Scottish Elections - party manifestos on sex, gender, etc.

[MissGendering]

Greens.

https://greens.scot/Manifesto/

https://greens.scot/Manifesto/WomensAndReproductiveHealth

Protecting women’s rights and bodily autonomy

Too often women’s health issues are either dismissed or downplayed.
We want to create an environment where women are believed when they say something is wrong.
Access to specialist treatments for women and those assigned female at birth is too often patchy, with long waiting times for gynaecology, inconsistent outcomes for cervical cancer, and increased risks for cardiovascular disease in women going missed. We need to invest in specialist services and programmes, so all women can access treatment when they need it.
High quality, accessible health care during and after pregnancy is central to achieving good outcomes for mothers and babies, and it starts with investing in the workforce. We want to see more people training as midwives, guarantee them safe working conditions, and ensure there are enough community midwives and health visitors to help new families in their homes in the first weeks and months of a child’s life.
No one should be penalised in their workplace for experiencing menopause symptoms. Yet this is still a daily occurrence for many women. We think that menopause should be added as a protected characteristic to the Equality Act 2010. Without the power to do this, however, we will work hard to improve menopause education and require all public sector employers to treat people experiencing menopause fairly.

The Scottish Greens believe access to abortion is a fundamental right. Abortion care is healthcare and should be treated like any other health procedure. That is why we want to end the antiquated “two doctor rule” and ensure that people do not have to give a reason for why they are seeking abortion care. Nobody should have to justify why they are seeking abortion care, and we believe this will help to remove the stigma around abortion.

• Bring down gynecological waiting lists by investing in services and producing a fully costed workforce plan for gynecology.
• Eliminate cervical cancer by 2040 by promoting uptake of the HPV vaccine and cervical screening, particularly in deprived areas and prisons.
• Fund research into women’s health inequalities, including inequalities in maternal health outcomes for minority ethnic pregnant people.
• Expand the midwife workforce by creating ‘earn-as-you-learn’ routes into midwifery and introduce minimum safe staffing levels on all maternity and labour wards.
• Support Community Midwife Services, including guaranteeing minimum 30 minute appointments with new and expectant parents.
• Invest in the Health Visitor programme, ensuring there is sufficient workforce so that all parents receive their regular check-ups on time.
• Commit to reviewing the safety of maternity services in Scotland, including an urgent review of safe staffing levels and practices on maternity wards.
• Introduce mandatory menopause education for public sector employers, and require that menopause symptoms qualify for leave from work.
• Ensure menopause treatment and support is well-funded and access to medicines such as HRT is secured.
• Develop enhanced support pathways for women with cardiovascular risk factors such as PCOS and pre-eclampsia, including through third-sector support.
• Decriminalise abortion and remove the ‘two doctor rule’ by bringing forward legislation that ensures there are no offences for anyone ending their own pregnancy.
• Expand abortion services in Scotland so patients are not required to travel to England, and retain the 12-week limit on telemedical abortion care, reducing the need for women to have to travel long distances in Scotland.

https://greens.scot/Manifesto/LGBT

A proud and inclusive Scotland for all

From equal marriage to making the school curriculum more inclusive.
The Scottish Greens have led the way in advancing the rights and treatment of LGBT+ people during the devolution era.
But despite significant improvements, the community are still more likely to experience poor mental health and delays in access to essential healthcare, and ongoing discrimination in day to day life.
Trans people are amongst the most discriminated against people in our society. With the hate campaign against them a major cause, there has been a shocking rise in hate crimes against trans people, whilst some are effectively denied access to healthcare with waiting lists of over 200 years for essential gender-affirming care.
In the next Parliament the Scottish Greens will continue to be the champions of LGBT+ people as we always have, delivering the much-delayed ban on so-called conversion therapy, ensuring access to gender-affirming healthcare, and taking action on transphobic, homophobic and biphobic hate crime and bullying.

• Introduce a comprehensive ban on conversion therapy covering all settings, such as religious, informal, community, family-based and therapeutic, with clear protections for affirming healthcare, and inclusive of trans, non-binary, and asexual identities. This ban will be backed by appropriate criminal and civil penalties, and a statutory right of survivors to support and advocacy.
• Ensure and expand inclusive education and anti-bullying programmes in Scotland’s schools and youth programmes; provide targeted support to promote LGBTQ+ young people staying in education and roll out a national programme to address transphobic, homophobic and biphobic hate crime across society.
• Introduce statutory homelessness strategies for all groups facing particular barriers to housing, including LGBT+ people.
• Address inequalities in LGBT+ healthcare, such as improving access to specialist mental healthcare; care for intersex people, and speeding-up the rollout of injectable anti-HIV medication.
• Publish a gender-affirming care action plan within 6 months, to turbo-charge efforts to bring down shocking waiting times. Action we will consider includes funding more training places; providing funding to health boards that do not currently provide gender identity healthcare to start doing so urgently; supporting people to seek NHS-funded care in other countries, and bringing it into line with the 18 week guarantee that applies to many other areas of healthcare, including youth pathways aligned with international standards.
• Work with NHS boards – including Public Health Scotland – and social care providers to address LGBTQ+ health and care inequalities. This will include providing training for frontline health and social care staff to understand the needs of LGBTQ+ people, and increasing the collection of data relating to sexual orientation, gender identity and health outcomes to inform better evidence-based policies.
• Recognise the rights of LGBT+ families to access IVF and IUI on the NHS, and develop national guidance and a standard treatment pathway specifically for LGBT+ families accessing assisted conception.
• Revisit all NHS policy changes made as a result of the Cass Review to ensure they are aligned with international evidence-based best practice. Where there are evidence gaps about treatment options, introduce robust, accessible research trials to ensure that these are filled. We will involve trans children and young people directly in decisions about their healthcare in age-appropriate ways in-line with their evolving capacity, and immediately ensure young trans people have access to mental health and other support.
• Ensure trans people have the same access to Hormone Replacement Therapy as cisgender people.
• Continue to call on the UK Government to remove its block on much-needed Gender Recognition legislation and update it with international best practice.

