IntroductionOn 20 November Scottish Affairs published an advance online copy of our new article, 'Losing Sight of Women's Rights (Again), in which we defend an earlier paper, published by the same journal in 2019. Our new article was written in response…
Read More Sex, gender identity, and the erosion of academic norms
Every ten years the census gives us a complete picture of the nation. It allows us to compare different groups of people across the United Kingdom because the same questions are asked, and the information is recorded, in the same…
The Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee will begin consideration of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill at Stage 1 and will take evidence from Cabinet Secretary for Justice on Tuesday 27 October. Below are questions to which we suggest…
In April 2020 the Scottish Government published the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill. The Bill aims to consolidate existing hate crime legislation, introduce new protected characteristics, introduce new provisions for stirring up hatred for all characteristics, and abolish…
Read More The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill: Views from Scottish policing
It has been hard to miss the reaction to the Scottish Government’s proposal in its hate crime bill to extend the crime of ‘stirring up hatred’ to a wider range of situations than now. Currently, “stirring up” offences apply only…
Read More Options for securing consensus on the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill
Today’s statement by Liz Truss brings much needed clarity on the UK Government’s proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act. We have previously argued that a shift to a system of self-declaration, without the requirement for a diagnosis of gender…
Read More MurrayBlackburnMackenzie response to the UK Government GRA announcement
In response to a recent parliamentary question by Labour MSP James Kelly on the proposed stirring up hatred offences in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, and whether these should be fully deleted or heavily amended, the First…
Read More The limits of precedent and the special case of racial hatred
The Hate Crime and Public Order Bill provides for ‘Variations in Sex Characteristics’ (VSCs) as a standalone protected characteristic. This represents a change from the Offences (Aggravation by Prejudice) (Scotland) Act 2009, which currently classifies ‘intersexuality’ under ‘transgender identity’. The…
This blog looks at how the characteristic ‘transgender identity’ is defined in the Hate Crime and Public Order Bill, and in public policy more widely. We argue that a failure to clarify what is meant by this term is likely…
Read More Defining transgender identity in the Hate Crime and Public Order Bill and beyond
The UK is losing robust data on sex and the framing of the sex question in the 2021 census is set to make the situation worse. The sex question in the 2021 census will ask whether a person is…
Read More Domino effects: the implications of the framing the sex question in the 2021 census
