Secretive SNP refuse to reveal legal advice which led to brutal court defeat defending men being allowed in female prisons

[IwantToRetire]

... The secretive SNP Government has been slammed after refusing to hand over ANY advice given to John Swinney before he went ahead with a controversial court case defending the rights of biologically male criminals to be housed in female prisons. This breached the Supreme Court ruling about defining a woman and single-sex spaces.

... "While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide the information you have requested because an exemption under section 36(1) (confidentiality in legal proceedings) and sections 30(b)(i) and section 30(b)(ii) of FOISA (free and frank provision of advice and free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation) applies to the information requested."

Full article https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/secretive-snp-refuse-reveal-legal-37737426

Now why do I suspect that some very well funded pressure groups were very actively involved in this?

They let James Morton give them her legal opinion and ran with it?

In the absence of any information I'm going to guess that they don't want to release it because the expensive advice said No, don't do it, but they ignored the advice and did it anyway, and they don't want anyone to know.

It's not really surprising that legal advice isn't being shared with this Scottish newspaper - the Scottish government are right that there is a qualified exemption under Freedom of Information 🤷🏻‍♀️

It does however illustrate that there is information in there that would be difficult for the government should the general public know about it.

Which yes, is no surprise to anyone.