Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to Written Ministerial Statement HCWS482, made on 9 January, what criteria the Government will use to remove countries from the list of approved overseas countries and territories provided for under Section 1(1)(b) of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

In 2020 the Government concluded a review of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) following a consultation in 2018. It remains the Government’s view that the balance struck in the legislation is correct in that there are proper checks and balances in the system and also support for people who want to change their legal sex.

The policy of the UK Government since the passage of the Gender Recognition Act in 2004 has been to enable people with legal gender recognition from overseas countries whose systems are considered to be at least as rigorous to benefit from the simpler track for a UK Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). The list was last updated in 2011 and a commitment was made to keeping it under review. There are now a number of countries and territories on the list who have made changes to their processes and would not now be considered to have at least as rigorous systems. An update is therefore required. Since the announcement in 2020, the Government prioritised making changes to the GRC process to make it modern and affordable. Applicants for a GRC are now only required to pay £5, making the process more affordable, and the newly developed digital application process for GRCs launched on 29 June last year.

It should not be possible for a person who would not satisfy the criteria to obtain UK legal gender recognition to use the overseas recognition route to obtain a UK Gender Recognition Certificate. This would damage the integrity and credibility of the process of the GRA. The Government is committed to ensuring that this outcome of the GRA consultation is followed through and upheld, and the overseas list will be updated via Statutory Instrument more regularly in future.

We are undertaking a thorough investigation to verify our understanding of each overseas system in question, and comparing overseas systems with the UK’s requirements. We are finalising details of overseas countries and territories to be removed from the list via an affirmative Statutory Instrument. This follows similar processes to the 2011 update.

People who have received UK GRCs already on the basis of legal gender recognition from a country on the list will not be affected - the change will not have retrospective effect. More widely, anyone can apply for a UK GRC through the UK standard route, irrespective of whether they already have legal gender recognition from overseas.

As is standard practice, we are conducting an equality impact assessment alongside the development of the Statutory Instrument to inform decision-making.