My question would be what did they do about this when in government in Scotland?

Labour

https://scottishlabour.org.uk/manifesto-2026/

Stronger communities

Challenging discrimination and inequality

Scottish Labour believes in the right of everyone to live healthy, happy lives in Scotland, free from discrimination. Scottish Labour is determined break down the barrier that prevent people from fully participating and contributing to public life and society. We will:

•Work to deliver a conversion practices ban on a four nation basis to prevent the creation of any possible loopholes across the UK and protect LGBT+ people from harmful conversion practices.

Standing up for Human Rights

A Scottish Labour government will also ensure that people’s rights are protected and upheld. We will take a new approach; instead of legislating without resources, we will focus government on delivery of public services that fulfil people’s rights by:
...
• Delivering single-sex spaces on the basis of biological sex, in NHS wards, schools, sport and everyday life by upholding the Equality Act and delivering clear instructions to public services on how to comply with their legal obligations to women and to trans people.

Scottish Labour will:
Fix the mess by:

• Returning police officers back to the front line and giving every neighbourhood a named community and crime prevention officer.
• Scrapping the sentencing guidelines for under-25s, so sentences are fair and no one escapes justice because of their age.

Get the basics right by:

• Making the police accountable to local people, setting out new Strategic Policing Priorities within the first 100 days.
• Preventing bail for those with histories of violence to women, to protect victims of domestic abuse.
• Criminalising the exploitation of children, holding to account those who seek to take advantage of young people.

Deliver a better future by:

• Creating a specialist victims’ support team, who can coordinate between justice agencies and act as a single point of contact for victims.

Stronger punishment
.... Scottish Labour will keep communities safe and ensure criminals face consequences for breaking the law by:
...• Keeping women’s prisons for women, instructing the Scottish Prison Service to remove all biologically male prisoners from women’s prisons within days of the election.

Tackling violence against women and girls

Domestic abuse is still prolific in our society, with men overwhelmingly the perpetrators. Misogynistic attitudes and violence are also on the rise, often fuelled by online discourse that is targeted at young men. Scottish Labour is determined to protect women and girls in Scotland by:
• Establishing a Misogyny Reduction Unit, based within Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit and treating violence against women and girls as an issue of public health with research and evidence-based interventions
• Closing legal loopholes around sexual deepfakes, ensuring the law criminalises the non-consensual creation of images, as well as the sharing of them.
• Preventing bail for those with histories of violence to women, tightening bail laws so those with a history of domestic abuse and violence cannot be bailed to their current or previous partner’s address
• Boosting uptake of the Equally Safe Programme in schools, with a graded participation award so that young people and parents can see the work that schools are doing to counter the impact of online misogyny and abusive behaviour.
• Continue funding for Rape Crisis and Women’s Aid, ensuring resources are delivered to local services which support victims around the country.

to be fair, Gillian thingummy brought in the legislation to stop people picketing abortion clinics.

Will do the rest shortly.

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.
...
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.
...
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.
..
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.
..
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.
...
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
...
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.

SNP

can't see a manifesto as yet, just 'policies'. Maybe they will bring one out soon?

https://www.snp.org/policies/

https://www.snp.org/policies/what-has-the-snp-done-on-equality-human-rights/

Human Rights

The SNP believes that there is no place in Scotland for prejudice or discrimination, and that everyone deserves to be treated fairly, regardless of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.
The SNP has a proud record of fighting for gender equality while in government. From action on equal pay, support for women returning to the workplace, the first gender-balanced Cabinet in the UK and taking action to end period poverty we’ve worked hard to tear down barriers.
This comes alongside significant action on advancing LGBTI rights, including delivering the most progressive and extensive equal marriage legislation, a pardon for historical ‘homosexual offences’, and equal civil partnerships.
We opened up adoption and IVF for same-sex couples, reformed blood donation rules, established a Working Group on Non-Binary Equality and made Scotland the first country in the UK to approve the provision of PrEP by the NHS.
We passed the Hate Crime Act, making it an offence to stir up hatred against people on the grounds of sexual orientation, transgender identity and variations in sex characteristics.
We seek the full transfer of equality, employment and immigration powers from Westminster control so that the Scottish Parliament has the powers to protect LGBTI equality and make Scotland a fairer and more equal place to live.

