THE Supreme Court is to issue its judgement on how a woman should be defined in law next week.
A ruling is due to be handed down at the court in London on Wednesday, April 16.
For Women Scotland, an anti-trans rights campaign group, is arguing that a trans person with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) does not count as a woman.
They argue that SNP ministers “misdirected themselves in law” by treating trans women as women in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018.
However, the Scottish Government have argued that the standard interpretation of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and Equality Act 2010 has been that “the term ‘woman’ … includes a person issued with a full GRC in the acquired gender of female – and excludes a person issued with a full GRC in the acquired gender of male”.
The ruling could have a major bearing on how sex-based rights are applied through the Equality Act across Scotland, England and Wales.
The row started in 2021 when For Women Scotland (FWS) took the Scottish Government to court over its definition of “women” in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act.
The law looked to ensure that non-executive members on public boards are made up of at least 50% women.
The Scottish Government had initially defined “women” as those living as women or those who intended to or already gone through the process of legal gender recognition.
But FWS argued that this did not line-up with the separate definitions of women and transgender women in the Equality Act.
After losing the initial judicial review FWS were then successful on appeal, which resulted in the Scottish Government changing the definition in the Act.
It now states that “woman” is defined by the Equality Act and the Gender Recognition Act 2004, meaning those with a full GRC can legally be defined as women for the purposes of the legislation.
But FWC remained unhappy with the definition and called for a second judicial review, with their lawyer, Aidan O’Neill KC, arguing that allowing transgender people to change their legal sex with regards to the Equality Act would “run a coach and horses through the preservation of safe spaces for women and single-sex provision for women”.
This led to the case being accepted as a case at the Supreme Court.
