Gender reform plan ditched to focus efforts on lockdown

Controversial plans to make it easier to change gender have been ditched as the Scottish Government abandoned flagship legislation to focus efforts on tackling the coronavirus.

Ministers halted work on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and delayed the introduction of new benefits as they performed a dramatic U-turn on their plans to hold trials without juries during the pandemic.

The about-turn came just hours after lawyers and opposition politicians expressed outrage at plans that would have enabled judges and sheriffs to deliver verdicts in serious criminal cases.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said it was not a time to be “bullish, nor a time for egos or petty partisanship” as he acknowledged the plan did not have the support of Parliament.

“Not a time to be bullish, nor a time for egos. HUMZA YOUSAF

Mr Yousaf removed the provision that would have allowed the Parliament to enable jury-less trials as MSPs considered a raft of emergency powers to help the country tackle the crisis. MSPs will meet again after the Easter recess to decide how to meet the challenges facing the criminal justice system.

The volte-face was welcomed by Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr, who said: “Ditching hundreds of years of convention in Scottish courts, when no other democracy was considering this, was clearly a step significantly too far. The move could also have had very damaging consequences for victims, especially those of sexual assaults, and indeed may even have lengthened their ordeal.”

With some MSPs self-isolating, a slimmed-down Holyrood reconvened for the day to debate and vote through the emergency powers.