Meeting of the Parliament 11 March 2026 [Draft]
I support this SSI, which adds the characteristic of sex as a protected characteristic to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, because women and girls deserve protection in law and we must seek to address prejudice based on sex, exactly as I, Adam Tomkins, Johann Lamont, Jenny Marra, Pauline McNeill and so many others argued in the chamber when the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill was going through Parliament.
At that time, the Government rejected our arguments and whipped its MSPs on the promise of a stand-alone, dedicated misogyny law that would be specifically designed to address the misogynistic abuse, harassment and hostility that women and girls experience daily. I recall my, and many colleagues’, doubts that that law would be delivered—and, sure enough, last summer, the Government abandoned its promise of a misogyny law.
Now the Government offers these regulations, which insert the characteristic of sex into the existing hate crime framework. That change goes some way to providing additional protection, and for that reason, I support it. However, we should be under no illusion—it is not the comprehensive response that Baroness Kennedy recommended and it is not what women and girls were promised. Indeed, many have made it clear that the hate crime model is ill suited to tackling the wider forms of misogynistic behaviour that women experience: behaviour that may not present as overt hatred but which is nevertheless vicious, harmful and pervasive. Not only that, but these protections will not even come in until April 2027, despite the Government having had more than a year to work out how to bring them in.
I will vote for the SSI, but I recognise that it is not the full answer. It is not the legislation that women and girls were promised, and today must not be the end of the matter. Women and girls deserve to be protected by a justice system that fully recognises the scale and nature of misogynistic behaviour.
The previous Government made promises of protection; this Government has failed to deliver. Today, we go a small part of the way to remedying that, but I urge, in the strongest possible terms, any MSPs who return to this place in May to urgently take forward the comprehensive misogyny legislation that Baroness Kennedy demanded, that this Government promised and that women and girls deserve.