https://www.snp.org/policies/what-is-the-snp-doing-to-improve-maternity-services/

Improving maternity safety is a paramount, and the SNP is clear that expectant mothers that maternity services in Scotland are very safe for both mother and baby.
In addition, Scotland’s world leading Patient Safety Perinatal Improvement Programme works with maternity services across Scotland to drive improvements in care for mothers and babies.
Expectant mothers can be reassured maternity services in Scotland are largely safe and of a high quality.
The vast majority of women in Scotland receive safe, high quality, compassionate care, but, where concerns are identified, the Scottish Government expect Boards to act immediately to put things right.
The SNP is increasing midwife numbers, providing record funding to NHS Boards, and establishing a new Maternity and Neonatal Oversight Group to strengthen services.
And the SNP in government has also commissioned Healthcare Improvement to develop Maternity Standards to drive improvement in care, which will be published in early 2026.
In Scotland, we’ve chosen to act now – not wait for a lengthy review process.
With the SNP in government, Scotland is already taking practical, evidence-based action to strengthen maternity care.
This ensures that lessons are learned quickly, and improvements are made without delay.
Independent, unannounced inspections by Healthcare Improvement Scotland are identifying issues on the ground and driving real improvements immediately.

How is the SNP improving women’s health?
Women’s health is key priority for the SNP which is why Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish an ambitious Women’s Health Plan in August 2021.
The Plan sets out actions which aim to address women’s health inequalities by raising awareness around women’s health, improving access to health care for women across their lives, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes for girls and women.
Running over a three-year period from 2021 – 2024, the Plan’s sixty-six actions focus on six priority areas which are:
Menopause
Menstrual health
Endometriosis
Abortion and contraception
Post-natal contraception
Heart health
These have been important first steps and whilst there is still much to do, we shouldn’t underestimate what’s been achieved so far during an already challenging time for NHS Scotland.
The Women’s Health Plan has brought positive change for Scotland.
We now have:
A Women’s Health Leads Network
A specialist menopause service in every mainland health board and a ‘buddy’ support system in place for the Island health boards
A new women’s health platform on NHS Inform
A menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland
A Women’s Health Champion
Scotland has a long tradition of being courageous in its approach to women’s health and the ambitious Women’s Health Plan has been no exception.
The Women’s Health Plan improves access to abortion services – with all women to be able to access timely abortion care without judgment.
Since then:
NHS Boards have confirmed that telephone consultations are now routinely offered
Clinicians have advised that a progestogen-only pill is now offered where this is suitable for the patient
The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act 2024 was passed in Parliament on 12th June 2024 and has been in force since 24th September 2024
In October 2023, NHS Scotland launched a national Menopause and Menstrual Health Workplace Policy.
The new policy aims to create an environment where women feel confident in raising health issues so solutions can be put in place.
This echoes the SNP’s view that it is important to foster a culture of awareness and compassionate management in the workplace, so women feel confident and comfortable in raising issues around their menopause or menstrual health.

What is the SNP doing to tackle violence against women & girls?

The SNP is committed to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) through prevention, education, strengthening justice responses, and increasing support for services.
Our core policy framework is the Equally Safe strategy, developed as the Scottish Government with COSLA and partner organisations.
Key actions the SNP government has taken include:

1. Implementing the Equally Safe Strategy

Scotland’s strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls focuses on preventing violence before it occurs; building the capacity of support services; and strengthening responses by the justice system for victims and perpetrators.

1. Funding Support Services

The SNP has invested £21.6 million in the Delivering Equally Safe Fund which supports 115 projects run by 107 organisations across all Scottish local authorities. This has supported more than 67,000 adults, children and young people since its launch.

1. Education & Prevention Work

The SNP government emphasises the importance of early messaging in schools to shift societal attitudes. Key programs include Equally Safe at School (ESAS) which has recieved funding of £1.89 million over four years to be delivered by Rape Crisis Scotland which has helped implement the National Sexual Violence Prevention Programme. Of at least 133 schools participating, they have used a whole‑school approach to challenge gender-based violence and inequality to reach 135,000+ young people over the past 10 years.

Lib dems

https://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/2026-manifesto

Coming soon ...

Reform Scotland

Again, a fucking pdf.

There is virtually nothing in here mentioning women and/or girls. This is all I could find that might be relevant to this board:

https://reformuk.scot/

We will abolish the SNP’s intrusive, ideologically-motivated Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, restoring freedom of speech and allowing police to focus on real crime.
We will abolish the Scottish Sentencing Council, restoring direct democratic
oversight of sentencing by ministers.

...

