Overview
3.The purpose of the Act is to amend section 2 of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 (“the 2018 Act”) to repeal the definition of “woman”.
4.This follows the decisions of the Court of Session of 18 February and 22 March 2022(1) (and which had effect from 19 April 2022) in the judicial review action and reclaiming motion brought by For Women Scotland. The Court found and declared that the definition of “woman” in section 2 of the 2018 Act was outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament in that it related to reserved matters and was accordingly not law in terms of section 29(1) and (2)(b) of the Scotland Act 1998. The Court granted a decree of reduction of the definition.