THE Scottish Government “accepts” a landmark legal ruling which has found women are defined by biology, the First Minister has said.
John Swinney said that “protecting the rights of all” would “underpin” the Scottish Government’s response to the Supreme Court ruling, which sided with gender critical feminists over trans rights activists and Holyrood ministers.
He said: “The Scottish Government accepts today’s Supreme Court judgement. The ruling gives clarity between two relevant pieces of legislation passed at Westminster.
“We will now engage on the implications of the ruling. Protecting the rights of all will underpin our actions.”
The political implications of the ruling will be significant, as the law has now been clarified to allow for trans women to be excluded from single-sex spaces, including women’s refuges and in medical settings.
The Scottish Government lost its case on Wednesday, with Holyrood lawyers arguing that trans women who possessed a Gender Recognition Certificate were entitled to the same sex-based protections as women under the law.
The UK Government has welcomed the ruling, saying it provided “clarity”, with a spokesperson saying: “We have always supported the protection of single-sex spaces based on biological sex.
“This ruling brings clarity and confidence, for women and service providers such as hospitals, refuges, and sports clubs.
“Single-sex spaces are protected in law and will always be protected by this Government.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which is tasked with overseeing the implementation of equality laws, said the unanimous ruling addressed challenges by those running single-sex spaces who wished to exclude trans women.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the commission, said: “Today the Supreme Court ruled that a Gender Recognition Certificate does not change a person’s legal sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.
“We are pleased that this judgment addresses several of the difficulties we highlighted in our submission to the court, including the challenges faced by those seeking to maintain single-sex spaces and the rights of same-sex attracted persons to form associations.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson stressed the words of Lord Hodge, who delivered the ruling, saying that it should not be read as "a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another".
They added: "The ruling gives clarity between two pieces of relevant legislation passed at Westminster. We will now engage on the implications of the ruling. Protecting the rights of all will underpin our actions.
“The Scottish Government acted in good faith in our interpretation of both the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the Equality Act 2010; and our approach was guided by the published guidance of the EHRC.
“The Supreme Court judgment explicitly references that this stance was consistent with the advice given by the EHRC.
“We will be engaging with the UK Government to understand the full implication of this ruling, particularly in relation to Equalities law, which remains largely reserved.
“And we will engage with the EHRC as a matter of urgency on the need to review its guidance considering this judgment.
“Finally, we want to reassure everyone that the Scottish Government is fully committed to protecting everyone’s rights, to ensure that Scotland remains an inclusive country.”
Shona Robison (below) told the PA news agency that the Scottish Government is “keen” to work with the UK Government on gender reforms but has “no intention” of revising its own plans at Holyrood.
She added that the process for trans people to change their legally recognised gender could still be simplified.
But she signalled the change should come from Westminster, rather than the Scottish Parliament.
Asked if the Scottish Government would consider bringing forward new legislation on gender reforms, Robison said: “The GRR Bill was about the process by which a gender recognition certificate would be acquired.
“This ruling is about the effect that a gender recognition certificate has, and there were issues that were highlighted by the Supreme Court around the interaction of those two pieces of legislation.
“Today’s ruling brings clarity to that and I think that is helpful.
“We have said in terms of the GRR Bill that we have no intention of bringing that back, and I think what’s important is the revised guidance that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) will now develop, because that will need to be followed by public bodies.”
Robison added she hopes the EHRC will work with the trans community, who she said “might need a bit of assurance from today’s judgement”.
