Senedd Cymru | Welsh Parliament
Bil Senedd Cymru (Rhestrau Ymgeiswyr Etholiadol)| Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill
Ymateb gan Unigolyn | Evidence from Individual
I do not agree with the language used in the question. I do not believe in the idea of 'gender'. It is an idea that tries to suggest that male people must dress or behave in a certain way and female people must dress and behave in a certain way. It is an outdated set of ideas that feminists have been resisting for generations.
Women are discriminated against - in politics as in much else - on the basis of their biological sex. I support the principle of legislating against sex discrimination and enshrining equal representation, but the language of the proposed legislation needs to be completely revised using the unambiguous term 'sex' not the inaccurate and contested term 'gender.'
Clearly there is no point in legislating unless there is an enforcement mechanism. But this is not appropriate. By enabling a person simply to declare that they are a woman with no checks this legislation this mechanism - or lack of it - would be introducing a system on 'gender' self identification by the the back door. As the Llwydd's legal advice shows this is unlawful as the Senedd does not have the power to legislate in the field of equality, an this proposed mechanism is an attempt to change the provision of the Equality Act.
This risks bogging the legislation down in legal conflict between the jurisdictions.
This also has the potential to completely undermine the stated purpose of the proposed Bill, because under this proposal it would be possible for Parties to field lists of candidates all of whom are biologically male, with some of them stating that they are 'women' because they 'identify' as a women even though their biological sex is not female. I refer to my previous answer with regard for the need for the legislation to be redrafted to use the term 'sex' which had meaning in physical reality and in law in place of the term 'gender' which requires to adherence to a particular belief system if it is to make any sense and has no meaning in law.
The most likely barrier is a long and expensive legal challenge between the UK and the Welsh Governments, since, but introducing 'gender' self identification into its provisions this proposed legislation would change the provisions of the Equality Act, which is outside the legislative powers of the Senedd.
One consequence - I'm not sure if it would be really unintended or not - would be that if the Bill was past unchanged and survived the inevitable legal challenge - it would introduce 'gender' self identification into an important area of Welsh public life. This would be taken as a precedent, and make it even harder than it is now for women and girls in Wales to access their right to single sex services and spaces, such as public toilets, same sex personal care and single sex hospital wards. This right is enshrined in the Equality Act and this proposed legislation could undermine that, with extremely negative impacts on the rights of women and girls in Wales.
Any true assessment of the cost of this proposed legislation , if it passes through the Senedd unamended, should include the huge costs that will be incurred when Welsh Government has to defend the legislation against a challenge by the UK Government.
An estimate of that cost could be made by looking at what the cost was to the Scottish Government of unsuccessfully defending its 'gender' recognition legislation.
Without going in to detail, in principle, in such a contentious matter, the powers of Ministers to deal with matter through subordinate legislation should be kept to an absolute minimum
The Senedd does not the power to legislate on this matter in this way.
If the term 'gender' was replaced by 'sex' and if the proposed mechanism of allowing a person to self identify as a 'woman' regardless of their biological sex was removed, the Senedd would have competence, because it has competence to legislate on its own electoral arrangements, and the Equality Act allows for affirmative action to promote the participation of women. The equality legislation is clearly a reserved matter. I believe that powers over equality legislation should rest with the Senedd, but as things stand they do not
This Bill, if passed unamended, will lead to direct conflict between the Welsh and the UK Governments over a matter that does not have wide public support in Wales.
This would undermine the reputation of the Welsh Government and of the Senedd itself and, ironically, would undermine attempts to devolve more powers to the Senedd.
This is a piece of legislation that is supposed to be designed to improve women's rights in Wales, but if it is passed unamended it will do the opposite.
Male bodied people would be able to 'identify' as women, according to their personal feelings. It is possible that this legislation would actually reduce the representation of women - adult human females - in the Senedd if slots supposed to be reserved for women were taken by biological males 'identifying' as women.
This legislation needs a huge amount of amendment if it is to achieve its stated aim of improving women's representation.
It would be better to scrap the Bill and start again, drafting a new piece of legislation within the Senedd's competence, using the word sex not 'gender'.
The Welsh Government should not get into a pointless dispute with the UK Government over this.
Perhaps it would be better for Parties to make their own arrangements to deliver balance between female and male representatives for the next Senedd election, as they have done before, and for legislation on this matter to be deferred