Scottish Government hiding GRA Consultation results

[MiladyBerserko]

The Scottish Government conducted a Consultation which finished in March 2020, where they asked for responses to proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act. They said these responses would be published. Now it seems, they are refusing to publish them and also, refuse to respond to FOI requests about it.

See this tweet which shows that the responses to another Consultation re. women's representation on public boards were largely concerned about the redefinition of the word 'women' and its impact on the legal rights of women and girls. This also appears not to have been published, although I need confirmation on this.

mobile.twitter.com/painteyhands/status/1413219892652875780

Questions:
Why is the Scottish Government backtracking on its promise to publish the GRA consultation?

How much did it cost to conduct a Consultation which they are now choosing to ignore?

Why are they permitted to ignore the results of a public consultation?

Am I naive to think they should be held to account?

Women and Girls in Scotland appear to be taking this forward. Good luck to them and I will be supporting them.

Ruth Wishart tweeting about it too. Which is surprising as she's generally on the fence re. Women's issues, or at least, these issues

mobile.twitter.com/ruth_wishart/status/1414097676728250369

Why is the Scottish Government backtracking on its promise to publish the GRA consultation?

Presumably because the majority of the responses were against self-ID. They likely assumed that public opinion would be in favour, and they thought they could then publish proof that they were in step with what their constituents wanted. To their horror, they discovered that the majority are both against self-ID, and also able to give strong and coherent arguments as to why it would be deeply problematic.

They can’t publish them AND push on regardless, so they’ve chosen to backtrack.

I hope the press take this up and hold them to account.

What the actual fuck?

Wow, that is appalling. Hopefully the press will push for answers. Have they published any simple facts like how many responses they had?

As far as I know they haven't published anything yet, and it is well overdue I think.

I believe they have been reported to the ICO re the FOI requests.

Laughable really, the first GRA consultation didn't go the way they wanted so they did a second one which they are.now refusing to publish

So what’s being hidden then

Public consultation

Then the public should see the results on what they were consulted about

Is that not how it works ?

I think the Scottish Electorate will be interested to find out there have in fact two Public Consultations on this yet most of the public didn't know anything about it.

And the Scottish Government STILL didn't get the answers it wanted. And now it want to hide the results.

SHOW AND TELL, NICOLA

It's Not Suspicious At All is it?

They've probably got the opposite of what they wanted and now are stuck between pushing on regardless or admitting the scale of the disagreement. Are they going to anger the woke or everybody else?

Shocker

Well gosh what a surprise.
Give it time - Nicola will announce that she can’t remember/wasn’t there/isn’t responsible/it’s all Westminster’s fault.
And then push ahead with the destruction of our rights regardless.

Wow, what a surprise. Solidarity to all our Scottish sisters.

Maybe worth mentioning here that the Scottish Government open consultation on misogyny is still open and closes on 23/07 I believe.

I hope this bastard government are held to account. Obviously the results aren’t what they predicted. They don’t give two shits about what the general public think about any of this stuff. They want to push on ahead regardless. They want to get in there first with self-ID so they can stick the fingers up at England and say "look how progressive we are."

The only reason they would be refusing to publish is because the results haven't gone the way they want them to.
It's so obvious.

Wow... Just astonishing

@pollypocketlover

Wow, what a surprise. Solidarity to all our Scottish sisters.

Maybe worth mentioning here that the Scottish Government open consultation on misogyny is still open and closes on 23/07 I believe.

Well if this isn't misogyny, I don't know what is - refusing to acknowledge or take account of women's voices because they - the Scottish government- know best.

It's so long ago that I can't remember - can anyone remember why they said they needed a second consultation?

This is all absolutely in line with what citizens expect about transparency and accountability in a democracy.

It will be the intern's fault. Or somebody will have left and all of the relevant data were destroyed.

When did Scotland decide not to represent the needs of half its population and why? Authoritarian zealots captured by a vocal minority.

Not sure. They did one on the Board Representation, which is what For Women Scot are challenging/appealing. They ignored the responses in that too.

Direct questions asked to MSPs and no response. And we need to remember that Scotgov will not even meet with groups that are not 'inclusive', which means TWAW.

The Scottish Government really show utter contempt for women, don't they?

See this thread...

mobile.twitter.com/hightreebud/status/1413772495623184385

And we need to remember that Scotgov will not even meet with groups that are not 'inclusive', which means TWAW

It would be tiresome and completely wrong - I'm curious as to whether they'd meet a group that was accompanied by the Scots equivalents of Debbie Hayton, Kristina Harrison etc.? I have Sinead Watson in mind but, given some of the SG shenanigans, I wonder if detransitioners would also be the 'wrong sort of woman' in SG's eyes?

Why are they permitted to ignore the results of a public consultation?

Oh ha ha - your naively is touching. Do you live in Scotland?

Naivety

@HeddaAga

When did Scotland decide not to represent the needs of half its population and why? Authoritarian zealots captured by a vocal minority.

When it decided its Stonewall rating was more important. When the so-called impartial civil service announced it needed to 'do better' in complying with a special interests political lobby groups wishes.

Fucking hell. That tweet led me to this one

twitter.com/ForwomenScot/status/1413769127190224896?s=19

Which links to an FOI about the representation on public boards consultation

As you know, the Scottish Government worked with the Parliament’s Equality & Human Rights Committee member Mary Fee MSP and the Scottish Trans Alliance to develop a stage 2 amendment which ensured that as far possible, the legislation would be trans inclusive and was within the competence of the Parliament.

The amendment, for the purposes of the Act and regulations, defines “woman” to include a person with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment (within the meaning of section 7 of the Equality Act 2010), if, and only if, the person is living as a woman and is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of becoming female.

^The vast majority of consultation respondents were individuals and highlighted their concerns regarding the definition of ‘woman’ and the use of the term ‘gender’ in the Act and the draft regulations. This concern was repeated in most
sections of the consultation despite the fact that it was not relevant to the questions being asked as the definition is part of the Act and not in the regulations.^
...
To accede to the approach suggested by these respondents would directly contradict Scottish Government policy to ensure inclusion and equality for trans people.
...