Requesting any updates/info on Scottish challenge to UK section 35 order.

[lechiffre55]

Apologies for making this into a thread of it's own.
Given Sturgeon quitting and the Sandyford closing down.

Does anyone know if the Scottish government has actually formally legally put in the challenge to the section 35 order from the UK government? Submitted the challenge to the courts.
I'm wondering if after all the fuss what if the Scottish government quietly, so no one notices, doesn't bother putting the legal challange in. Especially with Sturgeon now having self immolated and the Sandyford closing.
It would seem to me like it would be a pointless exercise now. The Scottish first minister has self immolated. Sandyford closing. Support for independence down. Legal pundits saying it stood no chance. The whole gender thing was already falling apart.
Had the challenge already been formally submitted to the relevant court?
Will it all just be forgotten and swept under the carpet?

It appears that they haven't yet lodged their case for a judicial review. As for the Sandyford unfortunately it's not closing down its just temporarily closing its list to new patients due to staff shortages.
Whilst I very much hope that a new FM will quietly kick it into the long grass the way the SNP did with the rights of the child bill (struck down by a judicial review after UK government section 33 it). I would also hope that the list closing could force a review of Sandyford and the way it "treats" patients however that is unlikely as people will be baying for blood when the true about Sandyford comes out as they have sent under 18s for double mastectomies in England (was 17 so all OK 😒🤯😡) we know this from a foi before the pandemic. What happens will really depend on who takes over.

Yes, Sandyford is not closing. Sandyford has struggled to recruit enough staff for years, and all that has happened is that the waiting list is closed to new referrals. Given that it was sitting at nearly 4 years long, this makes sense and I would be willing to guarantee that as soon as they are able to recruit new staff, the list will reopen. In the meantime, they are busy shunting all the 17 year olds on the list to the adult clinics with “time served”.

Here is a link to the work commissioned by ScotGov to develop standards for both the adult and child clinics. It makes it very clear that there will be no change in direction and the aim is to get more children and adolescents onto the medical pathway more quickly:

forwomen.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/SPATH-Sub-group-update-and-recommendations-v0.1.pdf

It was far from Sturgeon driving this and there is no suggestion at the moment that this direction will change.

I read they have until 16 March, 3 months from when section 35 was applied. There won't be a new leader in place in time to make that decision, but Sturgeon is still leader until someone new steps in, so it's probably safe to assume there will be a legal challenge.

Thanks for the replies all.
On the Sandyford, given how it's going in the UK I think it's only a matter of time before care for trans indentifying youth improves to include proper assessment of best treatment instead of one size fits all.
I'm more interested if the section 35 challenge goes ahead. It seems like a bit of a lose lose to me. Any incoming SNP leader won't I think be keen to explore deeper into the dense anti-politician minefield of gender woowoo. I expect a desire to retrace a safe path out of the minefield and eff off to anywhere else but the minefield. But not putting the challenge in could be seen as a climbdown, on top of the already monumental climbdown of Sturgeon throwing in the towel. Perhaps put the legal challenge in, and literally not care how it goes. A loss is expected, but maybe if a loss pops out the other end, just read out some bland statement and let it rest there. No escallating appeal process as was expected.
But even that would leave an issue for the SNP. It would establish a precedent of use of section 35 against the SNP where the SNP were clearly batshit crazy in the first place. A lot of the rhetoric around the current section 35 challenge was of the ilk "unprecedented interference in Scottish democracy". This line couldn't be used a second time if the retort is "Apart from last time you fucked things right up and everyone including Scottish people agreed with the section 35".
I feel Sturgeon has created a Gordonian Knot that's going to stumpy her sucessor for some time to come.

Can anyone explain how the leadership selection process works in Scotland?

@Ereshkigalangcleg

In the SNP a leadership contest requires each potential candidate to have 100 nominations from 20 different local party members groups. If 1 or more candidates get the required nominations then it goes to a members vote

Thank you!