Trans gender debate in Scotland: Police Scotland won't necessarily accept a rapist self-identifying as a woman but problems remain – Kenny MacAskill MP

So the Scottish Government presses on with its Gender Recognition Act nonsense.

Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison says violence against women and girls is caused by 'predatory and abusive men, not trans people' (Picture: Fraser Bremner/pool/Scottish Daily Mail/PA)

Despite rollbacks by the Supreme Court and warnings from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, on they march. They apparently know best and they’re intent on using their majority in Parliament to deliver it.

The same nonsense spouted by Shirley-Anne Somerville’s now being echoed by Shona Robison. I had thought the latter at least would know better.

Meanwhile, everyone else is trying to work out just what’s what in this new dystopian world, where you can just self-ID as whatever gender you want.

Last week saw me meet with senior representatives from Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority on crime recording.

There had, after all, been a Twitter-fest, including me being name-checked by JK Rowling, which sent it into the stratosphere, after I’d been advised by Police Scotland in a letter that someone who perpetrated a rape but self-identified as a women would be recorded as such.

I’m happy to say that despite what they wrote, the reality’s different. It’s clear that if it’s evidently the case that the person’s not the gender they purport to be and it’s relevant to the crime, their word won’t be accepted. So that addresses the rape and serious sexual offence case fears that many understandably have.

But the situation as to other offences seems left outstanding. Human rights, say the police, mean that if someone says they are a certain sex, other than in the aforementioned circumstances, they should accept it.

Crime recording allows for male, female and other, with that final category initially devised for corporations and obviously not applicable here. No big deal you might say though it does make a mockery of crime recording statistics, even if the numbers will be few. Even a few can distort.

I’ve sympathy for the police. It’s a hard enough job dealing with idiots without having to address legislative idiocies. They are trying to do what’s right when the law’s unclear and is being made worse with this Gender Recognition Reform Bill. This isn’t protecting trans rights but making the law look an ass.

Kenny MacAskill is Alba Party MP for East Lothian

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