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Gender Recognition Act: Update

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Thank you for contacting me about the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA).

I am determined that everyone in the UK should be free to live their lives in safety and within the law and fulfil their potential.

My colleagues in the Government Equalities Office have looked carefully and thoroughly into the gender recognition process, including considering potential changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004. After careful consideration, it is their view that existing legislation strikes the right balance between ensuring there are proper checks and balances in the system and ensuring that there is support in place for people who want to change their legal sex.

However, with bureaucracy and cost being highlighted as two key obstacles in the process, the Government has brought forward measures to move the entire procedure online and to reduce the existing £140 fee to a nominal amount.

It is right, I believe, that the Minister for Women and Equalities has said that any reforms will ensure the protection of single-sex spaces, an important safeguard, especially for women and girls.

The Equality Act 2010 clearly protects transgender people from discrimination. The same act allows service providers to restrict access to single sex spaces on the basis of biological sex if there is a clear justification. It thereby strikes an important balance, in my view.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.

Craig Whittaker MP

October 2020

Campaign Responses

  • Archived Campaign Responses
  • Abortion: Deaths following 'DIY' Home Abortions
  • Abortion and Foetal Pain
  • Access to the Countryside
  • Aid: Girls in Crisis
  • Aid: Parliamentary Scrutiny
  • Aid Spending
  • Animal Experiments
  • Animals as Sentient Beings
  • Arms Sales to Israel
  • Arthritis: 'Impossible to Ignore' (Versus Arthritis)
  • Assisted Suicide
  • Asylum Seekers: Various Issues
  • Badger Cull
  • Beer and Alcohol Duty
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Brexit: Food Poverty and UKGT
  • Brexit: Medical Supplies and Scientific Co-operation (including Galileo)
  • Brexit: UK-EU Travel
  • Build Back Better
  • Building Our Way Out (Shelter)
  • Channel Crossings: Ending People Trafficking
  • China: Persecution of Uyghur Muslims
  • Cleaner Air
  • Coronavirus: People with Disabilities
  • Coronavirus: Test and Trace
  • Cycling and Walking: Update
  • Disposable Barbecues
  • Divorce Law Reform: Updated September 2020
  • Domestic Abuse Bill
  • Domestic Abuse: Migrants
  • Domestic Homicide
  • Domestic Abuse: Universal Credit
  • Environment Bill
  • Evictions of Palestinians in Disputed Territories (EDM 529)
  • Export of Riot Control Equipment to the US
  • Fox Hunting
  • Fuel Duty and the Future of Petrol and Diesel
  • Gender Recognition Act: Update
  • Girls in Crisis (Plan International)
  • Green and Fair Recovery
  • Grenfell and Cladding
  • HS2 and the Environment
  • Heat Pumps
  • Homelessness: Crisis and Centrepoint
  • Homelessness: Social Housing (Shelter)
  • Horse Tethering
  • IVF
  • Immigration: Detention, Visas and Other Issues
  • Immigration Health Charge
  • Immigration: Points-based System
  • Israel: Peace Agreements with Bahrain and the UAE
  • Legal Aid: Asylum and Immigration Cases
  • Local Electricity Bill
  • Local Housing Allowance/Shared Accommodatio Rate
  • Microchipping Cats
  • MPs' Pay Update
  • Nazanin-Zaghari Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori: Update
  • Neonicotinoids
  • NHS Pay
  • NHS 'Privatisation'
  • Off-payroll Working (IR35)
  • Oceans: Global Action
  • Onshore Wind Energy: Update June 2020
  • Overseas Operations Bill
  • Peat Burning
  • Planning for the Future: CPRE and Other Campaigns
  • Planning for the Future: Woodlands
  • Pregnancy and Maternity Redundancy Bill
  • Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Treaty and Trident
  • Radiotherapy 4 Life
  • Rail: Policy and Investment
  • Rape Crisis Services and Domestic and Sexual Abuse
  • Reception Baseline Assessment (Primary Schools)
  • Rivers - Plastic Pollution
  • Sea Blasts
  • Sewage (Inland Waters) Bill
  • Social Care
  • Social Care, Key Workers and the National Living Wage
  • Social Housing
  • Sunday Trading
  • Sunscreen and VAT
  • Supertrawlers and Sustainable Fishing
  • Trade Bill: Anti-genocide Amendment
  • Trade Deals: Farming and Food Standards
  • Trade Deals: Food Standards
  • Trade Deals: NHS - New Clause 17 and Lords 11
  • Trade Deals: Parliamentary Scrutiny
  • Trophy Hunting Update
  • Transport Investment (#transformtransport)
  • Trespass Laws and the Right to Roam
  • Two-wheel Powered Vehicles
  • UK Internal Market Bill
  • UK Internal Market Bill: International Law
  • Visa-free Work Permits for Touring Artists
  • Whipping of Race Horses
  • Wildlife Licensing
  • Yemen: UK Involvement (Updated)
  • Youth Services

Craig Whittaker MP for Calder Valley

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