When the Labour government retained equal opportunities as a reserved power in the Scotland Act 1998, I was opposition constitutional affairs spokesman. I supported this on the grounds that the “imposition of draconian anti-discrimination laws has to be handled with great care, because it is all too easy to substitute one type of intolerance of minorities for another”. Holyrood, the Scottish parliament, now threatens to undermine this principle. The draft Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill would weaken women’s sex-based rights across the UK. 

Devolved powers are legislative powers that the UK Parliament controlled in the past, but are now devolved to the legislatures in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. These include matters such as education and health. Reserved powers, as specified in the Scotland Act, for example, remain exclusively with the UK Parliament in Westminster.  

Human rights are a devolved competence. The powers to pass a gender recognition act are therefore notionally devolved, but apply only if such an act does not impact on the reserved powers. UK citizens currently have their legal sex status recorded on their birth certificate. The only way to change their recorded sex is to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). The sex recorded on the GRC, with a few exceptions,
is a person’s sex for ‘all purposes under the law’. Eligibility to apply for …