Scotland’s messy Gender Recognition Act is a symptom of Holyrood’s weaknesses

The Scottish parliament will today consider final amendments to the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. The Bill, a key priority of Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP-Green government, will update the Gender Recognition Act 2004, the legislation governing the acquisition of a gender recognition certificate (GRC). Once a person obtains a GRC, ‘the law will recognise them as having all the rights and responsibilities appropriate to a person of their acquired gender’. 

At present, a man who wishes the law to recognise him as a woman, or vice versa, must be at least 18 years of age and must undergo a long process based on medical evidence of gender dysphoria. The Bill will change this by jettisoning the requirement for a clinical diagnosis and putting in its place a regime of self-declaration. It will reduce the statutory waiting period from two years to three months plus a further three-month reflection period. It will also lower the age at which a person may embark on the process to 16.