‘We don't want to go back to court', says women's group over gender ruling delay
For Women Scotland (FWS) challenged the meaning of a woman in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act, with the UK's highest court ruling the definition in the 2010 Equality Act referred to biological sex.
The decision is likely to have far-reaching implications for transgender people in accessing services, but the Scottish Government has declined to make changes to guidance until the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issues its own guidance, which is expected to take place in the coming months.
But speaking at a fringe event at the Scottish Conservative conference in Edinburgh, FWS co-director Susan Smith said the group was considering a further legal challenge against the Government.
Speaking to journalists after the event, she said: 'We have spoken to the Scottish Government and asked them to withdraw some of this guidance, just to say that it's under review – they don't have to re-issue anything at this point – because it's clearly unlawful, we really do need some action.
'They're telling us they have to wait for the EHRC revised guidance and we don't believe this is true.'
Ms Smith added that, if a woman were to be assaulted in prison by a transgender prisoner, the Government could be taken to court by the victim.
'I think they need to step up and take a bit of responsibility because these things are under their remit,' she said.
She added: 'We don't want to go back to court, we really, really don't, but if we don't see some action that may be something we will have to consider.'
Former foreign secretary James Cleverly was also in attendance at the event (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Ms Smith said the group is speaking with its lawyers but she would not say if there was a timeline for action to begin.
The co-director stressed that if ministers were concerned about a challenge to their guidance from the pro-trans rights side of the argument, they should be worried about one from FWS and other such groups too.
'They seem worried about a legal challenge from the other side,' she said.
'But my message to them would be they should be more worried about a legal challenge from the people who have the law on their side.'
Ms Smith was joined at the fringe meeting – which was hosted by Tory MSP Pam Gosal – by former foreign secretary James Cleverly.
Mr Cleverly was part of the Conservative-led government which blocked the Scottish Government's controversial gender reforms.
The Government proposed removing the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria as a requirement for obtaining a gender recognition certificate – a process known as self identification.
The move was scuppered by then-Scottish secretary Alister Jack, who used Section 35 of the Scotland Act to block the legislation.
Mr Cleverly told attendees the move showed the 'importance of the union'.
'This issue was clearly spiralling out of control, badly out of control,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Sir Geoff Palmer obituary
Sir Geoff Palmer, who has died aged 85, was a son of the Windrush generation who became a grain scientist of global renown and, in his later life, an equally distinguished campaigner for racial equality and historical awareness. Most of his career was spent in Scotland, where he arrived in 1964 as a research student, when even renting a room was not easy. 'As I walked up the path I'd see the curtain move and by the time I got to the door, I was told the room had been taken.' Surrounded in Edinburgh by street names and statues which had, from his perspective, unsavoury connotations, Palmer made it a mission to raise awareness of Scotland's links with the slave trade. He believed these had been downplayed, although the wealth of many Scottish dynasties was founded on slavery and 'about 60% of the surnames in the Jamaica telephone directory are Scottish'. He went on to become Scotland's first black professor in 1989 and did much to make Heriot-Watt University an internationally recognised research centre for brewing and distilling. In 2021, he became the university's chancellor. The many accolades he received included, last year, admission to the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's highest order of chivalry. Palmer's crusade to force historical reassessment came to wider attention during the Black Lives Matter campaign, through his focus on Henry Dundas, Viscount Melville, who, as a minister in William Pitt's administration, was known as the 'uncrowned King of Scotland' and whose towering monument is the centrepiece of St Andrew's Square in Edinburgh. Palmer maintained that Dundas had been responsible for delaying the abolition of slavery by 15 years during which a further half million slaves were transported from Africa to the Caribbean. Under the scrutiny engendered by Black Lives Matter, the Melville monument became the subject of intense controversy. However, Palmer did not support