Misogyny: £140,000 spent by Scottish Government on ditched misogyny law, including for Helena Kennedy fee
Earlier this year the First Minister confirmed ministers would not move forward on its misogyny bill.
More than £140,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent on a misogyny law that has since been axed by John Swinney.
Back in 2022, the independent working group on misogyny recommended Scottish ministers create a stand-alone law criminalising misogyny.
However, in May the First Minister said the Government was dropping the proposed legislation. The characteristic of sex will instead be added to the existing Hate Crime Act in September.
It has now been revealed the Scottish Government spent £143,668.13 on the legislation. This includes a fee of £109.117.20 to Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, who chaired the independent working group.
A further £8,182.18 was spent in publication costs and £600 went on venue hire for the report findings launch. The overall figure does not include civil servant time spent on developing the legislation.
Scottish Lib Dem MP Liam McArthur said his party took issue with so much taxpayer funding being spent on legislation that has been scrapped.
He said: “I have no qualms with Helena Kennedy’s fee. She is a hugely respected legal professional at the top of her field.
“What I have an issue with is the Scottish Government talking a good game about addressing misogyny in our society, paying for this work and then unceremoniously junking it.
“Helena Kennedy’s report laid bare the extent of misogyny across our society.
“It made abundantly clear that women are not a minority and that a distinct set of responses was necessary to tackle deep rooted misogyny. The legislation that the working group proposed was a chance to substantially improve protections, help change culture and behaviours, and move us closer to eradicating misogyny.
“It seems the Government is now deciding to roll the dice in favour of proposals that Baroness Kennedy was pretty explicit are not the right approach to this problem.”
Mr McArthus added: “Ministers have indicated that sex will be included as a protected characteristic in separate legislation. However, I am concerned that this will fall short of the dedicated approach needed to tackle the pernicious attitudes that demean and degrade women.”
Mr McArthur said many would “be concerned about the signal this sends” on the Government’s commitment to tackling misogyny.
The legislation aimed to tackle prejudice and contempt for women by creating a new offence of stirring up hatred against women and misogynistic harassment. It would also have made misogyny an aggravating factor, which could have led to tougher sentencing.
Baroness Kennedy said the proposals had been about treating women with respect and dignity, and ensuring they had “the same equality and safety in the streets as men”.
When it was announced the proposals had been shelved, Baroness Kennedy said she was not surprised as this was part of a wider “retreat” from policy areas that had been “characterised as woke”.
Scottish Tory deputy leader Rachael Hamilton said the spending was an example of ministers “squandering taxpayers’ money on a flagship policy they ultimately didn’t deliver on”. “They will be questioning why over £100,000 of their money was paid to a respected legal expert, only for her work to be cast aside,” she said.
A spokesman for the government said: “With her significant knowledge of the issues involved, Baroness Kennedy brought a wealth of experience and expertise to her role as chair of the working group on misogyny and the criminal law and the work she carried out had cross-party support.
“Misogyny is a complex area of policy and law and criminal law needs to be clear and unambiguous.
“Given the short time left in this parliamentary session, there is insufficient time for a bill to be finalised and introduced in this session.
“Scottish ministers will introduce legislation to provide new legal protections for women and girls by adding the protected characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 alongside other protected characteristics.”