“Cruel” attempt to change how trans people are imprisoned withdrawn from House of Lords
On 10 January, an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill was proposed in the House of Lords to make prisoners put in a jail corresponding to the sex recorded at their birth.
Put forward by Lord Blencathra, a Conservative Party life peer and former MP, his suggested changes would have made whether or not someone had a gender recognition certificate irrelevant when it comes to the prison they are placed in.
According to Lord Blencathra, trans people who “should not be accommodated with prisoners of the same sex as registered at birth, separate accommodation must be provided to ensure that there is no access to or association with prisoners of the opposite sex as registered at birth.” Referencing an earlier amendment he had attempted to make to the Gender Recognition Act, the 68-year-old acknowledged that it was “unbalanced” as he “neglected to account for the small minority of trans women who might face unacceptable risk if housed in male prisons.” During his debate, the Lord suggested that if trans women “cannot be housed safely in either the general population of the male estate or with other males in a vulnerable prisoners unit, the decision can be made to house that prisoner in a specialist transgender unit.” Lord Cormack, who is also a former Tory MP and life peer, said he was “very glad” to support the amendment after being moved by Lord Blencathra’s “convincing and passionate speech.” “I believe very strongly, as does my noble friend Lord Blencathra, that the solution is to treat those who are particularly vulnerable in such a way that we take as many safeguards against their vulnerability as possible,” the 82-year-old explained. “To me, that leads logically to a solution where those who were
