Chamber and committees

Are you able to comment on section 22 of the 2004 act in particular?

That is fine.

That is a pity.

I can see that there will be such circumstances, but I just cannot work out what they might be or why a tribunal would be privy to a piece of information that an individual would not yet know. I get that it could cause the person harm but, in the circumstances of the particular tribunal, I am not sure that I can imagine a reason or rationale for withholding that information.

I have just one question. Are you in a position to set out what the rationale and grounds would be for withholding information from someone, and what the test would be for that?

Thank you.

Is there an example in international law that you could suggest to us?

Good morning to the panel. Thank you for the answers that you have given so far and for setting out in your opening statements some pretty clear bits of advice, including on the legal definitions of sex and gender reassignment. I found that particularly helpful, so I thank you for that. I thank you also for the written evidence that you submitted in advance of the meeting, which has been very useful.

I want to explore a bit more the impact of a gender recognition certificate and single-sex spaces. We have spent quite a bit of time talking about the effect of a gender recognition certificate in that regard. For example, Karon Monaghan described the effect of a GRC and what it means for the exclusion of trans people from single-sex spaces. You were quite clear about that, Karon.

As far as I can understand it, what appears to be the issue is the cohort of people who will be able to access a GRC, regardless of the effect of it, if that makes sense. There is a legal effect—it does not appear that that will change as a result of the bill, but more people will have access to that legal route. That is my understanding of what you said; if I have misunderstood it, please correct me.

Could you tell us a bit about who you think the cohort of people will be? We have heard some evidence that it is unlikely to be a group of new trans people, and that it is, in fact, likely to be an existing group of trans people who have not yet considered accessing a gender recognition certificate because of the troubles with accessing one.

My understanding, from the evidence that we have had already, is that those people who do not have a gender recognition certificate are currently accessing single-sex spaces—Women’s Aid and others have given evidence on how they operate those spaces—and that some of the people whom we are talking about do not have gender dysphoria but would still like legal recognition of their sex. Could you talk a bit about the cohort of people, who you think they are and how you think their rights to access single-sex spaces will be changed?

Recognising the fact that there will be people who seek to harm women, as there have been forever, do you think that those people will need a gender recognition certificate to do so?

I am sorry to interrupt but I am conscious of the time and keen to hear from Karon Monaghan. I have one other question. We have heard from people who are trans but who do not have gender dysphoria. What could we do to allow them to access a gender recognition certificate, which is incredibly important for them?