Police Scotland is the first high-profile Scottish public body to withdraw from Stonewall’s controversial ‘Diversity Champions’ scheme, it has been reported.
The force has not applied for the LGBT lobby group’s 2023 Workplace Equality Index, and it last paid its annual fees for the ‘Diversity Champions’ scheme in 2021.
The controversial scheme, which a number of UK public bodies have left in recent years, costs organisations around £2,500 a year; rewarding them for promoting LGBT ideology inside and outside of the workplace.
‘Wreaked havoc’
According to The Times, police chiefs are reviewing their inclusion policies and partnerships with organisations and said the force would still consult Stonewall despite ditching its programmes.
Former SNP Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: “The Stonewall agenda has wreaked havoc across swathes of our society, not just policing . . . It’s to be hoped that other sectors of Scottish life will now do likewise.”
Scottish Conservative MSP Russell Findlay, Shadow Minister for Community Safety, added: “Police Scotland’s decision seems entirely proper due to the serious concerns that have been raised about this charity’s activities.”
Other Scottish public bodies currently enrolled in Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ scheme include the Scottish Prison Service, and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.
‘Pride’ badges
NHS Scotland staff have left more than 11,000 “Progress Pride” badges unclaimed, which were to be taken by those who signed up to a trans activist pledge in a scheme designed in consultation with the LGBT lobby group.
To get a badge staff had to pledge to “call out hate speech and report incidents of discrimination” and use “inclusive language”.
The Scottish Government spent more than £33,000 on an initial order of the multicoloured badges and an internal promotional campaign in 2021. Now more than 18 months on, Freedom of Information requests have revealed that more than four in ten of the 27,940 badges remain unused.
Campaign group For Women Scotland’s Director Trina Budge commented: “It is astonishing that NHS Scotland partners with a group like Stonewall which believes sex doesn’t matter and ideology trumps biology.”
Taxpayers’ money
Earlier this year, it was revealed that taxpayer funding for Stonewall appears to have fallen rapidly.
In the LGBT group’s recently published statutory accounts, Stonewall stated that it received £424,513 from Government sources (excluding coronavirus funding) between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022. It was more than £1.5 million in the previous 18-month period.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, one of Stonewall’s largest grant makers, still gave nearly £90,000 in 2021-22 but this was far lower than the more than £765,000 for the 18 months to the end of March 2021.
Several public sector organisations including the Crown Prosecution Service, the Government Equalities Office, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, have quit Stonewall schemes in recent years.
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