A PROFESSOR of law has said it’s “debatable” whether the indirect effects of the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill on the UK wide Equality Act is “sufficient to trigger” the use of Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998 byAileen McHarg, Professor of Public Law and Human Rights at Durham Law School, told the Sunday National: “The GRR Bill doesn’t directly change the Equality Act; it has consequential effects on it via changing the...
She added: “The phrase in Section 35 is that the Bill makes ‘modifications of the law as it applies to reserved matters’, which is somewhat obscure – and since the power has never been used before, there is no judicial guidance on what it means.” Any bill passed by the Scottish Parliament that Westminster believes could relate to a “reserved” matter is usually referred directly to the Supreme Court for checking under section 33 of the Act.
“Some people will be upset about what the UK Government are doing even if they are not that happy about the Bill but given how far behind you are starting from in that matter of public opinion I would be surprised if there is any sustained impact on support for independence,” said Curtice.