UK & Ireland in Brief

An employment tribunal judge ruled in December that believing that a person’s sex cannot be changed (and thus referring to a person by their sex rather than chosen ‘gender’) is a belief ‘not worthy of respect in a democratic society’.

Maya Forstater attempted to have the belief become a protected characteristic. She is hoping to challenge the ruling which now puts the scientific fact of binary sex below that of a belief in ethical veganism. She was at the tribunal as her research contract had not been renewed after she had expressed a scientific view of sex online.

More than 80 academics wrote to The Times, criticising proposed government guidance which would allow people to self-identify as male or female on the 2021 census.

The academics wrote: ‘The guidance will effectively transform the longstanding sex question into a question about gender identity.’ Further, the Scottish government launched a consultation on the Gender Recognition Act for Scotland. It closes in March. (See this News In Brief item on the

en website for a link to the survey.)

Ann Furedi, head of BPAS, Britain’s largest abortion provider, was made an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Kent at a ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral on 22 November last year.

Dean of Canterbury Robert Willis, responsible for hosting the ceremony, has refused to address the morality of the event, while Archbishop Justin Welby claimed a lack of ‘consensus about precisely when life begins in the womb.’

The Charity Commission was reported to have sent advice to Marie Stopes in December on salaries, after it was revealed in October that the CEO had earned a 100% bonus to take his salary up to almost half a million pounds.

This was enough to put him among the UK’s top five highest-earning charity executives (en October 2019).

It was reported in January that Islamist extremists in British prisons are holding makeshift sharia trials and openly grooming young Muslim inmates.

Security experts called for a fundamental review of terrorist radicalisation in jails. Around 8% of the current prison population is Muslim, which has doubled since 2002. Paul Song, who had worked as a volunteer chaplain within HMP Brixton, had claimed in March 2018 that Muslim prisoners behaved ‘inappropriately’, including disrupting chapel meetings by praising the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby.

The General Medical Council said in January it is reviewing the decision not to investigate a doctor accused of evangelising about his Christian faith.

The National Secular Society submitted what it says is new evidence and the GMC is said to be investigating after comments Dr Scott made to the media. On 9 December, he told BBC Radio Kent that he would continue to initiate conversations with patients about faith, and confirmed that he had not changed his approach since receiving a warning from the council in 2012.