Scottish ministers face legal action over policies ‘inconsistent’ with UK gender ruling | Scotland

A marketing campaign group that received a authorized victory on the definition of gender is taking motion towards the Scottish authorities over insurance policies it says are “inconsistent” with the ruling.For Girls Scotland’s authorized battle with Scottish ministers over the definition of a girl ended within the UK’s supreme court docket, which dominated in April that the phrases “lady” and “intercourse” within the Equality Act 2010 referred to a organic lady and organic intercourse.Nevertheless, the group mentioned it now had “little alternative” however to take additional authorized motion as some insurance policies relating to transgender pupils in colleges and transgender folks in custody remained in place, which the group mentioned was “in clear breach of the regulation”.The colleges steerage for single-sex bogs says it is vital that younger folks “the place potential, are in a position to make use of the services they really feel most snug with”.The jail steerage permits for a transgender lady to be admitted into the ladies’s property if the individual doesn’t meet the violence towards ladies and ladies standards, and there’s no different foundation to suppose they pose an unacceptable threat of hurt to these housed within the ladies’s property.For Girls Scotland has now utilized to the court docket of session, in search of to quash the insurance policies, which it says are “inconsistent with the UK supreme court docket judgment of 16 April 2025”.It has raised an peculiar motion for discount – quashing – of the insurance policies relating to colleges and prisons, with the information first reported by Sunday Instances Scotland.In an announcement, the group mentioned: “Nothing has persuaded the federal government to take motion and each insurance policies stay stubbornly in place, to the detriment of weak ladies and ladies, leaving us little alternative however to provoke additional authorized motion.“The Scottish ministers have 21 days to reply to the summons. If the insurance policies haven’t been withdrawn by then, we are going to lodge the summons for calling, and the federal government must defend its insurance policies in court docket.“We’re asking the court docket to situation a declarator that the college steerage and the jail steerage are illegal and that they be decreased in complete. We’re additionally asking that each insurance policies are suspended within the meantime.”A Scottish authorities spokesperson mentioned: “It could be inappropriate to touch upon dwell court docket proceedings.”For Girls Scotland beforehand introduced a sequence of challenges over the definition of “lady” in Scottish laws mandating 50% feminine illustration on public boards.The final step of those ended within the supreme court docket ruling, which the marketing campaign group’s supporters hailed as a “watershed for girls”.