meeting (2 sessions) | Note of meeting | Unknown | Yes |
| 2 May | Trans lived experience | Private meeting (2 sessions) | Note of meeting | Unknown | Yes |
| 17 May Agenda | Panel 1: Trans rights | Vic Valentine, Scottish Trans Alliance Dr Mhairi Crawford, LGBT Youth Scotland Colin Macfarlane, Stonewall Scotland | Offical report | Yes Yes Yes | Yes Yes Yes |
| 17 May | Panel 2: Policy & law | Melanie Field and Alasdair MacDonald Equality & Human Rights Commission | No | Requires further consideration | |
| 24 May Agenda | Panel 1: Young people | Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland Ellie Gomersall, President-Elect of NUS Scotland and President of UWS Students’ Association | Official report | Yes Yes | Yes Yes |
| 24 May | Panel 2: Sport | Hugh Torrance, Executive Director, LEAP Sports Scotland Malcolm Dingwall-Smith, Sportscotland | Yes No | Yes No impact | |
| 31 May Agenda | Panel 1: Various critical perspectives | Susan Smith, For Women Scotland Lucy Hunter Blackburn, MurrayBlackburnMackenzie Malcolm Clark, LGB Alliance Dr Kate Coleman, Keep Prisons Single Sex | Official report | Yes Yes Yes Yes | No No No No |
| 31 May | Panel 2: Various supportive perspectives | Catherine Murphy, Engender Sandy Brindley, Rape Crisis Scotland Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International Scotland Jen Ang, JustRight Scotland | Yes No Joint submission | Yes Yes Yes Yes | |
| 7 June Agenda | Panel 1: Data & prison | Paul Lowe, National Records of Scotland James Kerr and Robert Strachan , Scottish Prison Service Dr Kevin Guyan, University of Glasgow | Official report | No No No | Yes Yes Yes |
| 7 June | Panel 2: Religion | Anthony Horan, Catholic Parliamentary Office Reverend Karen Hendry, Church of Scotland Chris Ringland, Evangelical Alliance Fraser Sutherland, Humanist Society of Scotland | Yes Yes Yes No | No Yes No Yes | |
| 7 June | Minority faith | Private meeting | Note of meeting | Unknown | No |
| 14 June Agenda | Panel 1: Law | Professor Sharon Cowan, University of Edinburgh Naomi Cunningham, Barrister, Outer Temple Chambers, Chair, Sex Matters (b) Karon Monaghan QC, Barrister, Matrix Chambers | Official report | Yes Yes No | Yes No No |
| 14 June | Panel 2: Health | David Parker, National Gender Identity Clinical Network for Scotland (c) | No | Yes | |
| 21 June Agenda | Panel 1: Data and law | Professor Alice Sullivan, UCL Social Research Institute Robin White, Barrister, Old Square Chambers | Official report | Yes Yes | No Yes |
| 21 June | Panel 2: Human rights | Victor Madrigal-Borloz, United Nations Ian Duddy Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) Barbara Bolton SHRC Cathy Asante SHRC | No Yes | Yes Yes | |
| 21 June | Panel 3: Law | Dr Sandra Duffy, University of Bristol Dr Peter Dunne, University of Bristol Dr Chris Dietz University of Leeds | No No No | Yes Yes Yes | |
| 22 June Agenda | Reform in Ireland | Senator Regina Donherty, Leader, Seanad Éireann | No | Yes | |
| 28 June Agenda | Scottish Government | Shona Robison, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, Scottish Government Peter Hope-Jones, Head of Gender Recognition Unit, Scottish Government Colin Gilchrist, Solicitor, Scottish Government | n/a |
(a) Evidence of support for self-declaration is based on written submissions, statements made to the Committee, and organisational or individual positions previously made in public.
(b) Naomi Cunningham is a Barrister and Chair of Sex Matters, a UK-based not-for-profit organisation. Sex Matters submitted evidence to the Committee’s call for views, although this was not listed on the Clerk’s note for the session. We have linked to this in the table.
(c) The Royal College of General Practitioners could not attend the session, and instead submitted written information (see Annex B here).
To date, witnesses have been drawn mainly from those supportive of the Bill’s core proposal, although this may change as proceedings continue. In addition to the results of the short questionnaire above, polling data further suggests that public opinion is weighted towards retaining some medical oversight of the GRC process:
Following the session on 24 May, there was some criticism in the media of the Committee’s choice of witnesses for the panel on sport. In response, the Scottish Parliament commented:
“The members of the committee have agreed a set of witnesses for these meetings. The call for views was well publicised and open to any organisation or individual who wished to give evidence, including elite athletes.”
Update: 15 June 2022
At the evidence session on 14 June, the Convenor stated that the Committee was seeking to expand the range of views being heard:
“Before we start, I will make a short statement on some relevant developments in order to update members and people who follow our work. Today, we will hear from two expert panels as part of our stage 1 evidence on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
The committee had hoped to hear evidence from Professor Alice Sullivan in today’s first panel. Although she is not able to join us today, I am pleased that she has accepted our invitation and should be with us on Tuesday 21 June.
We had also hoped to hear from Dr Hilary Cass in today’s second panel, but she has declined the committee’s invitation. She said that she has published her interim report and referred us to that and other published statements that she has made. The committee had also invited a number of respected associations representing medical professionals to give evidence, but several have declined the committee’s invitation to attend in person today. Some have agreed to give written evidence, which the committee will be able to consider as part of our stage 1 inquiry.
Last week, the committee heard from witnesses representing faith groups and secular society. Ahead of that session, as committee members are aware, the committee had approached a range of faith groups but, for a variety of reasons, some declined our invitation to attend last week. I hope that that provides clarity for people who are following the committee’s work.
As has been agreed by the committee, the clerks are working with a variety of parents groups to organise an informal evidence session in order that we can hear from parents whose children have transgender identity. The clerks are also trying to arrange for the committee to hear informally from people who have transitioned but who have thereafter chosen to reverse that process. The clerks will publish details on those sessions in due course.
I hope that that information helps to clarify some of the queries about the committee’s agreed approach to oral evidence sessions.”
Convenor Joe Fitzpatrick, 14 June 2022 cols. 1-2