The SNP’s failed gender row legal battle has cost the taxpayer at least £1million, The Mail can reveal.
Analysis of official records shows the huge amount of taxpayer money that successive SNP administrations have shelled out on court fees to fight the gender battle.
On Wednesday, the Scottish Government suffered its latest blow after the UK’s Supreme Court ruled against it on the legal definition of a woman.
Five Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled biological sex is the decisive factor in what makes someone a man or a woman – and said the Scottish Government’s argument that some males are legally women would create ‘incoherent and unworkable’ situations in practice.
The ruling was welcomed bycritics of the Scottish Government’s stance, including author JK Rowling, who even posted a photo of herself drinking champagne and smoking a cigar on her superyacht in celebration.
Now, new documents show the Scottish Government has spent at least £585,550 on legal fees to fight for its controversial gender policies via the justice system.
That is on top of its bill for Wednesday’s hearing, which including costs for For Women Scotland, is set to come to around £500,000.
A breakdown of legal costs obtained by this newspaper shows its challenge to the UK Government’s s35 block on Nicola Sturgeon’s gender recognition reform bill drained almost £365,000 from the public purse.
Marion Calder, right, and Susan Smith, left, from For Women Scotland, celebrate outside after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled that a woman is someone born biologically female
John Swinney’s government has spent at least £1million on its failed gender row legal battle
Meanwhile it spent almost £220,000 on lawyers and court fees to fight two judicial reviews brought by For Women Scotland, which culminated in last week’s costly Supreme Court case.
Maya Forstater, CEO of human rights charity Sex Matters said Scottish taxpayers would be ‘disgusted’ at the figures.
She said: ‘Most Scottish people reject the bizarre, reality-denying claims of trans activists.
‘They will surely be disgusted that the Scottish Government has wasted more than £1million on trying to push through laws designed to overwrite the material reality of the two sexes with the fiction of gender identity in every aspect of public life.
‘Meanwhile For Women Scotland had to rely on the generosity of ordinary people, alongside a handful of wealthier donors.
‘Surely it’s well past time for the Scottish Government to abandon its unpopular and ideologically motivated drive towards gender self-ID, and stop squandering taxpayers’ money on seeking to destroy Scottish women’s sex-based rights.’
Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Tess White MSP said: ‘Hard-pressed Scots will be outraged that they are being asked to pick up the bill for the SNP’s doomed gender crusade.
‘This squandering of taxpayers’ money is only happening because of Nicola Sturgeon’s flawed gender self-ID policy and the nationalists’ obsession with fringe issues.
‘They have put gender ideology before the rights of women and girls, but also before NHS waiting lists, before our children’s education and before justice for victims of crime.
‘Wednesday’s ruling should be a wake-up call for John Swinney and his SNP colleagues. It’s time they got back to the day job of delivering for the Scottish people.’
Nicola Sturgeon’s divisive plans to allow transgender people to ‘self-identify’ as the gender of their choice have caused controversy since their inception.
She was humiliated when hours before her Gender Recognition Reform Bill was passed in principle by the Scottish Parliament in 2022, a member of her own cabinet Ash Regan, now of the Alba party, resigned.
A total of seven SNP rebels also voted against the plans and two abstained for fear they could endanger women’s single-sex spaces.
The legislation was then blocked by the UK Conservative Government from going to Royal Assent with the use of a section 35 veto power amid concerns the GRR would sit in conflict with UK-wide equalities law.
Enraged by the decision, Ms Sturgeon attempted to challenge the s35 via a judicial review, which according to new data obtained by this newspaper cost the taxpayer £363,705.24
Meanwhile the Scottish Government spent £159,916.50 and £61,928.80 on lawyers and court fees to fight two judicial reviews respectively, both brought by For Women Scotland.
A Scottish Government source last night confirmed final costs for the Supreme Court ruling would be published in due course.
JK Rowling posted a photo of her smoking a cigar and drinking champagne to celebrate the ruling. She captioned it: ‘I love it when a plan comes together #SupremeCourt #WomensRights’
At the centre of the For Women Scotland cases was the question of whether a ‘woman’ could include a trans women in law.
The feminist challenge was sparked by the Scottish Government’s Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act, which aimed to get more women onto public bodies, but also said that women could include those who had become women, but who were born men.
FWS ultimately went to the Supreme Court for a ruling on whether someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) stating they were female should be defined as a ‘woman’ under the 2010 Equality Act.
Handing down the court’s decision, Lord Hodge said ‘the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex’.
The ruling means it is legal to exclude trans people with a GRC from single-sex spaces if ‘proportionate’.
But the justices stressed that trans people were still protected from discrimination and harassment.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Scottish Government is necessarily involved in litigation given the range and importance of its responsibilities and outlays incurred – like all other costs – are subject to rules about public finance decision-making and accountability.’
