Scottish ministers shelve plans for new misogyny law

by lee_nostromo

15 comments
  1. The Scottish government has confirmed it will not bring forward planned legislation to criminalise misogyny before next year’s Holyrood election.

    A bill has long been promised to improve protections for women and girls, but ministers now say there is not enough time to draw up a law which reflects the recent Supreme Court judgement on the definition of a woman.

    They are instead going to amend existing hate crime legislation to provide protections on the basis of sex.

    The government has also confirmed it will not be bringing forward legislation to end conversion therapy this term, and is hoping for a UK-wide solution.

  2. Great decision.

    Whole bastard point of the Hate Crime Bill was to have these things contained in the same place so they’re all dealt with on an equal footing. The provision is already there to be used, activate it.

    Stupid idea to immediately abandon that for a special separate law, just recreating all the problems we had again.

  3. 100% support this. You cannot list misogyny as a hate crime without also listing misandry as a hate crime. Hopefully this will give the government time to legislate to this effect, regardless of sex.

  4. Good. There was no sane reason to exclude men from its protection.

    A direct consequence of activist groups being allowed to sit on working groups and have disproportionate influence over law.

    Although this now leaves gender based hatred unaddressed by the hate crime act- which is dumb. Scot gov will need to activate the provision there.

    One suspects this decision has more to do with the working group, which includes members of Engender and other activists refusing to agree to a definition of woman which is compatible with the SC ruling.

  5. Isn’t it still illegal to discriminate against cis women? Genuine question, I thought misogyny (discrimination on the basis of sex) was already covered by the equality act

  6. Just makes sense putting it into the existing laws with tougher sentencing. No point in creating a whole new law when one already exists that can be altered to fit it. Sadly the title is, somewhat, misleading.

  7. I don’t really understand why this couldn’t be incorporated into the existing hate crimes legislation, if as the Baroness QC says they don’t count as they’re not a minority group – Does that mean her interpretation of the Hate Crimes legislation is that it defines hate crimes being exclusively against minority groups? Would it not be simpler to make it that it applies to all groups and also could be identified as an aggravating factor in assaults etc? Forgive me if these are stupid questions, I have obviously not studied law

  8. Small problem that we have a population group which have misogyny baked into their culture. Would they be exempt? Or just ignored by the law?

  9. I miss the days of free speech. At this rate, every swear word could be classified as a Section 5 Public Order hate crime offense. Most swear words carry a gendered connotation, you wanker “insert hand sign”.

  10. I was always confused by the need for this law, as discrimination based on sex is already illegal due to the equality act.

  11. What did this law actually do. Like if I see a girl and I go up to her and asker name and asker her out? Would I have broken this law and could be charged?

  12. Good perhaps they’ll now focus on governing the country, the ferries, upgrading the infrastructure, improving health and education.

Comments are closed.