By MICHAEL BLACKLEY, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR THE SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL
A women’s campaign group has condemned the Scottish Government for failing to settle a legal bill six months on from a crushing Supreme Court defeat.
For Women Scotland won the landmark case in April when the UK’s highest court ruled that the definition of ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act referred to biological sex.
A subsequent court order ruled that the Scottish Government must pay at least some of For Women Scotland’s legal cost during the lengthy court battle, which ran to a total of around £417,000.
But no payment has yet been made – leading to claims ministers are stalling so that the money isn’t used for further legal action about the SNP Government’s policies on single-sex spaces.
Speaking at the Conservative conference in Manchester yesterday, Marion Calder, a director of For Women Scotland, joked that legal cases against the Scottish Government have become an expensive hobby.
She said: ‘They are not very good at settling their bills, by the way. We are still waiting for them to settle up from April.’
Nicola Sturgeon was an avid supporter of transgender ideology when she was First Minister
Director of For Women Scotland, Marion Calder and British former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies
Shadow Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Claire Coutinho also spoke at the event at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester
After the event, she raised concerns that the Government is ‘stalling’ on making the payment, and added: ‘They just don’t want to settle in case we use the money to sue them again.’
The final amount the Scottish Government has to pay is not yet known, but is expected to be between £250,000 and £400,000.
A previous freedom of information request revealed that the Scottish Government had spent at least £374,000 fighting the case.
Ms Calder was speaking alongside women’s campaigner Sharron Davies, a former swimmer who has pushed for trans women to be blocked from taking part in female sport, and Tory Shadow Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho, whose role also includes equalities.
She also raised concerns about the Labour government’s approach to issues around single-sex spaces.
Ms Calder said: ‘I’m a bit concerned that they are taking their time, without issuing clear guidance. I wish they would show a bit more bravery and leadership on this.’
At a Tory conference fringe event yesterday, Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters, condemned public bodies for failing to fully implement the Supreme Court ruling.
Fiona McAnena of Sex Matters spoke about the importance of maintaining female sporting categories at both elite and grassroots levels
She said: ‘We came out of that courtroom and it was like waking up from a bad dream. But it seems like an awful lot of organisations have not yet woken up, and many of them are hostile to the judgement.
‘It is kind of extraordinary to see people mouthing off that those judges got it wrong. I think their brains have been broken by the illogicality of trying to treat some men as women, and thinking that makes them the good guys. So now they can’t bear to be the bad guys.
‘And they remain afraid of trans activists, and often afraid of their own children – young adult children particularly.’
She said that Sex Matters was suing the Scottish Government as an employer until it ‘caved to our challenge on Monday and withdrew the line in their internal policy that said that people who identified out of their sex could choose whatever facilities they wanted’.
But she claimed that trade union leaders are telling its members to ignore it at the Scottish Government’s Victoria Quay office in Leith.
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