Holyrood has found itself at the centre of a furious row over women's rights after bosses removed the ability to view Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) by gender. Previously, the official website allowed users to search for MSPs by sex, a feature campaigners argued was crucial for tracking progress toward equal representation. However, following complaints that transgender MSPs were recorded according to their self-identified gender rather than their biological sex, the feature has been scrapped.
Controversy Over the Removal of the Gender Search Function
The row began when Scottish Green MSPs Iris Duane, who is biologically male but identifies as a woman, and Q Manivannan, who is non-binary, were elected on May 7. After their election, the website expanded its gender categories to include a 'non-binary' option. While Manivannan was placed under this new category, Duane was listed as female. Campaigners argued this violated the landmark Supreme Court ruling that, under the Equality Act, sex is determined by biology, not self-identification or gender certification.
For Women Scotland, the campaign group that secured the legal victory against the Scottish Government, warned that the system skewed statistics on how many men and women had been elected as MSPs. On Monday, the group discovered that the search function had been removed entirely, meaning constituents can no longer see how many women or men are in the current or previous sessions.
Reactions from Campaigners and Politicians
Susan Smith of For Women Scotland stated: 'Women's representation must be visible. Women count in society and in politics, and the only way to measure progress is to count the number of women elected. It will be impossible to gauge if women are properly represented if robust data is not collected and available. Once again, it seems, women are only allowed visibility if they cave to the demands of trans-identified men who want to be included in the cohort.'
Policy analysis group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie warned that the decision 'obscures female representation'. Dr Kath Murray commented: 'There is no conceivable reason as to why the Parliament should have stopped presenting data on MSPs by sex, nor any coherent reason as to why it needs revising. The removal of this data not only obscures female representation within the Parliament but raises serious questions about what appears to be eleventh-hour decision-making behind closed doors.'
MSP Rachel Hamilton, deputy leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said: 'It's completely unacceptable that the recording of biological women has vanished from Holyrood's website. Women are rightly questioning whether the Scottish Parliament is correctly following the law as set out in the Equality Act and a clear ruling from the Supreme Court last year.'
Contrast with Westminster
While Holyrood has removed the gender search option, the UK Parliament's website still allows users to view a list of all elected representatives or filter by female or male MPs. There is no non-binary option available.
Holyrood's Response
A Scottish Parliament spokesman said: 'As part of the Inclusive Parliament Review, our systems and processes are currently under review. The online filter function on our website is a legacy system and we have taken steps to remove it. The review will also consider what personal information on members we need to publish and in what format.'