removing or toppling monuments. He said: 'My view is that if you remove the evidence, you remove the deed. Therefore, slavery-related objects such as statues and buildings should carry plaques which tell the truth of links with slavery'. This was the solution eventually arrived at in the case of the Melville monument. Palmer arrived in London a month before his 15th birthday, which proved a detail of critical significance. His father, Aubrey, had deserted the family in Jamaica and his mother, Ivy, came to London aboard the Mauretania in 1948, leaving Geoff behind to be looked after by aunts until her earnings as a seamstress could bring him to England. She had arranged a job for him but, as they left for work, a man stopped them to ask how old Geoff was. It was, he recalled, a life-changing intervention. The fact he had not reached 15 meant he had to go to school. Initially, he was branded 'educationally sub-normal'. 'On a test they gave me, one of the questions, I can remember it clearly, was: 'What is Big Ben?' And I must have written, 'It's a big guy'.' Shelburne secondary modern in Highbury took him in and his cricketing ability meant he was soon playing for London Schools. This led to an offer from Highbury grammar, where he gained an A-level in biology. He found work as a lab assistant and, after adding to his qualifications, secured a place at Leicester University, where he graduated with honours in botany. Palmer returned to London but the only work the Labour Exchange would offer him was peeling potatoes in a restaurant. Set on an academic career, he saw an advert from Heriot-Watt, then a college of Edinburgh University, offering a PhD opportunity and was interviewed by Dr Anna Macleod, the world's first female professor of brewing and biochemistry. 'After about 10 minutes, she said: 'I'm going to take you'. She gave me a dustbin full of barley. I said: 'What am I going to do with that?'. She said: 'Get on with it. That's your research material'.' This set Palmer on a course that was to make him a celebrated figure in the evolution of brewing and distilling. 'I then went and read up as much as I could about barley and malt', he said. 'Those references are still in my head because I went to the library at the Royal Botanic Garden, next to where I lived in Edinburgh, and tracked their barley research, right back to the 1800s'. By 1967, he had gained his PhD, for research that proved groundbreaking. It involved the science and technology of changing germinated barley into malt and produced results which were reported in the scientific journal Nature. The barley abrasion process that Palmer identified accelerated the malting cycle and became of great value to big brewers and whisky companies. He became senior scientist at the Brewing Research Foundation in Surrey before returning in 1977 to Heriot-Watt where, among his many achievements, he secured £1m from the Scotch Whisky Association to help establish the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling in 1989. His expertise was in demand from many countries and businesses. One notable legacy was in Africa, resulting from a ban on the importation of European malt and barley by the Nigerian government in the 1980s. Palmer advised on the uses of local grain, an innovation which spread across the continent to the benefit of many small farmers. While increasingly involved in working for equal opportunities, Palmer continued to teach at Heriot-Watt University until his retirement in 2005 and, in 2014, he was knighted for services to human rights, science and charity. He worked closely with his friend Benjamin Zephaniah to promote opportunities in STEM subjects for disadvantaged communities. Throughout his career, Palmer experienced and overcame both overt and covert racism while forming strong views on how the only long-term answers lay in education, which must include teaching about Britain's colonial past and its impacts on the history that followed. Spreading that knowledge became his chief preoccupation. A courteous, humorous and charismatic man, Palmer relied on reasoned argument and careful research to communicate powerful messages. He published Mr White and the Ravens, a novel about race relations, in 2001 and The Enlightenment Abolished: Citizens of Britishness, a memoir and collection of articles, followed in 2007. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Wood, an educational psychologist, whom he married in 1969, their son, Ralph, and daughters, Susie and Catherine. Sir Godfrey Henry Oliver 'Geoff' Palmer, grain scientist, historian and equality campaigner, born 9 April 1940; died 12 June 2025
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Leading players urge Labor to tighten rules for cashed-up political lobbyists