We will ensure the independence of the grooming gangs inquiry in Scotland.

Independence for Scotland Party.

https://www.isp.scot/manifesto/

'It is imperative that action is taken in order to achieve a vision of ensuring every Scottish citizen can access their human rights. ISP supports the entry into the Council of Europe and the adoption of the European Convention of Human Rights in full following independence. ISP supports more action to be taken on misogyny and crimes such as rape, sexual assault, and harassment towards women, which does not place additional burdens on the victim. We do not, however, support jury less trials for rape and serious crime in general. ISP encourages mandatory training for employers on harassment in the workplace and the addition of consent in the secondary school Personal and Social Education curriculum. ISP supports the Equality Act (2010).'

GRA

ISP propose to provide clarifying guidance to the GRA as applying only to those who have a clinical diagnosis of transsexualism and not to transgender identity or any variation. This is to avoid violating the Equality Act 2010, without changing or
Independ ence for Scotland Party 22 Manifesto, 2026
expanding on the original purpose. The GRC is no longer necessary as same sex marriage is legal. Very few individuals who change birth markers on identity documents bother to go to the trouble of a GRC, which changes sex markers on your birth certificate. Sex markers can be changed with a GP letter, which is rarely verified. This applies to driving licences, passports, tax IDs and NHS numbers.
This is an unnecessary legal fiction which should be ended, and anyone with a GRC who wishes to reverse it, should be able to do so.

Health


Country-wide roll-out of at-home HPV smear tests.

Justice

ISP believe that sexual offences by adults against people under 25 should have a more severe punishment. This is in line with current guidance from the Scottish sentencing Council and the law society that treat under 25s as less mature and more vulnerable and suggestible in situations. This should apply in cases of grooming, where the adult holds a position of trust/ authority ie teacher or lecturer or adult within their circle of support and there should be a distinction between assent and consent for an under 25 as they are not fully mature.

As stated in an earlier section, ISP opposes jury -less trials for rape and for serious crime in general.

Thank you for this @MissGendering

Find candidates in your area

https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/

Some dates:

Deadline to apply to register to vote
Monday 20 April 2026

Deadline to apply to vote by post, postal proxy applications, and for changes to existing postal or proxy votes
5pm on Tuesday 21 April 2026

Deadline for new proxy vote applications
5pm on Tuesday 28 April 2026

Polling day
7am to 10pm on Thursday 7 May 2026

Deadline for emergency proxy applications
5pm on Thursday 7 May 2026

Deadline to apply for a replacement for spoilt or lost postal votes
5pm on Thursday 7 May 2026

Voters in Scotland will not need to show photo ID

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id

forms for proxy and postal votes are downloadable here:

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections

Must be printed, filled in, signed, and sent in by next week:

The deadline to apply for a postal vote in the Scottish Parliament election taking place on 7 May is 5pm on Tuesday 21 April.
You need to complete an application form and send it to your local electoral registration office:

• download your postal vote application form
• find your local electoral registration office details

You can also ask your electoral registration officer to send you an application form in the post. You can't register online for a postal vote for the Scottish Parliament election. You must be registered to vote to apply for a postal vote.

Okay, back to party manifestos.

Scottish Family Party (Content warning, lots of lurid and offensive stuff about abortion. It's good to know what a party stands for).

https://scottishfamily.org/our-policies/

'Valuing Life

ABORTION AND ASSISTED SUICIDE

Life is precious. All human life is precious, and the measure of a civilised society is how we treat the most vulnerable.
We value every human life in the womb and affirm his or her right to life. Currently in Scotland, more than one in four pregnancies end in abortion. Abortion as a means of birth control is morally unjustifiable.
Ultimately, we would like to see the law protect every human life by banning abortion in all cases except where the mother’s life is endangered.
Even in cases such as rape and incest, the new life is valuable. A child conceived in rape is of equal value to any other child, both before and after they are born. While rape is obviously a heinous crime and a traumatic ordeal for the victim, the evidence does not suggest that abortion alleviates the pain. Where the mother’s life is endangered by continuing a pregnancy, abortion can be justified as a difficult decision in tragic circumstances. However, while pro-abortion campaigners like to focus on these rare cases, our immediate focus is on the 98% of abortions for the more usual “social” reasons.
If parliamentary support could not be mustered for the abolition of abortion, intermediate steps could include reducing the current 24-week limit for abortions and preventing abortion on grounds of disability after 24 weeks. Almost all European countries already have much tighter restrictions. Also, those considering an abortion could be offered independent counselling that addresses concerns about motherhood, exploring support and solutions.
Until abortion is abolished, we would ensure that young people in school are presented with the facts about abortion and the possible emotional consequences when the subject is discussed in schools. No organisation which provides abortions should be entitled to charitable status. We would seek to involve fathers in the decision-making process. Our emphasis on commitment and responsibility in sexual relationships would help reduce demand for abortions.
We would boost support for women facing unwanted or unexpected pregnancy, helping them to establish a strong network of support and encouraging alternatives such as fostering or adoption. Funding pregnancy support services would be one way to do this. A campaign against charities with a pro-life philosophy offering such services is already underway and can be expected to gather momentum. We will defend such charities as we want to see women supported, babies saved from abortion, and freedom upheld.
“Buffer Zones” or “Safe Access Zones” in the vicinity of abortion clinics to outlaw protest, prayer or offers of help, no matter how passive, are unjustified. Rather than protecting women from “harassment”, they are actually an ideological attack on freedom of expression. Those who seek to save the lives of babies being led towards abortion are criminalised.
Those who currently don’t have a strong view about abortion might still agree that this important topic should be discussed openly as a party-political issue. Currently, no party in the Scottish Parliament is willing stand up to the pro-abortion consensus.
The full decriminalisation of abortion is expected to pass in the Scottish Parliament within the next year or two. The Scottish Government’s advisory group has recommended that sex-selective abortion be permitted, that women face no sanction for ending their own pregnancy by whatever means at any stage, and that the requirements for a late-term abortion be relaxed.

