Gender Recognition Bill 2003/04

Latest | Timelines & Procedure | Draft Bill | JCHR | Scottish Parliament | House of Lords | House of Commons | Gender Recognition Register | Other Comment & Analysis | News

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Latest Documents

• Standing Committee A (1st sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-09)
• Standing Committee A (2nd sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-09)
• Standing Committee A (3rd sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-11)
• Standing Committee A (4th sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-11)
• Standing Committee A (5th sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-16)
• Standing Committee A (6th sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-16)
• House of Commons Second Reading debate on the Gender Recognition Bill (2004-02-23)
• Cross-Party Briefing on the Gender Recognition Bill (2004-02-20)
• PDF version of the Cross-Party Briefing on the Gender Recognition Bill, for printing (2004-02-20)
• Gender Recognition Bill, as introduced to the House of Commons (2004-02-11)
• Gender Recognition Bill, as introduced to the House of Commons — PDF version (2004-02-11)
• Breakdown of House of Lords divisions on the Gender Recognition Bill
• JCHR Fourth Report of 2003-04 — further JCHR examination of the Gender Recognition Bill (2004-02-02) (external link)
• House of Lords Third Reading debate (2004-02-10)
• Scottish Parliament: Sewel Motion on the Gender Recognition Bill (2004-02-05)

Timelines and Procedure

• When Can I Get My New Birth Certificate? a quick answer to a frequently-asked question (PFC 2003-12-01)
• What’s Happened So Far: an explanation of the Parliamentary process for the enactment of this Bill (July 2003)
• The Stages of Legislation: very useful brief guide on the parliamentary website (external link)

Draft Bill

Bill Minister, Lord Filkin

• The draft Gender Recognition Bill 2003
• Explanatory notes (written by the Department of Constitutional Affairs) to be read in conjuction with the draft Bill
• Transsexual Leaders Welcome Draft Bill To Allow Legal Change Of Gender: PFC’s press release following publication of the draft Bill (2003-07-11)
  … and the press release in PDF format
• Ministerial announcement on publication of Draft Gender Recognition Bill: statement by Lord Filkin (DCA, 2003-07-11)
• Responding to the Government Announcement: the hows and whys of Press For Change’s response to the publication of the draft Gender Recognition Bill (PFC, 2003-07-11)
• Why Welcome the Church Exemption? freedom of religion is an important human right (PFC 2003-07-16)
• Roadmap to a new birth certificate as proposed by the draft Bill
• PFC’s detailed analysis of the draft Bill (August 2003)

Scottish Parliament

• Equal Opportunities Committee meeting on the Gender Recognition Bill (2003-12-09)
• Justice 1 Committee meeting on the Gender Recognition Recognition Bill (2004-01-28)
• Sewel Motion on the Gender Recognition Bill: debate on the motion to allow Westminster to legislate for devolved issues (2004-02-05)

Joint Committee on Human Rights

Shaun Woodward MP, member of the JCHR

• Gender Recognition Bill: The Call for Evidence — Parliament’s first examination of the draft Gender Recognition Bill is about to begin (PFC, 2003-07-20)
• PFC’s submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (September 2003)
• The Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report on the Draft Gender Recognition Bill (HTML version, for reading on-screen) (external link)
• The Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report on the Draft Gender Recognition Bill (PDF version, more suitable for printing) (external link)
• Government Response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ report on the Draft Gender Recognition Bill (external link)
• JCHR Fourth Report of 2003-04 — further JCHR examination of the Gender Recognition Bill (2004-02-02) (external link)
• Improving The Gender Recognition Bill — PFC discussion paper (2003-11-18)

House of Lords

Publication | First & Second Readings | Delegated Powers & Regulatory Reform Committee | Grand Committee | Report Stage | Third Reading | Analysis of Divisions

Publication

• The Gender Recognition Bill: full text of the bill as tabled in the House of Lords (2003-11-27) (external link)
• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the New Gerbil: the Gender Recognition Bill as tabled in the Lords is broadly the same as the draft bill.  Changes include the good, the bad and the ugly. (PFC, 2003-11-30)

Baroness O’Cathain, opponent of the GerBil

First and Second Readings

• House of Lords First Reading of Gender Recognition Bill (2003-11-27)
• Transsexual People Welcome First Reading Of Gender Recognition Bill (PFC, 2003-11-27)
• House of Lords Second Reading debate (2003-12-18)

Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee

• House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee third report, part 1: Gender Recognition Bill
• House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee third report, Annex 1: memorandum from DCA

Grand Committee

• PFC’s briefing for the House of Lords Grand Committee: a briefing document for peers, including the text of PFC’s proposed amendments to the bill (PFC, 2004-01-05)
• Official Report of the Grand Committee on the Gender Recognition Bill [HL] (First Day) (2004-01-13)
• Official Report of the Grand Committee on the Gender Recognition Bill [HL] (Second Day) (2004-01-14)

