Supreme court – live: Judges to give ruling on definition of a woman after Scottish government legal battle – UK Times

The dispute first came to court in 2022, when For Women Scotland (FWS) successfully challenged the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 over its inclusion of transgender women in its definition of women.

Following the challenge, the Scottish Government dropped the definition from the act and issued revised statutory guidance.

This stated that under the 2018 Act, the definition of a woman was the same as that set out in the Equality Act 2010 – also including a person with a female gender recognition certificate (GRC).

FWS challenged this revised guidance again – but its challenge was rejected by the Court of Session’s Outer and Inner House in 2023.

It appealed the decision to the UK Supreme Court, which will hand down its judgement today.

The Supreme Court is set to deliver a landmark ruling on the legal definition of a woman on Wednesday morning.

At the heart of the dispute is the question of whether transgender women with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) should be treated as a woman under the 2010 Equality Act.

The ruling comes in response to a challenge brought by campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS), over inclusion of transgender women with Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs) within the 50 per cent female quota mandated for public boards.

The court’s decision will have far-reaching implications for how sex and gender are legally defined and applied across various aspects of UK law.

It will also likely effect the rights of transgender women to use single-sex spaces and services.