The Scottish Government has spent nearly £374,000 of public money on a prolonged legal battle over the definition of the word “woman,” new figures have revealed.
Data disclosed via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Scottish Conservatives showed that ministers shelled out an additional £157,816.30 during the second round of litigation brought by the campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS).
This case went through the Outer House, the Inner House, and eventually reached the UK Supreme Court.
The latest figure includes £148,925.00 in counsel fees, £7,552.00 in court charges, and £1,339.30 in other associated costs. This comes on top of the £216,182.50 already spent during the initial judicial review, bringing the total public expenditure to £373,998.80.
The row centred on a legal attempt by the Scottish Government to redefine the term “woman” to include transgender individuals, even if they did not possess a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
The matter dates back to the introduction of the Gender Representation on Public Boards Bill in 2017, which aimed to increase female participation on public bodies but controversially broadened the legal category of “woman”.
FWS argued that this conflicted with the Equality Act 2010, which reserves protections and rights for biological women.
After initially losing their case, FWS succeeded on appeal in 2022, with judges affirming that biological sex could not be legally redefined.
In response, the Scottish Government amended its guidance, stating that those holding a GRC would be legally considered their acquired sex. FWS then pursued a second legal challenge, insisting that the Equality Act’s reference to “sex” refers strictly to biological sex.
Although Scottish ministers initially prevailed in lower courts, the UK Supreme Court unanimously overturned those decisions, ruling that a GRC does not alter a person’s sex for the purposes of the Equality Act.
The court clarified that the legal terms “man” and “woman” refer to biological reality, not gender identity.
In its FOI reply, the Scottish Government acknowledged that the final cost is still being calculated and will be formally published once confirmed.
Scottish Conservative shadow equalities minister Tess White criticised the expenditure, describing the legal campaign as a “humiliating waste” of taxpayer funds.
“It will rightly stick in the throat of taxpayers that they’re footing the bill for the SNP’s needless and humiliating court defeat,” she said.
“John Swinney’s party wasted hundreds of thousands defending an indefensible gender policy that undermined women’s rights. They took it all the way to the Supreme Court rather than admitting that gender self-ID is a flawed and dangerous ideology.”
White also condemned the First Minister for refusing to apologise or issue fresh guidance to public bodies regarding the protection of single-sex spaces, warning that this inaction could expose the government to costly legal claims in future.
