Conservatives
[There is a LOT, and it's all in a pdf, so took fucking AGES to format no snappy bullet points]
https://www.scottishconservatives.com/manifestos/2026-scottish-parliament-election-manifesto/
'The Scottish Government also needs to stop the creation of unnecessary guidance and strategy documents like the Non-binary Equality Action Plan ....strategies and the guidance on collecting data on gender identity and trans status, which suggested there are at least 24 genders.
The Scottish Conservatives would immediately stop this nonsense. In addition, we would ban roles in the public sector devoted exclusively to advancing diversity, equality and inclusion. These roles do not provide value for the
taxpayer and funding should go towards frontline roles in the public sector instead.
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For example, the Scottish Prison Service’s Gender Identity and Gender Reassignment Policy was developed in tandem with Scottish Trans, a charity that has received taxpayer funding. This was the policy that resulted in the absurdity of a convicted double rapist being sent to a women’s prison.
If there had been more transparency surrounding the development of this policy, it is highly unlikely that it would have been implemented.
These situations must be prevented in the future. The Scottish Conservatives would amend lobbying rules so that taxpayerfunded organisations must declare
any lobbying activities they carry out in a public register, even if these are directed towards public bodies rather than government ministers.
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Creative Scotland is one quango that would remain as a standalone body, but is still in need of reform. In 2024, the body funded a project that was effectively pornographic, so we would forbid this type of spending and instead encourage
grants for arts and cultural endeavours that have broad popular appeal.
Supporting women’s health
A truly national health service should care for everyone’s needs and that is why the Scottish Conservatives would launch a Women’s Health Charter to ensure that our NHS works for everyone.
We would ensure that every woman has the right to be seen by a female GP as well as requiring that every GP practice has access to a women’s health specialist so that women feel comfortable going to their local practice about any health issues.
If a woman requires treatment in a hospital, they must also have access to a single sex ward. There have been reports of hundreds of sexual assaults recorded in hospitals, which is unacceptable.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling that sex means biological sex under the Equality Act, we would guarantee that every woman has access to single-sex wards.
Maternity care is one of the most common services women have to interact with in our NHS, but under the SNP it has been left in dire straits, with numerous maternity units downgraded and women forced to travel hundreds of miles
just to give birth as there are no adequate maternity services nearby.
We would prevent any downgrading of maternity and neonatal intensive care units as well as increase the beds in neonatal wards. There have also been extremely concerning reports about the safety of ourmaternity wards. The SNP promised to conduct a review of conditions in these wards, but it has yet to
commence. We would urgently start this review based on the work done by Baroness Amos in England.
We must also make our health service better for families more generally. We will work to expand access and provision to fertility and IVF services, ensure equality of access, and target resources at reducing waiting times for these
services.
Another health issue where standards need to be improved is for women going through menopause. Far too many women still report difficulties in accessing
the right treatment, so we would deliver more reviews to betterassess what hormone treatment therapy is available for women going through menopause.
Endometriosis is another women’s health issue all too often neglected.
We would guarantee that all health boards have access to specialist nurses and clinics to improve training and guidance for the detection of this condition.
To truly ensure that women’s health is treated properly in our NHS, we would deliver a Women’s Health Charter to replace the SNP’s failed Women’s Health Strategy. This would guarantee the rights women have in accessing healthcare and deliver improvements to treatment for female-specific issues across the
NHS.
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When controversial subjects have to be taught at school, this should be done with great sensitivity and respect for the wishes of parents.
This approach was shamefully ignored when the SNP Government decided to issue a school sex survey that asked children inappropriate questions about their sexuality. That should never have happened and we would put a stop
to any similar surveys being issued in future.
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Fighting identity politics and upholding our values
The SNP has spent the last five years obsessed with the issue of gender reform. They tried to pass a law that would allow 16-year-olds to legally change their gender, spent taxpayers’ money arguing in court that men can get pregnant and most seriously of all, a convicted double rapist was sent to a women’s prison because of its policies of gender self-identification.