We urge voters to recognise the ethical gravity of the issue. The fact is that a vote for the Conservatives, Greens, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP, Reform, Alba or any other party that is not explicitly pro-life amounts to an endorsement of the killing of unborn children. Even if an individual candidate is pro-life, a vote for a pro-abortion party is a vote for the killing of the unborn.
The ongoing slaying of unborn children on a massive scale is arguably the gravest evil in our nation. We give it the priority and weight it deserves.
Without abortion, births would exceed deaths in Scotland. The problem of impending rapid population decline could be alleviated by restricting abortion.
...
People should be free to seek private counselling as they fulfil their life vision, including therapy intended to resist sexual desires or the adoption of a changed gender identity. Moves to prevent such support are ideologically driven and an attack on individual freedom. So, we oppose any law to ban so-called conversion therapy. A person wishing to move away from or subdue homosexual attraction should be free to seek assistance from someone who agrees with their goal. Similarly, a person wishing to move away from any unconventional gender identity should be free to seek support that accords with their personal philosophy. Any person should be free to share their opinion and advice on matters of sexuality and gender with anyone else, unless in a context where any communication of personal values would be inappropriate. We do not want to see parents and religious leaders, for example, convicted for explaining their views and urging and helping people to live in accordance with them.

Unifying Society
IDENTITY POLITICS

Prosperous and harmonious nations share a strong sense of unity and common identity. States comprising factions competing against each other are often beset with problems.
The political arena should not be dominated by special interest groups battling to gain favourable treatment from the state, each bearing its own set of purported grievances, with parties competing to curry favour with them.
Such identity politics leads to resentment among those observing the special treatment of other groups, a passive mentality among those in allegedly victimised groups, and a never-ending spiral of competing claims from special interest groups. Once the grievance arms race has begun, it is in the interests of each special group to seek out ever more evidence of injustice against them. This ‘evidence’ is usually in the form of statistical differences that show a special group seeming to do less well on some indicator. The complex array of factors involved is then overlooked, and the distinction is blamed on prejudice and discrimination. Where statistics show the allegedly oppressed group doing better, they are ignored.
Identity politicians target sex, sexuality, gender, nationality, race, religion, income and age groups, always arguing that a group is getting a raw deal somehow.
In the same way that Marxists divide the population into economic oppressors and the oppressed, those fuelling identity politics seek to divide society into the oppressors and the oppressed on other grounds, breaking down allegiance to family and nation by diverting loyalty to identity groups instead, each feeling an aggrieved sense of victimhood and looking to government intervention to resolve these problems of “inequality.”

None of this is to say that genuine discrimination does not exist: it should be tackled as necessary, but not every statistical distinction shows an injustice.
We do not support Hate Crime legislation. Criminal activity should be punished according to its seriousness, not its motivation. All should be equally protected by the law. Anyone considering assaulting a person, for example, should fear the law equally, regardless of their motivation and intended victim. The proposed misogyny offense will create a crime of sexist behaviour towards a woman by a man, but equivalent behaviour by a woman towards a man would not be a crime. This is plainly unjust and reflects the use of legislation to placate favoured campaigners.
The 2010 Equality Act mandates “positive action,” stating that a candidate can be selected for a job because of their race, sex etc in order to meet statistical targets. This is unjust and discriminatory and should be repealed.

The Equality Act also makes harassment based on protected characteristics an offence. This is unnecessary. The law should apply equally to all. This provision actually makes some employers reluctant to employ applicants with certain “protected characteristics,” fearing that they will use their special protection to raise complaints and manipulate.

GENDER EQUALITY

Feminists in the past fought some grave injustices in the UK, as they do in many other countries today. However, much contemporary ‘gender equality’ campaigning in Scotland is misguided.
Men and women, on average, tend to have different priorities and interests. This diversity is positive and creative, not a problem to eliminate. We do not want to squeeze the sexes into uniformity, but to support men and women as they fulfil their own vision for their own lives.
Gender imbalances in many areas of study and lines of work are not a problem to solve, but a natural manifestation of men and women freely following their own inclinations and ambitions.
Compared to women, men tend to work longer hours, are more willing to sacrifice job security for career advancement, do more dangerous jobs, and take fewer career breaks. Women often want to devote themselves more to family life. The “gender pay gap” is by and large a reflection of the natural differences between men and women, and no government action is required to address it.

