Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2024
I have a lot to get through—if I have time at the end, I will.
For the past two weeks, the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee has taken evidence on the proposed learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence bill—another piece of legislation that has been kicked into the long grass by Scottish ministers. The committee heard evidence that up to 90 per cent of women with learning disabilities have been sexually abused, but Maree Todd could only say that she shares the
“disappointment in the lack of progress.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 3 December 2024; c 19.]
Today, the committee took evidence on the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020. Four years after the act was passed, it is still not fully in force. Vulnerable women and girls are being failed, but at this morning’s session, the Minister for Parliamentary Business had the nerve to say that “we are where we are”.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was progressed at pace, as was the bill that became the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. However, the 2020 FGM act, the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 and the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 have still not been fully implemented.
Those are more broken promises—