The UK’s equalities watchdog has written to the Scottish government asking it to pause plans to simplify the legal requirements for gender recognition. LGBT+ equality campaigners hit back at the unexpected intervention by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, describing its approach as “deeply troubling” and “failing to stand up for equality for trans people”. The EHRC, which monitors equality and human rights across England, Scotland and Wales, told Shona Robison, the minister responsible for the reforms, that “more detailed consideration” was required. The Scottish government is expected to bring forward plans to introduce a simplified system by which transgender people can change the sex recorded on their birth certificate – known as self-identification – towards the end of February.