The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has been permitting men who identify as women to be accommodated in the female estate—if they satisfy a risk assessment.
SPS Chief Executive Linda Pollock put out an internal memo that admits the unlawful actions of the SPS, by stating that the current admission policy “remains in place.” It was in response to a Court-of-Session led by Lady Ross, which ruled that Scottish prisons require separate accommodation for men and women. This finding is based on the 2025 Supreme Court ruling on the Equality Act that stated how, in law, biological sex must be the determining factor.
Rather than obey the law, Pollock promised in a memo to staff that she ‘will carefully consider Lady Ross’s findings before responding.’ This means that, for the time being at least, the SPS will continue permitting delusional men who identify as women to be accommodated in the female estate (subject to a risk assessment).
The inherent dangers of this approach became clear, once again, in April, when a male convicted murderer named Alan Baker was charged with sexually assaulting a woman at HMP Greenock.
According to gender-critical writer Andrew Doyle, who republished Pollock’s secretive memo online, this
once again betrays a shocking disregard for legal responsibilities…. to prioritise gender identity ideology over safeguarding.
While the SPS leadership parses the Ross ruling, with no deadline in sight, Scottish legal experts are braced for litigation. Bizarrely, trans capture of UK public institutions, including prisons, now leaves them scrambling for legal advice on a key biological difference between human beings.