Far too much time and money has been wasted on this issue. We would reverse the damage caused by the SNP’s policies and ensure the Supreme Court’s ruling that sex means biological sex is respected.
That starts by ensuring women and girls have access to singlesex spaces throughout the public sector, including hospitals, schools and prisons. In particular, biological men must be removed from women’s prisons given the threat they pose to vulnerable femaleprisoners and prison officers.
There have been horrific reports from schools across Scotland of girls being abused in mixed-sex toilets in recent years, so single-sex toilets must be in place across our schools. But we also have to stop harmful ideas being taught to our children in the first place, which is why we would scrap the Scottish
Government guidance which encourages the teaching of gender ideology in schools.
We will also ensure a full and truly independent inquiry is held into grooming gangs in Scotland, with victims and survivors having a role in overseeing it.
The networks that represent staff in public sector bodies are supposed to support everyone working within the organisation, but they are increasingly being overtaken by a minority of activists with extreme political views that do not
represent the majority of staff. We would require all public bodies’ staff
networks to respect and represent everyone and not discriminate based on political views. The Scottish Conservatives would also make clear that no public body would be allowed to discriminate against an individual, charity or business on the basis of their political views when it comes to funding or policy decisions made by ministers or senior public sector officials alike.
Upholding our values also means supporting couples who would liketo get married and preventing theprocess from being abused. The Scottish onservatives want to encourage people to get married so we would simplify and reduce the cost of the process which can vary substantially from one local
authority to the next, and raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 to protect girls from potential abuse. In addition, we would ban first-cousin marriage as it is a barbaric practice with negative health consequences that should have no place in our society.
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Criminals that commit sexual crimes need to be punished more harshly too. Most convicted sex offenders will avoid jail and those who do go to prison often don’t receive a sentence that fits the crime. That is because the legislation that sets out sentences for most sexual crimes has not been updated in years.
We would introduce a new law that would increase the maximum sentences that can be handed out for sexual crimes. As part of that new law, we would introduce mandatory life sentences for child rapists.
Combating violence against women and girls should be a key priority for the next Scottish Parliament. We want to see perpetrators punished more harshly, to send a clear message to abusers that this behaviour is unacceptable. But we
must go further if we are to give women and girls the protection they deserve.
The Scottish Conservatives attempted to pass legislation in the last session of the Scottish Parliament that would have put the perpetrators of domestic abuse
on a register, similar to the sex offenders register. It would allow authorities to monitor domestic abusers and prevent future abuse occurring. However, the proposal was blocked by the SNP. We would bring back a revised version of this
legislation, taking on board the legitimate feedback from domestic abuse charities and justice agencies.
One woman who was the victim of horrific violence at the hands of her partner was Claire Inglis. She was killed by her partner who had a lengthy criminal record of violence, yet he was still released on bail to Claire’s home multiple times, which ended with tragic consequences.
This should never have happened, and it must never happen again.
That is why we would introduce Claire’s law.
This would place restrictions on repeat offenders being granted bail by repealing the SNP’s changes to bail law, and improve information sharing across justice agencies to prevent situations where an abusive partner is bailed to their partner’s home rather than remanded in custody.
We would also consult on introducing a law to tackle non-fatal strangulation. There is no specific piece of legislation criminalising non-fatal strangulation in Scotland, despite it being frequently used as a method of abuse against women
and girls. Although the Scottish Government has published a consultation on violence against women and girls which outlines the current law in relation to non-fatal strangulation, it does not include a specific question on whether it
should be a standalone offence
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The Victim Rights Act would also include a true Suzanne’s Law, named after Suzanne Pilley, who was murdered in Edinburgh, but whose body has never been discovered. Her killer will be eligible for parole within the next five years,
despite never revealing the location of her remains. We would empower parole boards to block the release of killers who refuse to disclose this information. Murderers and killers who hide or mutilate the body of their victim deserve additional punishment for causing further pain to the family and friends of the victim. So on top of strengthening Suzanne’s Law, we would empower judges to issue harsher punishments for killers who conceal or mutilate their victim’s
body.