“This measure is not a barrier to anyone seeking a gender recognition certificate; it’s an extra notification for those convicted,” Justice Secretary Angela Constance told MSPs. Parliament approved the regulations on 3 December 2025; they were signed on 9 December and take effect from 21 February 2026.

The change updates Scotland’s sex‑offender notification rules. From February, anyone on the register must tell police if they have applied for a gender recognition certificate (GRC) and the application is still pending, or if they have obtained a full GRC issued on or after the “relevant date”. An application that has resulted in an interim GRC still counts as undetermined and must be disclosed.

In plain terms, this folds GRC status into the information Police Scotland can see alongside the existing bank, credit card and identity details already gathered at notification. Headings in the underlying regulations are tweaked to reflect that this remains part of the prescribed financial and identity information recorded at the first police check‑in. Police Scotland guidance already lists those details.

Ministers say the step honours a pledge made during the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill debate and is about tightening public‑protection information rather than blocking anyone’s route to recognition. Constance told the committee the risk of harm identified was considered low and that Police Scotland would weigh any relevance to risk on a case‑by‑case basis.

This matters beyond Holyrood. The Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) database is UK‑wide and used by every force across Britain, including Police Scotland and northern forces such as Northumbria and Cumbria. Cross‑border moves are visible in that shared system, so officers on both sides of the line can see updated details when they assess risk.

For readers in Berwick, Carlisle and the wider North, nothing changes in English law-but coordination does get tidier. If someone on Scotland’s register relocates south, their management and any new notifications sit on ViSOR and feed into local Multi‑Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), the framework that brings police, probation and other services together.

Scotland’s own MAPPA picture underlines why tidy records matter. The Government’s latest national overview shows 447 applications in 2024‑25 to the Sex Offender Community Disclosure Scheme-up by more than 50 percent year on year-each assessed by specialist officers before any disclosure is made.

A quick legal explainer. The “relevant date” is set by section 82(6) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003-usually the date of conviction, or the date of a finding or caution in other scenarios. That timestamp decides which certificates must be notified under the new rule.

Timings and process stay familiar. As Police Scotland notes, registered offenders must make their initial notification in person within three days and report changes within three days too. The new duty simply adds GRC applications and qualifying certificates to those change‑of‑details updates from 21 February.