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Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

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Showing 27 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Tess White Con Chamber
29 Apr 2025
Topical Question Time · Equalities and Human Rights Commission Interim Update (United Kingdom Supreme Court Judgment)
The EHRC’s update was crystal clear, and there is a vacuum right now. Biological males should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities in workplaces or public buildings such as schools or hospitals. That is compulsory. It is the law, as the Supreme Court ruling and the E...
Tess White Con Committee
06 May 2025
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
I just want to check my understanding. We are talking about hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. You are saying that if people have evidence that guidance is incorrect and against the law, they need to go to the EHRC to complain, not to the Scottish Government. ...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
Jennifer, we will cover the outcomes later, so perhaps we can focus on the immediate question for now. As a region MSP, I cover several educational authorities, IJBs and council areas, and I have had extensive meetings with all of them. I want to discuss a local example with y...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
That is fine; that is a private sector example. However, there are more than 100 public sector organisations in Scotland, and I would have expected the EHRC to do a gap analysis against the nine protected characteristics, because it is quite clear that many of those public bod...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
Thank you, convener. Thank you again for coming today, John and Jennifer; it is appreciated.A huge amount of work and feedback—I think that there were 58 submissions—went into the report.My final question is this: if the EHRC is truly independent, and if it is the duty of all ...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
Thank you; you have answered the question.As you have mentioned, following the Supreme Court judgment, the law is clear. Has the EHRC started work on an awareness campaign for employers, so that there are no more tribunals like one in the Sandie Peggie case? I have asked offic...
Tess White Con Chamber
25 Feb 2025
Topical Question Time · Public Bodies (Equality Act 2010)
The EHRC was clear in its correspondence that the Scottish Government—we are talking about the Scottish Government—has a role in ensuring that NHS Scotland and other public bodies are meeting their legal obligations under the Equality Act 2010. I am glad that the cabinet secre...
Tess White (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Committee
18 Mar 2025
Public Sector Equality Duty
When we looked at the feedback from the committee’s call for evidence on the PSED, we found that 80 per cent of the respondents indicated that public bodies do not understand or have a limited understanding of the duty. Such a high figure was very surprising to us. The EHRC’s ...
Tess White Con Committee
18 Mar 2025
Public Sector Equality Duty
My question is for John Wilkes. Earlier, you said that the Scottish Government might not have gone as far as it could have, and you specifically mentioned education. Is it your view that the Scottish Government, in addition to the EHRC, should be providing more and better guid...
Tess White Con Committee
18 Mar 2025
Public Sector Equality Duty
You could include education, health, and prisons in that. I will quote your letter, dated February 2025, to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. In the letter, you highlighted the importance of single-sex spaces and for public sector providers to design “policie...
Tess White Con Committee
18 Mar 2025
Public Sector Equality Duty
What is your view on whether the Scottish Government should provide guidance on the Equality Act 2010 in addition to the EHRC?
Tess White Con Committee
18 Mar 2025
Public Sector Equality Duty
I started with a question in relation to your view on whether the Scottish Government should provide guidance on the Equality Act 2010 in addition to the EHRC. At the meeting that you will have with it, there might need to be leadership in that space, which is a vacuum.
Tess White (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
22 Apr 2025
Supreme Court Judgment
Scotland’s public bodies are, by definition, an extension of the Scottish Government. Last week, the Supreme Court exposed the Scottish Government’s fallacy, but the SNP’s reckless ideology has become embedded, like Japanese knotweed, in our public institutions. While this sm...
Tess White Con Committee
06 May 2025
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
I will—thank you. So, you are waiting for guidance from the EHRC before the Scottish Government takes a view on switching the taps off for any funding.
Tess White (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
10 Jun 2025
Topical Question Time · Gender Identification (Police Scotland)
Police Scotland’s review on the recording of sex and gender is on-going. However, that is not an excuse to kick the can down the road. The force provided assurances to the Scottish Police Authority that the timeline for review does not preclude any immediate improvements that ...
Tess White Con Committee
18 Mar 2025
Public Sector Equality Duty
Finally, I have noted that you have said that you want to provide leadership on the PSED and that you want to put your money where your mouth is, yet 80 per cent of respondents to the committee’s call for evidence said that public bodies do not understand and have not implemen...
Tess White (North East Scotland) (Con) Con Chamber
19 Jun 2025
National Advisory Council on Women and Girls Equality Recommendations
I welcome today’s debate. It is so important to shine a light on what women and girls in Scotland are experiencing today. There is a mismatch—the Scottish National Party Government’s aspiration in this area has not been matched by delivery. Wherever we look, from a woman’s ear...
Tess White Con Chamber
18 Sep 2025
General Question Time · Equality Act 2010
The Scottish National Party Government has let public bodies break the law, betray women and burn public money. It is defending the indefensible, and that is absolutely shameful. The EHRC has reprimanded 19 organisations for misrepresenting the 2010 act, yet the SNP Government...
Tess White Con Committee
02 Dec 2025
Scottish Human Rights Commission
There is a place for you tomorrow, from 12.00 pm until 2.00 pm, if you would like. We would like you to come. My final question relates to access to justice. Prisons and hospitals are almost like burning bridges—they need immediate action. My question is about the direction o...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
If you can, that would be good, thank you. It is mentioned on the short-life working group’s website.MSPs regularly engage with the IJBs, chief executives and council officers. In your view, how has the EHRC helped employers to not fall foul of the law?
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
You can tell that I feel strongly about this. My background is in human resources. I am a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. In the private sector, I would have acted as the enforcer, and there would have been consequences for anybody who was not d...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
Thank you.I am conscious of time, so I want to turn to the report. We have 11 weeks of the parliamentary session to go. If I were to come to the EHRC with examples of what is happening in the north-east, along with the data from the FOIs, would you work with me and consider en...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
We welcome the fact that you have said that no one wants anybody to be excluded. We also welcome the fact that you said that the Scottish Government wants to follow the law. This morning, we had a very important session with the EHRC. It said that, basically, a lot of the lead...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
The website says that the EHRC is a key stakeholder—my definition of a key stakeholder seems to be different from the one that is being used there—and that MSPs will be kept updated. However, we have not been kept updated and it is quite obvious that you are not seen as a key ...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
Right, okay. Thank you for putting that on the record.I am building on my colleague Pam Gosal’s questions in terms of justice. I talked to the EHRC about the short-life working group—I looked at it on the website last night, but it seems to have stalled. It was supposed to mee...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
Thank you.This has been a long-awaited evidence session—we have been waiting for almost a year—so thank you for coming this morning.What is the EHRC doing to help public authorities to focus on outcomes rather than processes? You talked about having good-quality leadership, bu...
Tess White Con Committee
13 Jan 2026
Public Sector Equality Duty
But the Supreme Court judgment was just a clarification of the law. The legislation has been in place since 2010. Under the Equality Act 2010, there are nine protected characteristics.I have given three examples: one in Angus, which relates to changing facilities for schoolchi...
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Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 29 April 2025

