Commentary on Provisions Modification of section 4C
67.Section 4C of the Gender Recognition Act allows an individual who has an interim gender recognition certificate to apply to a gender recognition panel for a full gender recognition certificate. Paragraph 5(5) of schedule 2 modifies section 4C so that the panel must grant a full gender recognition certificate to an applicant who is in a civil partnership if, since the issuing of the interim certificate, both parties have decided to continue their partnership.
68.The terms of the new subsection (1A) of section 4C allow for the possibility that the relationship between the applicant and the applicant’s partner may have changed from a civil partnership to a marriage in the period between the granting of the interim gender recognition certificate and the application for a full gender recognition certificate under section 4C being determined. The change in the legal character of their relationship from one type to the other has no bearing on the availability of section 4C as a mechanism for going from an interim gender recognition certificate to a full gender recognition certificate.