We do not support gender quotas in business, education or politics and would seek to repeal legislation that already discriminates in this way.
So-called “equal pay” claims, where women claim to have been underpaid for doing DIFFERENT work than men, are unjust. Councils should not have to spend their limited resources following these unjust claims. Similarly, businesses should be secure from such opportunistic attacks.
We would end taxpayer funding for campaigning groups such as Engender, Close the Gap and Equate.

PROSTITUTION

Prostitution harms prostitutes, clients and their families, leads to coercion to meet demand and trivialises sex, eroding the proper respect with which sexual intimacy should be regarded. The links between prostitution, organised crime, commercial sexual exploitation and the human trafficking industry are undeniable and must be properly tackled.
Buying sex should be criminalised. This deterrence would decrease the demand for sexual services and therefore reduce the number of people abused or damaged through prostitution. It would also protect potential clients from the harm to their own wellbeing and that of their family that can result from the use of prostitutes. Some prostitutes enter into this work through their own uncoerced choice and freely choose to continue in it, however, many others are forced into it through human trafficking, debt and drug addiction. This is a great social evil that needs to be addressed by legislation. It is illogical to make it illegal to buy something that is legal to sell, so selling sex should also be criminalised. While punishments might be appropriate in some cases, support to help people recover and move on from prostitution would be available.

PORNOGRAPHY

Pornography undermines the wellbeing of our society. We support strict schemes to prevent children from accessing online pornography. Fact-based education and public information campaigns are needed to highlight the dangers of addiction, detriment to existing relationships, undermining of future relationships, guilt, and progression to more extreme and perverted forms, including child porn.
State-owned Channel 4 should refrain from producing semi-pornographic content.
It beggars belief that the Scottish Government presents pornography as a valid, normal and natural option for children through sex education in schools. We would stop this evil.
Other political parties claim to want to address violence against women and girls but refuse to tackle a key driver: pornography. The association between pornography and sexual crime means that vigorous measures to eliminate illegal extreme and violent pornography are necessary. We would also explore measures to restrict and reduce the dissemination of all pornography.
Counselling and support groups for those struggling with pornography could help individuals progress positively and also protect marriages and other relationships.

TRANSGENDERISM

We oppose the Gender Recognition Reform Act. Officially changing sex/gender should not be possible merely at the request of an individual.
Even the current system of recognising gender change undermines the right of women to same-sex spaces, makes a mockery of women’s sport, and communicates a harmful understanding of sex and gender.
So, we propose that there should be no provision to change gender legally – we would repeal the 2004 Gender Recognition Act.
The only exception to this should be for intersex people, though we would allow those who have already changed gender to remain in their new legal gender.
Those experiencing gender identity issues should be offered psychological help to overcome the problem and align their feelings with their biological sex. Transgender “treatments”, pharmaceutical or surgical, should not be available from the NHS. Private clinics could provide such services to adults when the patient is fully aware of the likely long-term outcomes. Even private companies should not be allowed to perform any procedures on or prescribe any drugs relating to gender reassignment to under-21s.
The philosophy of gender fluidity is dangerous to young people, leading to confusion and unhelpful experimentation. Indoctrination into the fashionable philosophy of gender is not appropriate and will lead more children down a difficult road that could seriously undermine their well-being for the rest of their lives.
We would prevent schools from presenting the message that gender change is normal, natural and healthy – something to be celebrated. Staff and pupils should never be expected to display or state their pronouns. Schools should not facilitate gender changes for children, including not using new pronouns or names.
The current appalling practice of allowing children to change name and gender at school without parents being informed must stop.
Pupils experiencing gender dysphoria should be supported to seek alignment between their gender identity and their sex.'

More election info:

https://www.parliament.scot/msps/elections/election-2026

Scottish Socialist Party

https://scottishsocialistparty.org/policies/

[Not much specific to women/sex/gender. There is extensive material on 'care', which the party presents as a female-weighted issue, which seems logical: ]

'The SSP supports a National Care Service delivered through local authorities, with a national body responsible for ensuring adequate resources, monitoring standards, and sectoral collective bargaining.
Care workers have faced the Coronavirus crisis while dealing with the crisis of poverty pay and unsafe work.
209,690 workers – mostly women – are facing unacceptable and unsustainable pressure in unfair conditions. Audit Scotland has revealed that almost a quarter of care workers leave within three months over low pay, poor conditions, and overwork.
...
The SSP fully supports the implementation of free period products across Scotland.

...
SAFER COMMUNITIES

• The SSP’s plan for free public transport, and expanded transport service provision, will help ensure that everyone can get home safely at night.
• Urban planners and public bodies must design and improve public spaces with safe travel in mind, including proper street lighting and safer walking routes.

