Concern after new research suggested that men who changed their gender to female in jail are switching back to their birth gender after release.
www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk
In fairness, that study doesn't reliably support the conclusion in respect of which you've cited it. Essentially, it sets out some women's fears thar something is happening; it doesn't offer any evidence that it is actually happening.
Better support for the idea that male prisoners are pretending to be trans would be the fact that so many prisoners who claim to be trans women are sex offenders.
Unless you believe that trans women are massively more likely than even cis men to be convicted of those crimes, that fact does suggest that sex offenders might be falsely claiming trans status.*
However, it's not clear whether that's so they can have access to vulnerable women to abuse, or for self-preservation.
Whilst that's something that shouldn't be dismissed, it isn't directly relevant to the bill; although it would've made getting a GRC easier, having one isn't determinative of whether or not a prisoner would be housed in the male or female estate.
That's because there's a specific exemption in the Equality Act 2010 to the general prohibition against discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment, with regard to services/public functions. And the prison service policy of making such decisions based on an assessment of risk on a case-by-case basis.
It would be more significant for, say, a woman's association where there is no such exemption which would allow it to exclude a trans woman with a GRC from its changing rooms. But then that's been the case for some time, seemingly with little problem. It is one of the SoS arguments for invoking s.35 that making it much easier to get a GRC would lead to problems in this area e.g. fraudulent claims, vulnerable (cis) women self- excluding from such associations, etc.
ETA: * This accords with
the evidence of the British Psychological Society to the Women and Equalities Committee, which said:
"
Conversely, psychologists working with forensic patients are aware of a number of cases where men convicted of sex crimes have falsely claimed to be transgender females for a number of reasons:
- As a means of demonstrating reduced risk and so gaining parole;
- As a means of explaining their sex offending aside from sexual gratification (e.g. wanting to ‘examine’ young females);
- Or as a means of separating their sex offending self (male) from their future self (female).
- In rare cases it has been thought that the person is seeking better access to females and young children through presenting in an apparently female way.
...
Consequently the Society recommends that the Government give appropriate assistance to transgender people within the criminal justice system; while being extremely cautious of setting law and policy such that some of the most dangerous people in society have greater latitude to offend."