The Secretary of State’s veto and the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
A briefing paper on the Scottish Secretary's "veto" of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998

The Judicial Review and Courts Bill is a wide-ranging Government bill concerned with the justice system. The Bill’s Second Reading debate is scheduled for Tuesday 26 October.
Judicial Review and Courts Bill 2021-22 (854 KB , PDF)
On Wednesday 21 July 2021 the Government presented the Judicial Review and Courts Bill 2021-22 to the House of Commons. This Bill includes a range of measures, most of which were headlined in the Queen’s Speech earlier in the year, and some of which are provisions reintroduced from bills that fell in previous parliaments. The Bill’s Second Reading debate is scheduled for Tuesday 26 October.
The Bill subdivides into two substantive parts.
Part 1 makes reforms to the law of judicial review throughout the United Kingdom, but with a primary focus on England and Wales. In 2020, the Government commissioned the Independent Review of Administrative Law (IRAL), which was chaired by Lord Faulks and reported earlier this year.
The reforms in the Bill implement IRAL’s recommendations to abolish so-called Cart judicial reviews (through a legal provision known as an “ouster clause”) and to provide an explicit statutory basis for courts to make suspended quashing orders (delaying the legal effects of their judgments). The Bill goes further and makes provision about prospective-only judicial remedies (which partially or wholly treat historic illegal acts as though they were valid), for which IRAL made no recommendation.
Part 2 of the Bill covers a wide range of court and tribunal reforms, most of which have either been revived from bills that fell in previous parliaments, or which were otherwise flagged in the 2021 Queen’s Speech.
Judicial Review and Courts Bill 2021-22 (854 KB , PDF)
A briefing paper on the Scottish Secretary's "veto" of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998
There will be a debate on sentencing for violence against women and girls in Westminster Hall on 1 February 2023 at 14:30. This debate will be led by Cherilyn Mackrory MP.
A briefing paper on the relationship between church and state in the United Kingdom