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Communications from the EHRC on the reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004

Letter from the Convener to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, 4 February 2022

Dear Cabinet Secretary,

The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee notes with interest the recent correspondence (26 January 2022) to you from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), in which it sets out its position on reform of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

We further note that this issue was raised during First Minister’s Questions on Thursday 27 January 2022, when the First Minister in response to a question from Meghan Gallacher MSP, observed that this represents a change in the EHRC’s position and stated that “The Government will set out its plans for the timetabling of that legislation in due course”.

Any such legislation would clearly engage the Committee’s remit and we would welcome an indication of how the Scottish Government intends to respond to the EHRC and whether the intervention is likely to have any impact on the introduction of the legislation.

Yours sincerely,

Joe FitzPatrick MSP
Convener
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee