Gender reforms: Scottish government abandons appeal against Supreme Court ruling on UK's government use of Section 35

The Scottish Government is set to abandon its appeal against the Supreme Court's ruling over the UK government's block on gender reform laws. The Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the UK government's use of a Section 35 order to block the controversial Gender Recognition reform bill was lawful. The bill, which gained cross party backing in the Scottish parliament, would have simplified the process for someone to legally change their gender, with the UK government arguing that it would negatively impact the UK-wide 2010 Equalities Act.

Deputy First Minister of Scotland, Shona Robison, has confirmed that an appeal against the decision to rule the move as lawful will not go ahead, but has said that the government remains committed to a "robust" defence of the legislation. She said: “We took all of the factors in the round, around what the case and what the prospects of the case would be, as well as all the other considerations and the impact indeed on the trans community. So, we’ve made that decision for all of the reasons that we have set out."

She added: “The point here is that Scotland’s democratic institution overwhelmingly supported a piece of legislation that is within devolved competence. And because the UK Government and the Secretary of State for Scotland didn’t like it, he thought he could ride roughshod over the democratic wishes of this Parliament.”

While the appeal against the case is not going ahead, Robison said that any attempt to block other legislation using clauses in the Scotland Act would "not be tolerated". She said: “If we see this again, on a piece of legislation the Secretary of State for Scotland happens not to like, we will continue to robustly defend the wishes of this Parliament.

“(We will) make sure that we get the support of civic Scotland and other institutions in Scotland, to make sure that we send a loud message that this pattern of behaviour will not be tolerated. And we want to make sure if there is a change of government at UK level that we get a different understanding and a different relationship that is based on respect.”