Leading lobbyists are urging the federal government to strengthen investigative powers and penalties to crack down on rogue operators, including through new laws that would add corporate interests to a transparency register. The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, told Guardian Australia this week that the party would use its balance of power position to push for tougher rules on the cashed-up lobbying industry in the new parliament, calling current rules 'really weak and effectively nonexistent'. The attorney general's department administers a transparency register, but it only covers paid third-party lobbyists and their clients. Lobbyists employed internally by corporations and interest groups are not required to sign up. A parliamentary report in 2024 found as much as 80% of the industry was not required to adhere to transparency rules. Worse, breaches of the associated lobbying code of conduct are not made public. The department said the number of breaches has been increasing in recent years, but how bureaucrats dealt with them was not made public. Andrew Cox, the president of industry peak body the Australian Professional Government Relations Association, said tougher rules and bigger penalties were needed. Cox said the department 'should have more robust powers to investigate and punish those who engage in unregistered lobbying' and that 'there should be meaningful consequences for breaching the government's code of conduct'. 'We support transparency where measures seeking to achieve it … do not unreasonably add to the administrative burden or create a chilling effect on the roles of government relations practitioners.' Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The powerful New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption warned a federal parliamentary inquiry that unregulated lobbying allows private interests 'to exert undue influence over official decision-making, while diminishing trust in government and increasing the risk of corruption'. One influential lobbyist who declined to be named so they could speak freely warned that a small number of players exaggerated their influence and access in Canberra. 'There are a small number of third-party lobbyists who like to pretend the only way to talk to government is through them. That's bullshit – that's greasy and it's gross,' they said. 'Staffers and ministers see through them, and they're not taken seriously.' They said lobbyists 'who understand how government works can be incredibly valuable to the government and to business'. The managing director of Hawker Britton, Simon Banks, said the rules should be strengthened. 'At the moment, at the commonwealth level, we have an administrative scheme. We would support a legislative scheme that makes sure there are clear rules and standards but also a legal mechanism to enforce them. 'The arrangements currently in place only apply to third-party lobbyists. I don't see why the general standards enforced by a code of conduct should apply to me but not someone who is in there lobbying on behalf of an organisation [they work for].' The code of conduct was designed to govern contact between lobbyists and government representatives, and promote 'transparency, integrity and honesty'. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion A growing group of MPs support changes to access rules at Parliament House. In mid-2024, there were more than 2,050 sponsored passes for the building, an unknown share of which were held by paid lobbyists. The inquiry warned there was no interaction between the lobbyist register and the pass approval system, despite access being an important tool for the industry. Banks said pass holders' names should be made public, along with MPs who sponsor them. 'I actually think if you disclose the full range of people who have their passes, you'd find there is a broader range of people who can access this building,' Banks said. Ben Oquist, a director at lobbying firm DPG Advisory Solutions, said stronger rules would benefit the industry. 'Businesses, NGOs and the public should all have the chance to engage with government and share their views or concerns, including with professional help,' Oquist said. 'Lobbying can play an important role in this democratic process. Lobbying can indeed be good. When done right, it can help shape better public policy outcomes. But if the industry does not live up to community expectations, it risks losing all public trust. 'That is why a strong, transparent and loophole-free regulatory regime would be good for everyone.' The Kooyong MP, Monique Ryan, linked powerful lobbying to Labor's controversial approval of Woodside's North West Shelf gas project out to 2070 last month. She said more transparency was badly needed. 'Fossil fuel industry lobbyists do not deserve more influence than our constituents,' she said. 'We deserve to know who is roaming the halls of parliament – and we should know when our ministers and senior public servants meet with them. We should open ministerial diaries in real time, and we must extend, reform and enforce the lobbyists' code of conduct. 'We have to close the revolving doors between ministerial and senior public service roles and the industries over which they have influence.'
