John Swinney not ‘walking away’ from commitment on conversion therapy

The Scottish Government is not “walking away” from the commitment to end conversion therapy, John Swinney has insisted – with the First Minister saying working with the UK Government to achieve this is a “pragmatic step” to avoid the difficulties Holyrood ministers encountered with gender recognition reforms.

He spoke out after Scottish Green co-leader Lorna Slater accused his Government of having “undone, slashed, watered down or shelved” commitments that had been introduced while her party was in government with the SNP.

That included the pledge to end conversion therapy – practices aimed at trying to change or suppress a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

While the Scottish Government had previously consulted on legislation, documents published alongside the First Minister’s programme for government on Wednesday revealed a suspension of this work, with ministers now looking to work with the UK Government instead.

The document set out the Scottish Government’s intention to “work towards complementary approaches across the UK” to end this.

A Scottish Bill however would be introduced “should a UK-wide approach not be achievable”.

Challenged on the matter by Ms Slater at First Minister’s Questions, Mr Swinney insisted the Scottish Government is “progressing with the work to ban conversion therapy in Scotland”.

However he told MSPs: “We think it is a pragmatic step to take to work with the United Kingdom Government to determine if there is a UK-wide approach to this which will enable us to avoid some of the difficulties we found ourselves in in relation to the gender recognition legislation.”

While Holyrood passed legislation that would introduce self-identification for transgender people in Scotland, it was later blocked by the UK Government, with an intervention by Westminster preventing it from being enacted.

Mr Swinney insisted there will be “no walking away from the commitment to end conversion therapy”

Instead he said his Government is taking a “pragmatic step” to try to avoid previous “legislative difficulties”.

The Labour Government at Westminster has already included a commitment to introduce draft legislation on conversion therapy in England and Wales in the King’s Speech.