Thread by @mhaoilein

In all the chaos of @NicolaSturgeon's GRR mess, little attention has been paid to the lobbyists behind it; #Stonewall.

The Scottish Parliament's Lobbying web-pages are quite interesting.

parliament.scot/get-involved/l…

Stonewall registered as a lobbyist at the Scottish Parliament in 2018.

Since then they have registered 81 meetings.

These meetings provided 102 contacts with MSPs.

Of these, 18 contacts were with Ministers.

These meetings gave access to 55 different MSPs.

20 MSPs met them more than once.

The gained direct access to 7 Ministers

Christina McKelvie
Patrick Harvie
Shirley-Anne Sommerville
Shona Robison
Kevin Stewart
Ben McPherson
Humza Yousaf

The number of meetings provided by Stonewall's biggest supporters are:

7
Christina McKelvie

5
Patrick Harvie

4
Shirley-Anne Sommerville
Monica Lennon
Oliver Mundell

3
Alex Cole-Hamilton
Alison Johstone
Karen Adam
Pam Duncan-Glancey
Pauline McNeill
Rona MacKay

The registration of these meetings are submitted by the lobbyist (Stonewall) and then verified by the MSP(s) in question.

The average delay between the meeting and its registration for these 81 meetings was 24 days.

Excluding the worst 10%, the average was 13 days.

10 meetings were registered over 50 days later.

6 meetings were registered over 100 days later.

2 of these were with Patrick Harvie, one being 172 days later.

1 meeting with Kezia Dugdale was registered 192 days later.

1 meeting with Karen Adam was registered 257 days later.

All of these contacts were focused on the GRR bill; 68 stated this explicitly on the registration.

From 03-18 until 02-22, there were 95 registered contacts.

After GRR was introduced in 03-22, there were 5 meetings (7 MSPs).

None were registered until after the bill was passed

One meeting was held with two ministers;

Christina McKelvie
Shirley-Anne Sommerville

The meeting also included;
Equality Network
Scottish Trans Alliance
LGBT YS

The meeting was registered 15 days later.

Strangely, the registration for this meeting was amended 3 months later.

Similarly, Stonewall's first 4 meetings were with;

Mary Fee
Kezia Dugdale
Alex Cole-Hamilton
Linda Fabiani

All took place on March & April 2018.

All were registered that year.

Strangely, all had their recorded submissions amended between 10:35 and 10:42 on 21 Sep 2020.

These 81 meetings, involving 102 contacts with MSPs, also provided access to other groups.

Equality Network participated in at least 24 occasions

Scottish Trans Alliance attended at least 31 occasions

LGBT YS had access on at least 18 occasions.

The 102 contacts had a range of registered topics;

87 - explicitly for GRA reform

34 - trans rights

24 - ban conversion therapy

8 - Self-ID

8 - making GRC easier

7 - reducing age limits

6 - about the census

1 meeting with 12 MSPs was about the impact on women's rights

Code of Conduct for MSPs

S5: Lobbying & access to MSPs

6. In addition, members should-

- consider whether a meeting with 1 group which is making representations on an issue should be balanced by offering another group with different views an opportunity to make representations

Stonewall was provided immense access to MSPs on a clear agenda to reform; GRR, Self-ID, GRCs, with the acknowledged impact on women's rights.

It appears the failure to provide balanced access to non-commissioned women's groups is a clear breach of the MSP Code of Conduct.

Lastly, Alison Johnstone, Presiding Officer throughout the passage of the Bill, made numerous judgements on points of order that could have halted or changed the proposed legislation.

She met with Stonewall on 3 occasions.

Did she make Parliament aware of this prior contact?

parliament.scot/get-involved/l…

Post Script...

Equality Network had a lot of meetings with MSPs too.

151

If anyone wants to explore, here's the link

lobbying.scot/SPS/LobbyingRe…