Ministers threaten legal action over trans laws
Whitehall figures warn SNP gender change reforms will put single-sex spaces in rest of UK in jeopardy
MINISTERS have threatened to begin legal action over Scottish gender recognition reforms amid concern over “trans tourism”.
The Government has urged Nicola Sturgeon to scrap her overhaul of transgender laws that will allow people as young as 16 to change their legal gender simply by signing a declaration.
Under legislation expected to be passed by the Scottish Parliament before Christmas, people over the age of 16 will be able to apply for a birth certificate with their new sex within six months without a gender dysphoria diagnosis.
But senior Whitehall figures fear the laws, which make it significantly easier for someone to officially change their legal gender than in the rest of the UK, will put single-sex spaces such as prisons and changing rooms in jeopardy across the country.
They warned it could lead to “trans tourism”, whereby a transgender woman could travel to Scotland to have their gender legally changed, then use their new official status to access female-only spaces south of the border.
The Attorney General’s office is drawing up legal advice for the UK Government on the implications of the new legislation on the union, The Daily Telegraph understands.
Ministers are studying various avenues including a possible legal challenge against the measure. They are also looking at whether the UK Government could refuse to recognise the Scottish gender recognition certificates.
A government source said: “It is pretty unprecedented to have a devolved administration potentially alter Uk-wide processes and structures. The SNP’S political purpose is very clear – it is to undermine the union. There is legal advice coming in on this, we are exploring all the different possibilities and options. Nothing is off the table.”
Kemi Badenoch, the women and equalities minister, has written to Ms Sturgeon to express her dismay at the legislation. She has also summoned the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for social justice, housing and local government for a meeting to discuss it at the earliest opportunity.
She was “concerned” by the changes being proposed that would create a “divergence” of approach between England and Scotland on a “complex and important issue”.
“Individuals contemplating the very serious step of changing their legal sex need clarity on the process that they must undertake and I am concerned about the impact [of ] having divergent regimes in the different parts of the UK,” she said.
While the legislation is expected to pass, there is likely to be an SNP rebellion while Scottish Labour is also coming under pressure to abandon support.
When in 1986 Margaret Thatcher and her chancellor Nigel Lawson unleashed their deregulatory coup, which came to be called the Big Bang, the effect was dramatic. London was transformed over the subsequent decades into arguably the world’s leading financial hub. The effect was so significant because the Big Bang actually represented a new economic vision for Britain: one in which markets were freer, the state would step back, competition was enhanced, and technology was harnessed.
No wonder, then, that today’s Chancellor shrank from referring to the changes he announced yesterday as Big Bang 2.0, preferring instead the more modest “Edinburgh Reforms”. For the ambition of Rishi Sunak and Mr Hunt appears not to be comparable to that of Thatcher and Lawson. Certainly, their measures to make banking easier are welcome, notably those which will ease the recruitment of talent and relax rules to allow mid-size banks to flourish, but for all the Chancellor’s grand words about seizing “on our Brexit freedoms to deliver an agile and home-grown regulatory regime”, this is no grand vision for the future.
Ministers will respond that caution is required after the banking crisis of 2008. But no one is suggesting a return to the institutional vulnerabilities which made that so damaging. Simply, we should not shy away from championing a sector that pays so much tax, creates so many jobs and drives so much of the economy. Sadly, rather than oozing ambition, the tone of numerous prime ministers has been one of ambivalence, as if mentioning wealth created in the City is taboo.
Mr Hunt did insist that the Government had not forgotten “the long-term things that have held back British productivity”. This is an important priority, but yesterday was only a modest down payment on the promise to solve it.
If Britain truly is to capitalise on the liberty of action enabled by Brexit, more detail and more energy is required. Deregulation needs to be bold, broad and rapid, not slow, narrow and timid. In energy, in life sciences, and in technology more generally, Britain has a vital opportunity to become a powerhouse of the new economy. All too often it is others who capitalise on British innovations. Global companies are born abroad from UK R&D.
We are told that a new industrial revolution is under way. Britain was at the forefront of the last one, catapulting living standards forward, but now seems to be lagging behind the rest of the world in seizing new opportunities.
Describing his reforms yesterday, Mr Hunt noted: “It would be wrong to say this is of the same scale as what Nigel Lawson did in 1986.” More’s the pity.