02-05-2025
SNP ministers ditch plans for long-promised anti-women hatred law in major U-turn
Ministers claimed a misogyny bill would be too complex to finish within the remaining year of this parly session
NATS chiefs today ditched their long-promised anti-women hatred law and signalled they would introduce an offence covering prejudice against both sexes instead.
In a major u-turn after years of committing to a misogyny bill, SNP ministers confirmed it would be dropped in favour of expanding the controversial Hate Crime Act.
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MSPs pinned part of the blame on the Supreme Court judgement that sex in equality law is defined by biological sex
Credit: EPA
The plans would see the 'protected characteristic' of sex - meaning women or men - added to legislation which has been fully in place for just over a year.
It paves the way for crimes of stirring up hatred against men and women to be prosecuted, as well as added a sex-based 'aggravation' - a bolt-on for other offences, triggering stiffer punishment.
Freedom of speech protections about misogyny will also be added to the bill, protecting 'discussion or criticism'.
Ministers claimed a misogyny bill - recommended in a major review for the government by Baroness Helena Kennedy - would be too complex to finish within the remaining year of this parly session.
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A written statement to MSPs, released after the end of the parliamentary week, also pinned part of the blame on last month's landmark Supreme Court judgement that sex in equality law is defined by biological sex.
It said: 'This is a complex area of policy and law, and it would be necessary that any Bill which brought misogyny into criminal law contained clear and unambiguous provisions in regard to the circumstances in which they apply.
'This would include the implications of the recent Supreme Court Judgment.'
Last year the Scottish Government had insisted ministers would introduce a misogyny bill which would be 'the first of its kind in the world' to 'create a new focus on protecting women and girls to address criminal behaviour motivated purely by misogyny."
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The u-turn flies in the face of recommendations by Labour peer and human rights lawyer Baroness Kennedy KC's review of misogyny law.
Her report in 2022 concluded adding sex to the Hate Crime Act would not work as 'misogyny is so deeply rooted in our patriarchal ecosystem that it requires a more fundamental set of responses."
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It added a hate law was needed "exclusively for women" because "this malign conduct does not happen to men in any comparable way'.
At the time, Nicola Sturgeon said the report from Baroness Kennedy was 'ground-breaking', 'bold', and 'far-reaching'.
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The lawyer and peer said earlier this month that she was worried ministers would ditch her recommendations 'given the divisive nature of public debate around 'woke' issues.
She added: 'Protecting women and girls from abusive behaviour and threats of rape and violence, online and offline, is very important now.'
SNP ministers' latest position - adding a protected characteristic of 'sex' to current hate laws - is similar to the idea suggested by judge Lord Bracadale in his 2018 hare crime review for the Scottish Government. It floated an 'aggravation' in law based on 'gender hostility', rather than a specific protection for women.
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Nats chiefs today ditched their long-promised anti-women hatred law
Credit: Alamy
