UK blocks Scotland’s transgender recognition bill
January 17,2023
The UK government has announced it will block a transgender recognition bill passed by the Scottish parliament ained at making it easier and less intrusive for people to change their legally recognised gender.
The UK is however, invoking powers that allows it to veto Scottish bills believed to have adverse effects on UK-wide law.
The blockage of the bill comes after weeks of tension between the UK and Scottish governments during the bill’s debate
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed by Scotland’s parliament last month, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hailing it as an “historic day for equality
It also made Scotland the first nation in the United Kingdom to support a self-identification process for changing a person’s legally recognised gender, thereby removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria
The legislation would also reduce the amount of time a person is required to live as the gender they identify as before applying for the legal change, and lower the minimum age from 18 to 16.
However, the UK government’s Scotland minister Alister Jack, announced on Monday that after “thorough and careful consideration of all the relevant advice and the policy implications” he had concluded that invoking section 35 was the “necessary and correct course of action”.
I am concerned that this legislation would have an adverse impact on the operation of Great Britain-wide equalities legislation,” he said in a statement, adding he’d not taken the decision “lightly
