The Scottish Government is within its rights to permit men to take women-only positions on company boards, the Inner House of the Court of Session has ruled.
Campaign group For Women Scotland had initially challenged the law, saying the Government could not change the legal definition of women to include men who identify as female, and this was upheld. In response, the Government issued revised guidance, claiming if a man holds a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) stating “their acquired gender is female” then “the person’s sex is that of a woman”.
This was challenged again but the Outer House ruled in favour of the Scottish Government, with Judge Lady Haldane stating that the Equality Act 2010’s protections on the basis of a person’s “sex” are “not limited to biological or birth sex”.
Protections
Three judges in the Inner House have now backed that ruling, claiming the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 can class men who have GRCs as women, without contradicting other legislation.
Responding to the decision, For Women Scotland stated: “Naturally, we are hugely disappointed in today’s judgment, which has ruled that women’s protections under law may – in some cases – include men who have obtained a GRC.
“We are obviously still analysing the decision and will be speaking to our legal team in due course to consider the possibility of a further challenge.”
The campaign group had argued that such a definition of woman undermined the purpose of the Act to ensure a balance of men and women on public boards.
16-year-olds
Last month, Scotland’s Outer House heard that the UK Government’s decision to veto Holyrood’s gender self-ID Bill was reasonable and lawful.
Representing the UK Government, David Johnston KC told the judge that the Scottish Secretary blocked the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill in order to protect the integrity of UK-wide equalities legislation.
The ‘sex-swap’ Bill seeks to allow 16-year-olds to change their legal sex by self-declaration without a medical diagnosis, and reduce the waiting time for adults from two years to just three months.
Welsh Govt: ‘Men can stand as women for Senedd’