Report Stage

• Amendments for House of Lords Report Stage — marshalled list (2004-01-28)
• No Room At The Inn: PFC condemns proposals to ban trans people from churches and accommodation (PFC, 2004-01-28)
• House of Lords Report Stage (first day) debate (2004-01-29)
• House of Lords Report Stage (second day) debate (2004-02-03)
• Amendments for House of Lords Report Stage (day 2) — second marshalled list (2004-02-02)

Third Reading

The House of Lords Third Reading debate on the Gender Recognition Bill was held on tuesday 10th February, 2004.  The Bill was passed by a majority of 3-1.

• Gender Recognition Bill, as amended at Lords Report Stage (2004-02-03)
• Amendments for House of Lords Third Reading — marshalled list (2004-02-10)
• A Preview Of The Issues raised by amendments tabled for the Lords Third Reading (PFC, 2004-02-10)
• O’Cathain tries again in Lords, to ban us from Churches (PFC, 2004-02-09)
• O’Cathain amendment narrowly defeated (division tues 10th, 17:45)
• 18:37pm: Lords PASS Gender Recognition Bill by 3-1! (division tues 10th, 18:37)
• House of Lords Third Reading debate (2004-02-10)

Analysis of Divisons

• Lords divisions: Summary by party
• Lords divisions: Peers sorted alphabetically
• Lords divisions: Peers grouped by party
• Lords divisions: Peers grouped by number of ’good’ votes
• Lords divisions: Peers grouped by number of ’bad’ votes
• Lords divisions: Raw data, as zipped tab-delimited file

House of Commons

David Lammy MP, minister steering the Bill through the Commons

Bill printed | Second Reading | Committee Stage

Having been passed by the House of Lords on 10th February 2004, the Gender Recognition Bill was printed for the House of Commons on 11th February 2004.  The first debate in the Commons was Second Reading, on 23rd February.

Bill Printed

• Gender Recognition Bill, as introduced to the House of Commons (2004-02-11) (external link)
• Gender Recognition Bill, as introduced to the House of Commons — PDF version (2004-02-11) (external link)

Second Reading

• Cross-Party Briefing on the Gender Recognition Bill (2004-02-20)
• PDF version of the Cross-Party Briefing on the Gender Recognition Bill, for printing (2004-02-20)
• House of Commons Second Reading debate on the Gender Recognition Bill (2004-02-23)

Lynne Jones MP, chair of the Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism

Committee Stage

• Urgent Info request To Married Couples (PFC, 2004-02-25)
• Next Steps of The GerBil (PFC, 2004-02-25)
• Standing Committee on Gender Recognition Bill: membership of Standing Committee A (2004-03-04)
• Standing Committee A (1st sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-09)
• Standing Committee A (2nd sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-09)
• Standing Committee A (3rd sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-11)
• Standing Committee A (4th sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-11)
• Standing Committee A (5th sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-16)
• Standing Committee A (6th sitting) debate on the bill (2004-03-16)

Gender Recognition Register

Note: The draft Gender Recognition Bill (GerBil) proposed establishing a “Transsexual Persons Register” as a device within the birth registration system to allow us to be issued with completely new birth certificates.  When the bill was actually tabled in Parliament, the name of the register was changed to the “Gender Recognition Register”.

• Why We Need A Special Register The draft Gender Recognition Bill’s proposed Transsexual Persons Register is a device to protect our privacy, not to undermine it (PFC 2003-11-07)
  … also available as a PDF document
• Sample intersex birth certificate A example of the format of corrected birth issued to intersex people, which would be the only format available to transsexual people if there was no Gender Recognition Register
• Birth Certificates and The Gender Recognition Register: govt FAQ on the register (external link)

Other Comment And Analysis

As well as our detailed, point-by-point analysis of the whole of the draft bill, we will continue to circulate further briefings on some of the points which cause particular concern.

• Civil Partnerships Consultation: Make Your Views Heard (PFC 2003-07-19)
• No More Sex Tests: there is no legal test of sex in the draft bill … because there’s a much better way of doing things (PFC, 2003-08-13)
• Gender Recognition: the best we can get The choice is not betwen this bill and a better bill, but betwen this bill and no bill (PFC, 2003-10-19)
• Why Support The Gender Recognition Bill? 25 reasons why trans people should support the GerBil (PFC, 2003-11-04)

News

The best way to keep up with our latest information as we circulate it, is to join our PFC-NEWS mailing list. You can do this by sending an email to pfc-news-subscribe@lists.pfc.org.uk — no subject line needed, no content needed in the body of the email — the server will reply telling you what to do next.

For more information, see the PFC-NEWS homepage