Campaigners call for scrapping of Nicola Sturgeon’s equality body
A prominent campaign group has called for the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls established by Nicola Sturgeon to be scrapped as part of sweeping reforms of the equalities policies of the former first minister.
For Women Scotland (FWS) made the demand as it celebrated the first anniversary of its Supreme Court victory over the Scottish government that ensured that men and women are defined in the Equality Act by biological sex.
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Susan Smith, one of the three directors of FWS, also called for some of Scotland’s equality organisations to be defunded because, in her view, they do not listen to grassroots women and communities but are hugely influential in policy-making.
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She said: “Previously what would happen was that government would consult very widely on policy with a lot of grassroots organisations.
“But what happens now is the big women’s groups come in, and they do not have that connection with the grassroots. They are not hearing from people at the sharp end. And so the engagement with reality is not happening but they are kidding themselves they are doing the right thing.
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“I think there needs to be an audit of what is being done and how. I would certainly get rid of the National Advisory Council of Women and Girls.”
She singled out organisations such as Rape Crisis Scotland, Engender Scotland, and LGBT Youth Scotland as organisations that received millions of pounds from the Scottish government that should be audited.
Rape Crisis Scotland, she said, was originally supposed to be a national body representing the grassroots but had become “a management block, which is telling them what to do and doling out funds on the basis of whether they agree with them, and it was never supposed to work that way round. And they are filtering opinions to parliamentarians without talking to people on the ground”.
The former community safety minister Ash Regan — who left the SNP and is standing as an independent candidate in May’s election — also spoke at the event. She said that more than a decade after the Equally Safe strategy was introduced, the National Advisory Council had failed and Scotland remains in an escalating crisis of male violence against women and girls.
She said: “We cannot keep funding failure and expecting different results. A system where organisations are funded to lobby government, advise government, then funded again is not accountability, its a closed loop. If advisory bodies are not deliverable measurable improvements they must be re-examined and, if necessary, replaced.
“Public trust depend on results. That means joining the dots between problems and robust solutions, and properly funding frontline service that protect and support women and girls, not sustaining insular networks of ineffective influence. We need clear, sex-disaggregated data, honest language, and the courage to name the problem without fear of offence.”
The Scottish Conservatives have said the Scottish government had been “non-responsive” on implementation of the Supreme Court ruling one year on.
Meghan Gallacher, the Scottish Conservative candidate for Uddingston & Bellshill, attended a Women Won’t Wheesht rally on Saturday outside the Scottish parliament to mark the anniversary of the ruling, which reinforced that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. Her party proposes to make hospital wards single-sex spaces in line with the ruling.
Gallacher said: “It’s not been implemented at pace when it should have been and again when we’ve been trying to seek answers from the Scottish government, they have been non-responsive in relation to how they’re going to fully implement the Supreme Court ruling.
“What we want to see is single sex spaces to make sure that women can access those spaces without any issues such as safeguarding, as we’ve spoken about, but also what we’ve seen reported in the press, where there has been instances where there has been sexual activities reported but also various crimes reported as well that could put women at risk.”
John Swinney, the first minister, said: “The government has taken the action that is necessary in light of the Supreme Court ruling to make sure that we work within that ruling, that we apply the ruling in all of the guidance that is available.
“Of course there are complex issues that have to be worked through, but the government has worked through those complex issues and has taken the correct stances as a consequence.”
Critics, however, claim little has changed since the ruling by the Supreme Court, but Swinney said: “I would take a different view, I think the government has taken the action that is necessary.
“There are obviously some issues that remain in front of the courts in that respect, but the government has taken the action that is required and will continue to do so.”
Asked about the another court case by For Women Scotland, on the issue of trans prisoners, he said: “These proceedings are live within the courts and it is inappropriate for me to comment on live court proceedings.”