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A judge has ruled in support of the UK government’s veto of Scotland’s gender self-identification bill.
Legislation making it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex was passed by MSPs last December.
It then became a constitutional dispute in January when the UK government took the unprecedented step of using a Section 35 order to stop the bill from receiving royal assent and becoming law.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack had argued the bill clashed with UK-wide equality laws and differing systems of gender recognition north and south of the border would create “significant complications”.
The Scottish government launched a legal challenge and a three-day hearing took place at the Court of Session – Scotland’s highest civil court – in Edinburgh in September.
On Friday, Lady Haldane delivered her judgment, saying the UK government’s decision to block the gender reform bill from gaining royal assent was lawful.
The Scottish government has the right to appeal the case further through the Scottish courts, and ultimately all the way to the Supreme Court in London.
Mr Jack welcomed the decision and said Scottish ministers “need to stop wasting taxpayers’ money” and instead focus on other issues that matter to people in Scotland, “such as growing the economy and cutting [NHS] waiting lists”.
Meghan Gallacher, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said: “This is a humiliating defeat for Humza Yousaf and the SNP, who have once again squandered taxpayers’ cash on a self-serving but doomed court case.
“Their reckless Gender Recognition Reform Bill is deeply unpopular with the Scottish public because its self-ID principle compromises the safety of women and girls – as the case of a double-rapist being sent to a female prison demonstrated.”
A demonstration for trans rights outside the UK government office in Edinburgh earlier this year
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Why is the bill controversial?
The MSP for Central Scotland stated the bill would have impacted on equalities law south of the border, so the UK government had “no option” but to block it.
She added: “Rather than taking that as a cue to redraft their flawed bill, the SNP dug their heels and turned an issue of women’s safety into another constitutional grievance – a cynical tactic which has backfired today.
“Humza Yousaf must now listen to the court, as well as the court of public opinion, not appeal this ruling and ditch the bill for good.
“We all want to see the lives of trans people improved but that can’t come at the expense of the hard-won rights of women and girls.”
A demonstration for trans rights outside the UK government office in Edinburgh in January
The reform bill
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed by MSPs just before Christmas last year.
It aims to simplify the process for trans people to change gender in the eyes of the law.
No diagnosis or medical reports would be required, and the period in which adult applicants need to have lived in their acquired gender would be cut to three months.
Teenagers aged 16 and 17 applying for a gender recognition certificate would have to live in their acquired gender for at least six months.
Critics have argued the proposals undermine women’s rights and single-sex spaces.
Demonstrators at a Let Women Speak rally in Glasgow’s George Square in February
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