29 Apr 2025 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Topical Question Time
Equalities and Human Rights Commission Interim Update (United Kingdom Supreme Court Judgment)
White, Tess Con North East Scotland Watch on SPTV

The EHRC’s update was crystal clear, and there is a vacuum right now. Biological males should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities in workplaces or public buildings such as schools or hospitals. That is compulsory. It is the law, as the Supreme Court ruling and the EHRC have clearly laid out, yet John Swinney said yesterday that public bodies should wait for the “legal certainty” of full EHRC guidance in June before implementing new policies.

The Scottish Government is dragging its feet. Will it now finally stop kicking the can down the road and remove biological men from women’s spaces across the public sector—yes or no?

In the same item of business

1. Tess White (North East Scotland) (Con) Con
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the interim update from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission on the practical implications of th...
The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice (Shirley-Anne Somerville) SNP
The Scottish Government accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court, and work has begun on implementation. I have asked the permanent secretary to stand up a s...
Tess White Con
The EHRC’s update was crystal clear, and there is a vacuum right now. Biological males should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities in workplaces or...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
As I have mentioned, work has already begun across Government to consider the implications of the judgment in areas such as legislation, guidance and cost. A...
Tess White Con
The cabinet secretary talked about that meeting. We all know the truth behind that meeting. Last week, the First Minister stood up in this chamber and said t...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
The First Minister made it absolutely clear—as did I in my statement last week—that we respect the rule of law and the judgment of the Supreme Court. It is i...
Clare Haughey (Rutherglen) (SNP) SNP
Will the cabinet secretary advise what engagement the Scottish Government has had with the EHRC on the UK Supreme Court ruling, and when it will next meet th...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
As I mentioned, the Scottish Government had a scheduled meeting with the EHRC for Thursday 24 April, which the First Minister referred to during First Minist...
Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green) Green
Those who have been trying to undo decades of progress on LGBT people’s human rights and inclusion in society may be keen to carry on doing more as quickly a...
Tess White Con
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. This bears no relation to the topical question in hand.
The Presiding Officer NPA
Thank you, Ms White, but I am chairing this meeting of Parliament, and I will do that as I see fit.
Patrick Harvie Green
I was about to ask whether the cabinet secretary acknowledges the extraordinary degree of fear and anxiety that is being caused to the trans community around...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
Patrick Harvie is quite right to point to the fact that the EHRC’s update—I stress that it is an update and not guidance—has caused real fear and concern in ...
The Presiding Officer NPA
We do not have a lot of spare time this afternoon. The more concise that members can be, the better, in order that I can accommodate more speakers.
Rachael Hamilton (Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con) Con
I welcome the EHRC’s interim guidance, which provides clarity on the Supreme Court’s judgment. The law is clear, and the SNP has no more excuses. Will the ca...
Patrick Harvie Green
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I note that the member is interested in accuracy. Is it in order for members to misrepresent that late-night interim ...
The Presiding Officer NPA
As I said previously, I am chairing the meeting and I will intervene where I feel that it is required.
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
It is appropriate for Ms Hamilton to reflect on the exact terminology that the EHRC used. It has issued an update, and not guidance. Direct, relevant require...
Michelle Thomson (Falkirk East) (SNP) SNP
The Supreme Court has clarified the law, which is an absolute when compared with our simply having guidance, whether it be interim or otherwise. Having to wa...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
As I have said on a number of occasions, across Government, work has already begun on the implementation of the judgment by assessing matters for review of g...
Sharon Dowey (South Scotland) (Con) Con
The Scottish Prison Service has confirmed that it will not immediately change its policy on housing trans women in the female estate and that, instead, it is...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
As I have said, consideration is being given across Government and by our public services, including the Scottish Prison Service, to the outcome of the Supre...
Fergus Ewing (Inverness and Nairn) (SNP) SNP
Regulation 24 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 provides as follows: “Suitable and sufficient facilities shall be provided for ...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
I have already made reference to the fact that the Scottish Government expects all public bodies and agencies to act within the law and to obey the rule of l...
Douglas Ross (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con
The cabinet secretary said that she wants to bring clarity to the debate. Following on from Sharon Dowey’s question, can the cabinet secretary tell us how ma...
Shirley-Anne Somerville SNP
I referred to some of the information on that in my response to Sharon Dowey. The SPS reports the total number of transgender people in custody on a quarterl...
The Presiding Officer NPA
Thank you. That concludes topical questions. Interruption. My apologies. We are clearly behind schedule, but that is not the way to get us back on track. We ...