John Swinney has described Conservative plans to change the Equality Act to include biological sex as part of a “deliberate strategy to undermine” Holyrood.
The comments from the First Minister came after Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch unveiled plans to “clarify” the meaning of sex in the 2010 legislation.
The proposal from the Tory minister would mean that the Act explicitly refers to biological sex.
READ MORE: SNP set for worst result in decade as Labour forecast to win huge majority
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “This is a clarification in the law, it is not as many people assume, a change. It is re-emphasising what should be the status quo.”
The clarification was first raised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last year. They said amending the definition could result in “greater legal clarity” around women-only spaces and access to sport.
However, it would ultimately mean legislation around gender reassignment was taken out of the hands of the devolved parliaments and reserved to Westminster.
Speaking to journalists during a campaign stop in Stirling, the First Minister said: “This is just another step in the Conservative attempts to erode the powers of the Scottish Parliament.
“It’s been going on for some time.”
He said: “I want the Scottish Parliament to be a parliament that can address all of the issues that affect the lives of people in Scotland.
“So, what the Conservatives are doing today is part of a deliberate strategy to undermine the powers of the Scottish Parliament.”
Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar described the proposal as a power grab.
"It's typical of this Conservative party, one to fight the culture war and second to fight a constitutional fight on what is a really important and serious issue," he told The Herald during a visit to a charity in Govan.
"It's another one of those dead cat kind of strategies...but I think people will see through it. The Equality Act protects biological sex and I recognise people want more reassurance and protection that is fine.
"We would issue appropriate guidance on single sex spaces based on biological sex and the easiest way of doing that is by electing a Labour government to issue that guidance rather than [having] this culture war and a pretence that we have to go through a long legislative process."
Pressed on whether Labour would support the Conservatives plan to make gender recognition reserved, he said: "No. This has worked since devolution, it has worked for 25 years. We accept there have been issues over the past few years and concerns expressed but we believe in the primacy of the Equality Act.
"We believe the Equality Act does protect biological sex and we believe by issuing guidance we can give further reassurances and clarifications.
"But this does not require a constitutional fight. It doesn't require any kind of powers being grabbed."
READ MORE: Sarwar: Labour against Holyrood gender recognition 'power grab'
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said he was not surprised by Mr Sarwar’s reaction.
“Of course, he supported Nicola Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform Bill. He whipped his MSPs to support the legislation that we saw had to go to court," he told media during a campaign stop at First Bus in Glasgow.
Mr Ross said the fact that it ended up in court showed that the need for clarity in the Equality Act.
“So that's why almost a decade on from the Equality Act coming into force, it's right that the UK Government looks to put in the protections that women and girls have been asking for. “And Anas Sarwar’s criticisms would be more legitimate if this wasn't actually something that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission had written to the UK Government and requested.”
MSPs backed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in December 2022 by 86 votes to 39 on a cross-party basis.
The legislation was supposed to speed up and simplify the process for a trans person to obtain a gender recognition certificate and change their legal sex.
Under the current system, this takes at least two years, involves a medical diagnosis and is only available at 18.
Holyrood’s Bill would have cut the waiting time to six months, lowered the age threshold to 16, and, crucially, scrapped the need for medical diagnosis, known as self-ID.
Before the prospective law could be given Royal Assent, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack blocked it by using powers granted to him under Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act.
It was the first time in the history of devolution that the power had been used.
He argued that although the subject matter was within Holyrood’s powers, the Bill would harm the operation of UK-wide equality law.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel