This blog examines recent developments on gender recognition reform and how the Scottish Government appears to have broken its commitment to actively engage with a range of stakeholders 'to identify the best and most effective way to improve and simplify…
Read More Gender recognition reform: what happened to the manifesto?
In recent weeks Police Scotland’s policy on recording the identity of those charged with the crime of rape has received considerable media attention. As revealed in a bluntly worded Freedom of Information (FOI) response we received in April last year,…
Summary In October 2021 we submitted Freedom of Information requests to fifteen Scottish Universities asking whether each institution has a single-sex, female-only staff network or representative body, if so, who membership is open to. The responses indicate that no university…
Read More Who represents the interests of female staff in Scottish universities?
This blog places our recent polling results on public attitudes towards gender recognition reform in the context of other polling results on the same topic. Currently, to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate a person does need not have made any…
Read More Public attitudes to gender recognition reform: an overview
In September 2021 the Scottish Government set out a commitment to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to allow for a person to change their sex in law based on self-declaration, without medical gatekeeping, in its Programme for Government. We…
The blog below sets out a range of options for reform of the Gender Recognition Act that meet the high level aims of several political parties, that is, to simplify the process and reduce its intrusiveness, particularly in relation to…
Read More Reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004: options and opportunities
In 2018 the Scottish Government brought forward legislation to add new voluntary questions on gender identity and sexual orientation to the next Scottish census. The Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 2 October 2018. As…
In recent correspondence, the Scottish Government implied that previous parliamentary discussion on the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act has lent weight to its decision to issue guidance for the sex question in Scotland’s 2022 census which advised respondents they may answer…
Read More Did MSPs approve the guidance for the sex question in Scotland’s census?
UPDATE: We received a letter from the Commission yesterday evening which confirmed that the advice provided to the Scottish Government "could have been clearer" and that the Commission is developing guidance on data collection for public authorities. In light of…
We are pleased at the Committee’s decision to continue to work on the petition and gather further evidence. The petition raises substantive questions about the accuracy and reliability of criminal justice statistics, particularly in relation to serious sexual offending. It…