Recent events have brought new impetus to the conversation about how our culture perpetuates violence against women. This is an important conversation with significant implications – and there are steps that can be taken right now to reduce risk and make our communities safer for everyone.

• The Scottish Socialist Party calls for decriminalising sex work in Scotland.
• Recognise that those who buy sex are abusers, and increase resources to protect sex workers and provide access to vital care and support services
• There has been a significant escalation of domestic abuse rates during the pandemic, particularly during lockdown periods. We need a Scotland-wide strategy to reduce high rates of domestic abuse.
• LGBT+ young people are greatly overrepresented among the young homeless population, with discrimination being a significant factor in their being made homeless. 56% of homeless applicants for housing cite abuse, relationship breakdowns, or being ejected from their home as the reason for their application.'

UKIP

Are still a thing, who knew?

https://www.ukip.org/

'Sex & Gender

The Party does not recognise any notion of transgenderism. Nobody is born in the wrong body. The Gender Recognition Act will be repealed and single sex spaces will be protected in law, based on biology. Men entering female spaces without good cause will be considered a sex offender.
The Party will create a new offence of infringement on a protected single-sex environment, under which any biological male (over the age of 12) who is found to have deliberately entered a female changing room, toilet, or any other space which is designated as for females only, without good cause, can face a fine of £5,000 for the first offence, which doubles with every subsequent offence, and 5 years prison time after the third offence (under the policy of tougher sentences for sexual criminals detailed above). The Party will repeal the Gender Recognition Act. The NHS will not offer gender reassignment surgery or treatments of any kind. Individuals presenting with gender identity problems will be referred to a reputable therapist who rejects gender ideology. NHS facilities will be banned from displaying any flags or symbols associated with this ideology, including badges and lanyards worn by members of staff.
The Party will end any educational programmes directed to children under 18, which promote or encourage any sexual activity for whatever reason. The Party will outlaw the promotion of transgender ideologies in schools.'

Motherhood

The Party will ban “clawback clauses” in employment contracts. This is where employers demand that mothers return to work for a certain period after maternity leave, or return all maternity pay to the employer. This traps women in work who might rather be caring for their babies. In return smaller companies will be offered tax breaks if a mother declines to return to work after maternity leave.
The Party will look to provide financial support and tax breaks to pregnant married women, and women who are pregnant as a consequence of rape, to give them the option to take maternity leave for up to three years, per child. Employers would be given generous tax breaks to accommodate the mother’s return to work, should she want to, after the maternity leave.
The Party will review punishments for domestic violence and will prioritise housing support for mothers escaping violent partners.
The party does not support abortion however, we will enshrine in law that all mothers electing for an abortion must first have their child anaesthetised before the abortion. There is more than enough evidence to suggest that after being dismembered and ripped limb from limb babies are often still alive as the spine begins to form at two weeks gestation. As for the argument that babies do not feel pain, due to the enormity of scientific evidence which suggests otherwise, we aren't willing to take that risk. Abortion will only be allowed to happen after the mother has anaesthetised their child first.
It is currently legal to abort a child with a disability up until birth. The Party will criminalise abortion in this instance. The legal limit for abortion will be reduced from 24 weeks to 20 weeks unless there is a direct threat to the mother’s life.
IVF and surrogacy will only be available for married heterosexual couples. The Party will look to reform the adoption system in order to provide better outcomes for orphaned children. Priority for adoption or fostering will be given to married heterosexual couples.'

Scottish Common Party

Hadn't heard of them! Can't see any mention of women/girls, etc in their manifesto.

https://scottishcommonparty.org.uk/manifesto

Workers Party of GB

I think this is roughly their manifesto, a ten point plan:

https://www.workerspartygb.org

• Public, high quality laundries, crèches and dining facilities that enable women to take part in work and public life without prejudice or physical barriers.

'Presenting work as liberation and appealing to the very reasonable desire of women to have an equal and independent existence, liberal society and usiness have forced us into a very unequal situation where parents sometimes
work not only twice over but with multiple jobs just to keep children housed, fed and clothed.
While the Workers Party of Britain is absolutely committed to equal participation of men and women in the work place, it must not be under exploitative conditions or at the expense of children or family life. Child-rearing is not a side issue. It is one of immense social importance. It is a job in its own right.

Stable, happy children contribute to a stable, happy society with less social costs such as crime and poor productivity. Well heeled middle class children often do better at school not because they are ‘brighter’ (we reject that absolutely) but because working class children often never get the chance to ‘shine’ in households constantly struggling to make ends meet. This must change.
Our policy is one of social investment integrated with our cradle-to-the-grave welfare commitment. We will make it much easier for families to be able to afford
to have children in safe, supportive and secure conditions and to care for elderly relatives in their own households through our redistributive economics, our housing policies and through material incentives. We will extend the period in which at least one parent in a household can spend free time caring for
children under seven without material loss.'

