UK Supreme Court Judgment (For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers): working group minutes: 17 July 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Director, DG Communities
• Unit Head, DG Education and Justice
• Deputy Director, DG Corporate
• Deputy Director, DG Education and Justice
• Head of Major Events Planning, DG Corporate
• Deputy Director, DG Corporate
• Deputy Director, DG Corporate
• Deputy Director, DG Corporate
• Director General, DG Communities
• Director, DG Corporate
• Deputy Director, DG Communities
• Director, DG Education and Justice
• Deputy Director, DG Health and Social Care
• Deputy Director, DG Education and Justice
• Director, DG Communities
• Unit Head, DG Communities
• Deputy Director, DG Net Zero
• Permanent Secretary
• Director, DG Economy
• Unit Head, DG Education and Justice
• Deputy Director, DG Education and Justice

Items and actions

Welcome 

DG Communities welcomed members to the sixth meeting of the Short Life Working Group (SLWG) and reiterated the importance of the group’s work.
DG Communities reminded members agreed to proactively publish SLWG meeting minutes when the webpage goes live and that minutes will routinely be shared with the:

• Cabinet Secretary for Health
• Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
• Permanent Secretary

Members agreed minutes from previous meeting. 

Governance

Deputy Director for Equalities provided an update on the Governance of the group. Key points from this discussion were: 

• the longer term focus of the group
• seeking agreement to drop ‘short life’ from title
• the suite of products that are now part of governance
• ongoing assurance work

Members updates

Members discussed legal issues. 
Permanent Secretary provided an update and thanked members for ongoing work. 
Updates were provided by colleagues across:

• Health
• Justice
• Education
• Corporate
• Net Zero
• Economy
• Local Government
• Communities and Statistics

Close

DG Communities thanked members for their contributions, and reiterated the ask to provide updates on a weekly basis.

Action points

• “short life” to be removed from Working Group title
• all members are expected to update the tracker and assurance documents on an ongoing basis
• all members to provide input to weekly note for First Minister
• DG communities will establish a regular slot for Working Group meetings and dates will be circulated to members
• meetings to be arranged with DG and equivalents in UK and Welsh Government