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
SNP's nuclear stance costing Scotland jobs, says UK minister
While energy is largely reserved to the UK Government, the Scottish Government effectively has a veto on new nuclear power developments through planning regulations. Last week, in her Spending Review, Rachel Reeves unveiled a multi-billion-pound investment programme in new nuclear energy. The Chancellor said £2.5 billion of the £8.3bn set aside for Great British Energy would be redirected to support new nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors, and a new plant in the south of England. READ MORE: In an interview with BBC Scotland's Sunday Show, Mr Shanks was asked about why the money had been redirected, particularly given the party's manifesto made no mention of nuclear, but instead focussed on onshore wind, solar, and hydro power. 'Well, it's not an exclusive list, because there's a lot of other clean energy technologies,' Mr Shanks said. 'Nuclear is part of our energy mix. 'I'm not going to make any apologies for the government investing in nuclear where thousands of highly skilled jobs can be delivered, including in Scotland if it wasn't for the ideological position of the SNP to block new nuclear, could be delivering those well paid skilled jobs here in Scotland. 'They turned their face against that, and they will have to answer for that.' He added: 'The broader point here is Great British Energy is all about harnessing the power of the public purse to invest not just in clean power projects directly but supply chains that drive them. 'Because unlike the previous government, we want to see those well paid, industrialised jobs coming alongside us, not towing in offshore wind and switching it on, but building it in this country and getting the manufacturing jobs that go with it. "That's how we deliver the jobs of the future.' The Herald revealed at the weekend that unions are calling on the Scottish Government to end its longstanding resistance to new nuclear power. Louise Gilmour, from GMB Scotland, has written to Energy Minister Gillian Martin calling for an urgent rethink. She said: 'Amidst broken promises on a green jobs revolution, the Scottish Government cannot afford to scoff at the offering of nuclear energy on the table. An offer that would in large part be funded by the UK Government. The ban against new nuclear – especially SMRs – must be lifted.' Responding to Ms Gilmour's comments, a Scottish Government spokesperson told The Herald: 'The Scottish Government is focused on supporting growth and creating jobs by capitalising on Scotland's immense renewable energy capacity rather than expensive new nuclear energy which takes decades to build, creates toxic waste which is difficult and costly to dispose of and does not generate power at a cost that will bring down energy bills.' READ MORE: Meanwhile, during the interview with the BBC, Mr Shanks was pressed on the impact of oil and gas job losses in Aberdeen. Companies in the north east have blamed the UK Government's Energy Profits Levy, which means the effective rate of tax on oil and gas companies is 78%. Mr Shanks said: 'Every single job loss is hugely distressing for the individuals and for their families and communities. 'I do not for a second discount the impact that job losses have, but I do not think that is an entirely fair assessment, because yes, there have been job losses recently announced, but there have also been thousands of jobs created.' He argued that transition involved movement from one part of the energy sector to another, and that support for workers was crucial. 'That is why we announced incredibly quickly that passporting support—where if you are an offshore oil and gas worker doing a particular job and you could do the same job in offshore wind, you should not have to requalify or have your skills reassessed. 'You should be able to move straight into that job. That is something the previous government talked about for a long time. We delivered it.' READ MORE: The Labour Energy Minister also said he was 'hopeful' that an announcement on investment in Grangemouth will be made soon. Mr Shanks said more than 80 potential investors had come forward since the UK Government pledged £200 million for the site. The Government is seeking a further £600m in private investment in the area, following the closure of Scotland's last oil refinery. Mr Shanks said the investment would help provide a 'long-term, sustainable future' for the site. Petroineos, the joint venture between INEOS and PetroChina, which owns the 100-year-old refinery, first announced plans to close in November 2023. They said the plant's future as an import terminal would 'require significantly fewer people to operate' and that there would need to be a 'net reduction of approximately 400 roles over the next two years.' Mr Shanks said the Government was engaging with businesses on new projects for the area. 'We have had some really positive meetings around potential investors,' he said. 'In fact, more than 80 potential investors have come forward. Scottish Enterprise is driving forward due diligence on that. There are a number of really credible projects that we are developing at the moment. 'We hope we will have some really positive announcements to make soon.' Mr Shanks said the 'unprecedented' £200m investment from the National Wealth Fund would help 'create the jobs of the future' while ensuring long-term investment security. He added: 'I am not involved in the due diligence, as you would not expect, but there are some really exciting, viable projects coming forward that will deliver jobs in Grangemouth long into the future.' Last week, Jan Robertson, Grangemouth director for Scottish Enterprise, said she had received a 'mixture of inquiries' from businesses—some interested in the site itself and others with 'a good opportunity to become projects in the relatively near term.' 'What I mean by that is the next three to four years,' she told Holyrood's Economy and Fair Work Committee. 'Our approach at the moment is very much working with those and working as closely and quickly as we can to make the progress that we want to see in Grangemouth.' Ms Martin told the committee the 'door is not closed' to companies looking to work at the site, and said Petroineos had also received approaches. 'We could look back five years and start pointing fingers, but the most important thing is that in the last year—actually the last six months—Project Willow and the taskforce have moved things along in a way that has been swift, agile and focused,' she said. 'I am feeling so much more confident than I did this time last year in the prospects for that site.'
