SCOTTISH ministers have been told that plans to make it easier for a person to change their legally recognised sex will put women at “increased risk of harm from predatory men”.

The warning comes from members of the SNP Women’s Pledge in their submission to the Government’s consultation on changes to the Gender Recognition Act.

The group, which is headed by West Dunbartonshire councillor Caroline McAllister and which counts MP Joanna Cherry MP and MSP Joan McAlpine among its high-profile members, says new self-declaration proposals will put “women’s safe spaces and services at risk”.

That’s been hotly disputed by groups in favour of the change.

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Speaking about the submission, McAllister said the group believed women and girls will be at “increased risk of harm from predatory men who could take advantage of the complete lack of any checks to gain access to single-sex spaces like women’s toilets, hospital wards, refuges, hostels and prisons”.

She added: “The current gender recognition law is already compliant with human rights laws so these changes are not even needed.”

Last week, the minister in charge of the proposals said the Scottish Government was “determined” to press ahead with the plans.

Social Security Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said there had been “a lot of misunderstandings” about the proposals. She told STV: “I absolutely appreciate that women’s rights are exceptionally important. They have been long-fought for and long-campaigned on and there is absolutely nothing I would do as a member of this government to jeopardise any of that.”

She added: “We have women’s rights and we have trans rights – I don’t see those aspects as mutually exclusive.”