In response to a parliamentary question by Johann Lamont MSP on how acquisition of a gender recognition certificate (GRC) affects a prisoner’s legal rights in relation to accommodation, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice stated that ‘Acquiring a gender recognition certificate…
Losing consensus on the census
Within the last fifteen months, an intense debate has broken out over whether the sex question in the 2021 census should be framed in terms of self-declared gender identity, legal or biological sex. We think that this loss of consensus…
Recording sex on medical records: a case study of NHS Scotland
Background Sex is an objective, verifiable, fundamental and immutable characteristic of the human body. Belonging to either the male or the female sex category has profound impacts on the medical needs of a person. This includes needs pertaining to the…
Gender Recognition Act reform: The purpose of the GRA
Background 1. In December 2019 the Scottish Government published its draft Bill on reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) and opened its plans to consultation. The draft Bill can be accessed here, the explanatory notes here, and the…
MBM response to Scottish Government consultation on GRA reform
"We welcome this further consultation. We now need a transparent process, in which substantial questions about law, evidence and analysis receive substantial answers. The Scottish Government must engage fully with people from all perspectives, particularly groups who have expressed concern…
Draft guidance under consideration for 2021 census sex question: summary of proposals
1. Background and timing In early 2020, the UK census authorities will finalise the questions they propose to ask in the next census, which will take place on 21 March 2021. Draft census orders will be laid in both the…
2019 UK general election party manifesto commitments on GRA reform
Conservatives: No reference to reform of the Gender Recognition Act. Liberal Democrats: "Complete reform of the Gender Recognition Act to remove the requirement for medical reports, scrap the fee and recognise non-binary gender identities." Other related proposals: "Introduce an ‘X’…
Last chance saloon: preserving the integrity of the sex question in the 2021 census
Last month, following a parliamentary evidence session on the 2021 census, the Scottish Parliament's Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee (CTEEA) Committee wrote to the National Records of Scotland (NRS), asking for further clarification on several points. This blog discusses…
GRA reform and ‘International Best Practice’
Key pointsThe Scottish Government has cited alignment with ‘international best practice’ as a rationale for reforming the Gender Recognition Act to allow for the statutory self-declaration of sex as a matter of law [or statutory self-declaration of gender] (“self-declaration”). The Scottish…
20 questions on GRA reform and gender self-declaration
The Government's Programme for Scotland 2019/2020 states that the Scottish Government will 'consult on the detail of a draft Gender Recognition Bill by the end of this year, setting out our proposals to reform the current process of obtaining a Gender…
