The Scottish government has postponed a planned update of gender recognition laws after concluding that it had failed to address concerns about the impact of its proposals.
Shirley Anne Somerville, the equalities secretary, said she would launch new consultations to ensure that anxieties that women and girls could fall victim to predatory men or lose access to single-sex services were properly addressed.
Somerville said the Scottish government was determined to update the legal rights of trans men and women, with a simpler, quicker process to allow people to get a new gender recognition certificate through self-declaration rather than requiring medical evidence.
Ministers wanted to allow trans men and women to get a certificate six months after starting to live in their acquired gender, after signing a legally binding statutory declaration.
They could apply after living in their acquired gender for three months and get their certificate after a further three months’ “reflection period”. At present applicants must live in their acquired gender for at least two years and provide psychiatric and medical reports, requirements that are to be dropped.
Somerville heard accounts “of the anxiety and trauma the current process causes trans people and the difference that reform of the law would make to their ability to live their lives with dignity and acceptance”. There was transphobia that needed to be challenged, she said.
“However, I am acutely aware of how divided opinion is on this issue and I want to proceed in a way that builds maximum consensus and allows valid concerns to be properly addressed,” she said. Some of the public arguments about this area had been “toxic”, she said.
Instead of pushing through a new Gender Recognition Act, the government will now commission assessments to ensure the measures do not damage other people’s rights.
Critics of the Scottish government’s handling of the changes, including some Scottish National party and Labour MSPs and women’s groups, have attacked its previous failure to commission assessments.
Somerville insisted the previous proposals did not undermine women’s rights under the Equality Act 2010, including protecting some single-sex services and spaces. The new proposals would continue to make it an imprisonable offence for someone to lie about their gender.
The equalities impact assessment will be published this summer alongside a new draft gender recognition bill, which will be put out to consultation.
Somerville said the Scottish government would also:
Withdraw its current guidance for schools, which allows transgender young people full access to single-sex spaces, because it risked excluding some girls who wanted female-only spaces. New guidance will be issued.
Provide updated official guidance on the rights of women and trans women.
Launch a review of whether official data collection recognises the impact of biological and physical differences between people born as men or women.
Consult on whether to lower the minimum age to apply for a gender recognition certificate from 18 to 16, and improve support for children considering changing gender.
Set up a working group on how to extend legal gender recognition to non-binary people.
Her decision to reassess and delay the legislation was widely welcomed at Holyrood and by women’s groups who had campaigned for a review of the government’s original proposals.
However, Patrick Harvie, a co-leader of the Scottish Green party, urged the government to introduce the new legislation before the 2021 Scottish parliament election. “Trans people have been waiting a long time for this reform and they have support from across the political spectrum and from well-respected women’s and feminist organisations across Scotland,” he said.
James Morton, a manager of the Scottish Trans alliance, said the 16-month delay since the first consultation on the original Gender Recognition Act ended had caused trans people stress and it was vital that ministers published the new draft bill quickly.
“Long delays between announcements and actions embolden those who are prejudiced against trans people and create intense distress for many vulnerable trans people,” he said.
Kath Murray, an academic with MurrayBlackburnMackenzie, a policy research group that criticised the previous proposals, welcomed the reviews but said the government needed to be open-minded about the evidence gaps on self-declaration. “A more measured and inclusive approach should result in better policy and legislative outcomes, for all affected groups,” Murray said.