The Scottish Government has been slated for “squandering” £61k of public cash on attempting to prove that a man can become pregnant. SNP Ministers laid out their arguments in front of the Supreme Court in November about whether the definition of a woman can be changed.
It is part of a long-running saga between the government and feminist campaign group For Women Scotland who were given permission to take their stance to the UK’s highest court. The row revolves around whether trans women can be regarded as female for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act.
The very public showdown resulted in claims that lawyers for the Nationalist Executive had completely obliterated their gender reforms as they admitted that having a certificate would impact on the Equality Act, despite insisting during the debate on the controversial legislation that this wouldn’t happen.
And now the Scottish Daily Express can reveal that the government has spent a huge £61.9k on the court case so far, with this potentially rising depending on what the judges decide. A freedom of information request found that counsel fees were £54,216.80, court fees were £7,380.00 and other expenses were £332.00.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon describes opponents of gender reforms ‘transphobic’ again as she ‘doubles down’ on ‘smear’
In the government’s publicly available documents prepared for the case, a pregnant man is referenced twice. Ruth Crawford KC, acting on behalf of the SNP government, said that a person with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) is “recognised in law” as having changed sex. This means someone born female who ‘changes gender’ to male could be classed as a “pregnant man.”
The Scottish Tories blasted the Nats for wasting taxpayer money once again. Shadow Minister for Equalities Tess White told the Scottish Daily Express: “The public will be dismayed to learn that the SNP government have squandered such a large sum of public cash on this contentious and divisive issue.
Tess White MSP
“The majority of the public, including SNP voters, are against the SNP’s gender reform plans because they recognise that they pose as a serious risk to the safety of women and girls. Wasting time and resources on this still displays a stunning lack of common sense from SNP ministers and reflects just how detached from the publics’ expectations of what the Scottish Government should be focusing on such as the crisis in the NHS.”
For Women Scotland is seeking to overturn a 2023 ruling by the Scottish courts that treating someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) as a woman under the Equality Act is lawful. They have fundraised in order to fight this at the Supreme Court in one final showdown.
The group has already successfully challenged the original Act in 2022 after it included trans women in its definition of women, with with the Court of Session in Edinburgh finding changing the definition of a woman in the Act was unlawful as it dealt with matters falling outside the Scottish Parliament’s legal competence.
Read More
Related Articles
Read More
Related Articles
It forced the government into dropping the definition completely from the Act and issuing revised statutory guidance, which is essentially advice on how to comply with the law. This guidance stated that under the 2018 Act, the definition of a woman was the same as that set out in the Equality Act 2010, and also that a person with a GRC recognising their gender as female had the sex of a woman.
For Women Scotland challenged this guidance as it said that the government was overstepping its powers by effectively redefining the meaning of “woman.” Its challenge was rejected twice by the Court of Session, but were given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in London.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Ministers cannot comment on live proceedings.”
Never miss the latest top headlines from the Scottish Daily Express. Sign up to our daily newsletter here.