76. Section 10 and Schedule 3 address the effect of the GRC on the UK birth register entry in relation to the recipient. Other Schedules to the Act deal with amendments to marriage law (Schedule 4) and entitlements to social security benefits and pensions (Schedule 5).
77. The GRA 2004 also expressly excepted particular matters, providing that they were not to be affected wholly or in part by the grant of the GRC. Succession, the descent of peerages, the administration of trusts and the disposition of property under a will were effectively excepted from the regime by sections 15 to 18. Other exceptions, some of which remain in force, were provided for as follows:
- (a) Section 12 provided that the fact that a person’s gender has become the acquired gender does not affect the status of the person as the father or mother of a child.
- (b) Section 19 provided that a person may be excluded from participating as a competitor in a “gender-affected sport” if that was necessary to secure fair competition or the safety of competitors. A “gender-affected sport” was defined as one where “the physical strength, stamina or physique of average persons of one gender would put them at a disadvantage to average persons of the other gender as competitors in events involving the sport.”
- (c) Section 20 provided that the receipt of a GRC did not prevent a person from being convicted of a gender-specific offence which can be committed only by a person of their biological gender or from being a victim of an offence of which only people of their biological gender can be victims.
78. Section 22 provides for the confidentiality of “protected information” and remains in force. It is an offence for a person who has acquired protected information in an official capacity to disclose that information to any other person. “Protected information” means information which concerns an application for a GRC or, if a GRC had been issued, concerned the person’s gender before the acquired gender. Subsection (4) provides gateways for the lawful disclosure of protected information, including where the information does not enable the applicant to be identified, or where the person has agreed to the disclosure or for certain other purposes, including circumstances to be prescribed by the Secretary of State.
79. Section 23 conferred on the Secretary of State and on Scottish Ministers and the appropriate Northern Ireland department a general power to make orders, following appropriate consultation, modifying the operation of any enactment or subordinate legislation in relation to persons whose gender has become the acquired gender. This power was subsequently used to modify Scottish laws on marriage.
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