Scotland to launch legal challenge against Westminster’s gender reform block
Legal action is the 'only reasonable way'.
The Scottish government is ready to launch its legal fight against Westminster’s block on the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.
The law would have simplified and sped up the process for trans people to obtain legal recognition of their preferred gender.
But it was blocked by the Conservative government – a move the new First Minster Humza Yousaf called an ‘undemocratic veto’.
The block was the first time in nearly 25 years of devolution history Westminster has stopped a piece of Scottish law from becoming ratified.
Scotland’s social justice secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, said the bill had been passed by an ‘overwhelming majority of the Scottish Parliament, with support from members of all parties’.
She added legal action was the ‘only reasonable way’ of resolving the situation.
Ms Somerville said: ‘In seeking to uphold the democratic will of the Parliament and defend devolution, Scottish ministers will lodge a petition for a judicial review of the Secretary of State for Scotland’s decision.
‘The UK Government gave no advance warning of their use of the power, and neither did they ask for any amendments to the Bill throughout its nine-month passage through Parliament.’
Tory ministers said the Bill would have an adverse impact on the operation of the UK-wide Equalities Act, with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack confirming Section 35 powers would be used to prevent the legislation going forward.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the decision had been made ‘after taking very careful and considered advice’.
He added: ‘We had concerns about how Scotland’s gender recognition act would interact with reserved powers, about the operation of the Equalities Act, the protection of women elsewhere in the UK as well.
‘That’s why we took the decision to block the GRR. Obviously there’s a court process, we will follow that through.’
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