SNP accused of ‘dereliction of duty’ over women-only spaces at rape crisis centre

[IwantToRetire]

The FoI response disclosed that Kaukab Stewart, the SNP’s equalities minister, held meetings with Glasgow’s rape crisis centre on Aug 13 last year and Grampian’s on Oct 16.

Ms Constance held meetings with Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre Dundee and Angus on Jan 10 and Rape Crisis Scotland, the umbrella body for the network of independent local centres, on Oct 30.
In addition, Scottish Government officials held talks with both Rape Crisis Scotland and ERCC about the issue of women-only spaces last August. However, ministers were not present.

Civil servants also held discussions with the Glasgow centre over its decision to break away from Rape Crisis Scotland, saying its aim was to provide a single-sex service by an “<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/d1Zjm/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/01/the-tide-is-turning-against-trans-activists/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">all-female workforce” and this was “at odds” with the charity’s priorities.

In response to her FoI request asking which rape crisis centres provided women-only spaces, the Scottish Government replied that it “does not have the information you have asked for as it is not a requirement of any of its funding schemes that services should be either single or unisex”.

The reply added: “Rape crisis centres are independent and the governance and day-to-day operation of services sits with their boards.

“Questions about whether services are single sex or unisex can be addressed by the boards of the individual organisations.”

Extracts only from article in Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/01/20/snp-ministers-dereliction-of-duty-women-only-spaces-at-rape/ - full article also at https://archive.is/d1Zjm

Scottish Daily Express has their own version of this https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/snp-ministers-unaware-rape-crisis-34532062

(Not sure which of the many threads this story should have been posted on ... so yet another thread about SNP and women's rights)

Tick tock Sandy... Not resigned yet eh?

Also, yes as expected, the SNP are a bunch of (insert rude words here).

In all seriousness though, Scottish politicians are an absolute disgrace as are all the third sectors who answer to them. Women have been let down badly. It's awful.

I think the Scottish Daily Express hasn't quite got to grips with the story.

There is no law that says Rape Crisis Centres should only employ biological women.

But there is a law that says if you say you are offering a services that is only by and for biological females then that means nobody who says they identify as a women, with or without a GRC can be employed.

But glad someone is keeping up the pressure on the SNP.