The Minister for Victims and Community Safety has recently written to the committee to give the Government’s views on the bill. In her letter, she states that the proposal requires

“further discussion and engagement with justice partners”.

Other comments suggest that the Government might not be supportive of the bill. What is your response to that correspondence?

I will not ask too many questions, but I have one further comment, which is similar to what Liam Kerr said earlier. The minister said:

“there are again opportunities to progress this area through non-legislative measures”.

However, you think that your bill is required. You mentioned the 2021 act, which has not been implemented.

Youth violence, crime and antisocial behaviour are all on the increase, as was confirmed by the figures that were released yesterday. At that summit, the First Minister said that we need effective punishment for offences. I continually raise the issue of the under-25 sentencing guideline. The unintended consequences of that is that criminal gangs are exploiting that policy by targeting young people and involving them in crime, knowing that they will face few or no consequences. Does the minister agree that that needs to change, and will she review that form of two-tier sentencing?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that there were almost 30,000 breaches of community payback orders in the last 11 years. (S6T-02606)

Community payback orders are frequently handed down as an alternative to custody, including in cases of violence and domestic abuse. It should follow that, when such an order is breached, criminals should be considered for a custodial sentence. Shockingly, however, only 26 per cent of CPO breaches led to a prison sentence in that period, while even more criminals simply got another community payback order right after breaching the first one.

The very least that Scots expect is that criminals should carry out the sentence that they have been given, or face consequences if they do not, including going to prison. In response to that scandal, will the Government bring in tougher sanctions for criminals who violate community payback orders, and ensure that actions have consequences?

I do not think that victims will be reassured by that response. The Scottish National Party has been clear that it wants more community payback orders and fewer people in prisons. We see that in its two-tier sentencing guidelines for under-25s, presumption against short sentences and early release of hundreds of prisoners. It should be a source of embarrassment for the Government that so many criminals thought that they could get away with breaching the terms of their sentence. It is more embarrassing still that, in the majority of those cases, there were apparently no meaningful consequences.

There is also a lack of transparency. More than 2,200 criminals were issued with other penalties, and more than 7,300 were issued with other outcomes, but the SNP Government does not state in its data what that means. Almost 2,000 were listed as “Outcome not known”. That is not good enough. If the Scottish Government is not serious about criminals completing their punishment, why should we expect offenders to respect their sentence?

I think that the EHRC ruling was quite clear, and I do not think that there is any way that we need to wait for the guidance to come out. I would like to know why public bodies are not implementing it now. If we are talking about a report from the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls, a good starting point is that we know what a woman is.

We still have men in women’s prisons, and there is still a vacuum when it comes to guidance on how public servants, such as police officers, should deal with men pretending to be women, many of whom are twisted and dangerous.

We have talked a lot in the debate about the importance of equality and how vital it is that women and girls are supported, looked after and protected. I hope that, the next time that we come to the chamber to discuss this topic, we will have more positive evidence from those on the ground about the impact that all this debate is having.

This is the third summit on youth violence in two years. The first was to stop violence in our schools—that did not work. The second was to stop youth violence among young people—that did not work. Having attended the third summit, I do not have much confidence in a better outcome. Will the Government finally act and invest in youth services; increase stop and search powers to tackle youth knife crime, which is something that the Scottish Police Federation has asked for; drop the two-tier sentencing policies for under-25s; and make sure that actions have consequences?

I welcome the opportunity to debate an issue that is close to me and many of my fellow female MSPs across the chamber. Equality between men and women, and boys and girls, should be one of the driving objectives of this Parliament. We need equality in schools, in the workplace, in healthcare and in the economy. Failure to deliver that does not just fail Scotland’s females, who account for more than half the population; it also results in a number of missed opportunities for growth, progress and innovation.

Although I welcome the debate, it should also be noted that women across Scotland are becoming fed up with so much talk being matched by so little action. Females may well appreciate MSPs taking the time to debate in the chamber or to set up focus groups or round-table discussions, but we are also aware that, while the talking continues, things on the ground move backwards. The National Advisory Council on Women and Girls made a number of recommendations designed to reduce gender inequality. Ministers recognise that tackling such inequality is key to a fairer Scotland and that

“Women are central to all Government priorities”.—[Official Report, 12 March 2025; c 30.]

However, in real life, many measures are only getting worse.

Perhaps the most brutal measure of all is the rate of domestic violence in Scotland. Cases are rising, and police now receive a report of domestic abuse in Scotland pretty much every 10 minutes. Women may not be the victim in every one of those cases, but we know for sure that they are the victim in the overwhelming majority and that the attacker is almost always a man and always a partner or a former partner.

It is patently unfair that someone, just because of their sex at birth, is on a pathway that makes them considerably more likely to be a victim of violence, abuse, intimidation, bullying or coercion. Domestic violence is rife in this country and, until we turn the tide, we can never truly claim that things are even close to being equal. Even seeking justice is often out of the reach for too many women. One survivor, who lives in the Highlands, contacted 116 solicitors listed on the Scottish Legal Aid Board’s website and still could not find help with divorce proceedings—that is not an isolated incident.

Gender inequality can be seen throughout the generations. Despite performing better in school, learning faster and behaving better, girls are less likely to go on to have well-paying, successful careers than their male contemporaries. In 2024, our gender pay gap widened. There are many reasons for that, but we cannot blame it all on childcare and the fact that women are more likely to be carers of their children and their elderly relatives. Attitudes need to change in the classroom and in the boardroom. We need more flexibility and more incentives and support for women who want to push up their career ladder in the same way as men.

Despite living longer, women experience poorer outcomes for a range of health issues. Conditions that are unique to women, such as endometriosis and cervical cancer, are not well understood, treated or tested for. We also have the issue of gender recognition. Given the Supreme Court ruling and a clear update from the EHRC, the Scottish Government’s failure to implement is, at the very best, a stalling tactic. Will the minister tell us, in her closing remarks, why public bodies are not complying with the law now?

This is clearly a shambles. We know that dangerous male offenders have gamed the Scottish National Party system to serve their sentences in women’s prisons, and now they are getting their criminal records wiped. The chair of the EHRC said that the law that the Supreme Court ruling sets out is “unambiguous” and “effective immediately” and that

“Those with duties under the Equality Act should be following it”.

I wrote to Police Scotland and the Scottish Prison Service to demand that they comply with the Supreme Court ruling, but their response showed that they are still stalling. Given the latest outrage, will ministers now finally intervene, remove all biological men from women’s prisons and ensure that all public bodies are following the law?