Scottish consultation results

However it says everything. It's all down there. They've recorded all the relevant points, they can't say they weren't told or didn't know, and they have clear evidence of what the concerns are and that women are ready to act if they take action that is damaging to women's rights.

Totally agree with this.

Yes, the aim was to get the consultation done on the QT (we know this was a deliberate tactic from the report from the “Still Here” conference).

And this tactic worked. We know from several opinion polls that the Scottish (or rUK) public is not in favour of self id, therefore this consultation is not representative.

But it doesn’t really matter because the salient points have all been raised.

I think it is extremely important to draw attention to just how out of step the supposed “women’s” organisations in Scotland are with women’s concerns.

Engender should be on the front line, representing these concerns from women, instead they are firmly in the pocket of the trans orgs. They are not fit for purpose. They had one job and have failed, dismally, to consult and properly represent the views of women.

Like the English/Welsh consultation, this one was supposed to happen quietly and involve only mostly LGBT organisations. The results are due to urgent mobilisation by women's groups including MN to get responses, and equal mobilisation by LGBT/TRA groups to get responses.

However it says everything. It's all down there. They've recorded all the relevant points, they can't say they weren't told or didn't know, and they have clear evidence of what the concerns are and that women are ready to act if they take action that is damaging to women's rights.

Pg 20.

A breakdown of the number of responses received by respondent type and by area is set out in Table 1 below. Overall, 49% of respondents to the consultation are resident in Scotland, with 38% resident in the rest of the UK and the remaining 13% resident elsewhere in the world. The majority of organisational respondents, 63%, were based in Scotland. Amongst the organisational respondents, the Trans Group was the only one in which the majority of respondents were not based in Scotland.

I live in Scotland and I didn't even know about the consultation.

I will say that a very important issues like caste did muster 16,000+ responses.

www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-07-23/HCWS898/

I think 15,697 is an astonishing number of responses to a government consultation, let alone one that ostensibly only affects Scotland.

100,000 responses to the England and Wales one is even more astonishing! I wouldn't be surprised if that's a record.

Relative populations: www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates

Wouldn't that make Scotland's responses relatively approx. (crudely) double that of England and Wales? (Headache in progress, I may be wrong.)

I think 15,697 is an astonishing number of responses to a government consultation, let alone one that ostensibly only affects Scotland.

100,000 responses to the England and Wales one is even more astonishing! I wouldn't be surprised if that's a record.

For comparison, the UK trans equality inquiry in 2015 got 209 responses.

This consultation on the two child benefit limit (rape clause) got 82 responses.

This one on PIP assessments had a better response:

Over 1700 individuals and organisations responded to the Call for Evidence, which was issued at the start of this Review. This is a significant increase from the 800 responses received by the first Review.

This one on mental health provision for children and young people garnered 2700 responses.

This consultation on closing the gender pay gap got 'almost 700' responses.

Thanks for the share token. Articles in the Scotsman and Herald as well:

www.scotsman.com/news/scotland-set-to-be-first-country-in-uk-to-recognise-third-gender-1-4834309
www.heraldscotland.com/news/17253160.scots-back-new-laws-to-allow-people-to-self-declare-gender/

Particularly misleading title in the Scotsman: "Scotland set to be first country in UK to recognise third gender".

It's important to know that the consultation was directed at LGBT groups, it wasn't put forward as an issue that affected women at all. No women groups were consulted about the framework of the questions and only a partial (useless) impact statement was done.

I wonder what the results would have looked like if people without a particular interest had even known it was going on.

Grr. The consultation asked questions about declaring gender.

I’ve got no problem with people self declaring their gender identity. I don’t think this should have any bearing on legal sex however.

I wonder what the results would have looked like if they had used the word sex instead?

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/majority-opt-for-self-declaring-gender-in-government-consultation-bph5lvwvb?shareToken=4e5a1a1a3250d4985aca1190eaf1e62f