UK Christian Party

https://ukchristianparty.org/

All I can see related to women is about abortion and pregnancy.

'The Christian Party will address the secular death-culture manifest in abortion and voluntary euthanasia. Government figures show that in 2023, abortions increased by 11 per cent on the previous year which took the total to an estimated 278,740. There has been 10 million abortions, 98% being carried out for social reasons, contrary to the assurances during the passage of the Abortion Act 1967. It is time to revisit this legislation, to criminalise social abortions and call them murder. The Christian Party resists the attempt to decriminalise all abortion throughout the UK. Labour backbencher Tonia Antoniazzi currently tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which would allow a woman to kill her unborn baby at any stage of pregnancy without sanction. The Christian Party will champion the rights of the unborn child. The Bible makes plain the generational consequences of shedding “innocent blood” 2 Kings 24:4. Successive UK Governments have blood on their hands. In line with the dogmatism of secularism, conscientious objection is being dropped from this topic. The employment choices for Christians are being limited, demonstrating the partial and unequal provisions of the Equality Act 2010. It also promotes a professional working environment skewed in favour of this death-culture by excluding those who disagree with it.

Respect acknowledges differences. There is beauty and strength in diversity and the Christian Party encourages the love of our neighbour as they are, with their differences. However, we acknowledge that no-one is the finished article and we need each other to develop our full potential. The probability of going wrong is very high, and whereas many people go wrong about abortion, so they can go wrong about gender, sexuality and many other matters. The Judaeo-Christian ethic has been so successful throughout history because it suits the human condition, and the Christian Gospel teaches the need for change for the better.

In this context, the attack on organisations that teach the need to repent or change one’s mind, whether it be religious opinions or ‘conversion therapy’ used by Core Issues Trust for those who express the desire to change from homosexual behaviour, demonstrates the aggressive nature of such attempts to shut down debate, remove services shut down organisations, charities and businesses.

Christianity has always taught the need to change for the better, but aggressive secularism manifests that it does not really respect their neighbour but only their own opinions, to which others must conform on pain of being shut down either by government, the law, social hysteria or mob rule.

The Christian Party will address the fragmentation of equalities that has produced an artificial pecking order and the skewing of rights that now threatens people’s employment, business decisions and standards, and even social cohesion through a failure to respect our neighbour.

We will reduce and amalgamate government departments which thrive on promoting differences in the name of equality. These departments exist because of the failure in society to respect one’s neighbour. The Christian Party’s educational policy will address this, not only in educational establishments but in public life.

We will utilise the collective knowledge and skills in the departments for Equalities, Disabilities, women’s and gender rights and amalgamate them into one department with a Minister for Social Cohesion who will oversee the balanced application of respect across the board, eliminating the competition and pecking order in budget allocation and, more importantly, in policy itself, which is distorting employment rights and threatening economic development.'

Communist Party

https://elections.communistparty.org.uk/manifesto-scotland-2026/

Defending and promoting opportunities for women and girls
The lives of girls and women in Scotland and their rights are under attack. We believe women’s rights and protections under the Equality Act 2010 including the right to single sex services should be fully upheld and enforced by the Scottish Government. The widening gap between rich and poor is worsening sex inequality. Women are experiencing rising poverty, and growing pressure as they shoulder the burden of cuts and underfunding, and an epidemic of male violence. Communists call for women’s ‘social wage’ to be rebuilt by investing in public services that support women and lifting wages and increasing women’s bargaining power .
A Communist MSP will fight for:

• Immediate implementation of the Supreme Court ruling on sex in the Equality Act.
• Investment in childcare and social care – a system of care services from cradle to grave, free at the point of use, publicly funded and delivered.
• Maternity care and women’s health – properly resourced high-quality maternity and health visiting services and investment in women’s reproductive health services for menstrual disorders, endometriosis and menopause.
• Violence against women –strengthening of domestic abuse and sexual assault services for women and children with secure long term investment in prevention.
• A law to criminalise the buying of sex and support women to exit prostitution – zero tolerance towards the sexual exploitation of women by men.

Thanks and well done @MissGendering so useful to see all of this, albeit somewhat depressing at times!

There are quite a lot of independent candidates, and some like 'alliance for scotland' that seem to be more a loose collection than a party.

Also a.few single issue parties like the Animal Welfare Party (all animal related plus one very incongruent policy relating to Gaza).

I also haven't looked through all the regions.lists so I may have missed some - best thing to do is check using that website upthread, check local press, election office, etc.

And we await the Libdem's manifesto.

Thank you - great to have this all in one place 🙏

If any party related bods ever read this, please don't make manifestos pdf only because why would you?!

And a bulletpoint overview of your policy list is useful.

I did my best but may well have missed relevant policy points or even whole parties - its surprisingly hard to find this info. I've also tried to be as impartial as I could be.

Do please post if you have other pertinent info.

And fwiw it is a useful exercise to read manifestos - leaflets show very little of the scope of a party. I was surprised by some of what I read.