Using, for the first time, from his veto right, British power takes the risk of galvanizing the Parliament of Edinburgh.
by Cécile Ducourieux (London, correspondent )
The British government has chosen the nuclear option against Scotland. Monday, January 16, Alister Jack, the Minister Delegate in Scotland of the Rishi Sunak cabinet, confirmed that London intended to block the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, a law that facilitates the change of gender of trans people, adopted he Barely a month ago in the Edinburgh Parliament, refusing his royal consent to him. A purely formal step, but without which no law can be definitively promulgated in the United Kingdom.
Downing Street justifies this veto by explaining that this text would have important consequences on the application of laws in force on the level of the United Kingdom, in particular the Equality Act of 2010, constituting the basis of anti-discrimination legislation in the country. “I have not made this decision lightly. This [Scottish] bill would have had a significant impact on the matters of rights in Great Britain. veto] was a necessary and appropriate action, “explains Mr. Jack.
This is the first time since the creation of the Scottish Parliament, by devolution of power, about twenty years ago, that the British government chose to exercise this veto, a priori against the Will of the Scottish elected officials, but provided by the 1998 Scotland Act. This fundamental text certainly gives “Holyrood” (the Edinburgh Assembly) the power to vote laws in reserved fields (education or health), But he maintains this regional parliament under the thumb of Westminster, the British Parliament. Unpublished and politically very sensitive, this legislative blocking gives gold arguments to Scottish separatists, who dispute British sovereignty, and especially the authority of conservatives in London.
The London veto is all the more explosive since it relates to a bill that aroused a fiery debate in Holyrood. The Gender Recognition Reform Bill intends to facilitate the acquisition by trans persons of a certificate of gender recognition establishing that their gender “is not the one who [has been assigned to birth”. This document, which they can claim from 16 years old, without medical advice, makes it possible to claim a new birth certificate and to obtain recognition of this change on identity papers. At the level of the United Kingdom, the Sunak government does not intend to go so far and sticks to a recognition of gender change conditioned on medical advice (and impossible before 18).
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