Scottish Government to take on FWS in new trans court fight

[IwantToRetire]

The Scottish Government has confirmed it will challenge For Women Scotland’s legal bid to remove guidance that allows male-born prisoners to be housed with women and permits transgender pupils to use single-sex facilities and sports in line with their gender identity.

The group’s summons, served on Scottish Ministers, the Lord Advocate and the Advocate General, was formally called by the Court of Session on September 10 after ministers failed to withdraw the policies within the 21-day deadline. Government lawyers have now confirmed they will appear in court to defend the guidance

Full article here https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/25465315.scottish-government-take-fws-new-trans-court-fight/

And here https://archive.is/X1wxO

Cant work out if this is the same story or a related one
Fury at ‘Nicola Sturgeon crony’ lined up to review gender self-ID
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5409575-fury-at-nicola-sturgeon-crony-lined-up-to-review-gender-self-id

FFS what is wrong with them. Yet more of our money down the gender-neutral toilet.

I love and admire FWS and I’m pretty sure they’ll get the victory they deserve. But dear God, I wish they didn’t have to fight for women’s rights and safety every inch of the way.

The Scottish government reminds me of a male praying mantis, whose head has been bitten off by the female as soon he deposits his sperm, but whose headless body keeps on thrusting mechanically. Give it up, mate. You’re done for!

But to be fair to the mantis, he did at least achieve his perfectly reasonable aim. The Scottish government’s repeated stupidities are more like a praying mantis masturbating.

The Scottish government couldn’t hate women any more, I’m absolutely disgusted with them!

So thankful for the amazing Four Women Scotland and Sex Matters for tirelessly standing up for our sex based rights.

Well i wonder which Barrister they will be instructing, and what possible argument they could be putting forward 👀

It is 'trans', not trans: Please could Mumsnet (especially the feminist pages) use inverted commas for 'trans'? Nobody can 'transition' male to female, female to male, human to cat.

Sheesh. It's just the last throw of the dice, after the casino has been demolished and used for rubble to build a motorway. Do they really think they have a snowflake's chance in Hell?

I don't think so for one minute, it's performative grandstanding for the Blue Haired Mafia, so that they can pretend that they fought the Alamo on behalf of the trans.

I would love to know which minister or civil servant actually said let's go to court. It's about time the faceless hidden ones stand up.

Fucks sake.

Fucking prisons and sports. The easiest places to see the fucking problem.

Perhaps this is the aim? Can any charity really go up against an actual government indefinitely? They’d have more money to throw against this.

Surely the issue is not with FWS but with the Supreme Court - certainly when it comes to single sex spaces in schools?

This is a good point. At some point there have to be political repercussions. It's very hard to force government to enforce a law it doesn't want to through the judiciary.

That is not true at all, for a devolved government. Sure the UK parliament could if they so chose negate the Supreme Court FWS ruling, by legislation, but the Scottish Government has no such power.

Will they witter on incessantly while objecting to FWS barrister at every juncture before finally trying to change their argument to "It's not what FWS said it's the way that they said it"?

Well I'm happy to get the gardening tools out.

hmmmm I think you might have misunderstood me or perhaps I was inadvertently unclear. There are countless ways that a government can bureaucratically drag its feet and fail to enforce the spirit of a law if it doesn't want to. The court can impose fines and demand specific actions, but the resulting process can be very drawn out and unsatisfactory. Ultimately, it's the ballot box that forces a change in behavior.

What an excellent use of tax payers' money.
Not.

Adding..., to some extent I think the rise of this intransigence, is a new phenomena - that a ruling bureaucratic class feels its their right (and even duty) to flout and circumvent laws it finds objectionable.

I suspect this comes from the political left/liberal mindset that they can flout the law because - in their minds - it's For The Greater Good

I was wondering if they spent so much time with arguing with each other that they forgot to turn up at court.

And now rather than admit it was a mistake, are making out they were going to contest it all along.

https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-22-04-2025?meeting=16371&iob=139826

https://www.thenational.scot/news/25107188.scottish-government-delivers-statement-supreme-court-sex-ruling/

@GallantKumquat I see what you are saying here, but the Scottish Government has no control over persons litigating against various governmental bodies and NGO’s.

hence the change in policy re education in Edinburgh who have decided to comply, and the actual parliamentary services.

The Scottish Prison service themselves could also be sued (i really wish this would happen), and they would not be able to defend on the basis of unlawful guidance from the Scottish Government.

Issuing proceedings against the Scottish government is more effective than suing each and every none compliant body.

'inTRANSigence'....I think you've come up with an excellent word for the fingers-in-ears-la-la-la reaction to the SC ruling, GallantKumquat

This will be interesting to see on what grounds they plan to defend this.

Don't want to obey the law?
Don’t want to follow the EHRC guidance?
There isn’t really any other reason they can give, the law is quite clear

I have a law degree and constitutional law was one of my favourite subjects as we have no written constitution in the UK, so is very common law case by case analysis.

I think that the Scottish and Welsh Government overestimates the powers provided by devolution.

This was best demonstrated by the spectacle of Sturgeon (after the Brexit vote) jumping on a plane to Brussels, to negotiate a separate deal with the EU.

To be told upon arrival , that Scotland does qualify as a Country or a nation state and could therefore not be accepted as a member of the EU by itself.

what beggars belief about this was she either did not accept or did not take legal advice on the matter.

The devolved governments are more similar to a province such as Canada, or a State as in the USA, but that does not really work well because England is not classed as a province and has no devolved powers. I prefer a super regional local government authority model.

Granted i am ignoring the evolvement of Scottish law which is different to UK law in some respects and was i believe protected in the Act of Union.

In reality the Uk parliament could at any time revoke all powers devolved to our nations, which i would not support.

i guess my point is that the Scottish Government has gotten to big for their boots.

The Scottish Government are burning yet more Scottish taxpayers money, at a time where public services are at breaking point, to fight to house violent male offenders with vulnerable female prisoners.

It's almost like they're trying to peak the nation, so ridiculous is it.