UK Supreme Court Judgment (For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers): working group minutes: 26 February 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Permanent Secretary
• DG Communities
• Director of Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights, DG Communities
• Deputy Director, DG Communities
• Unit Head, DG Communities
• Deputy Director, Health & Social Care
• Team Leader, DG Health and Social Care
• Unit Head, DG Communities
• Deputy Director, DG Corporate
• Unit Head, DG Net Zero
• Deputy Director, DG Net Zero
• Director, DG Economy
• Head of Communications, Social Security Scotland
• Deputy Director, Social Security Scotland
• Deputy Director, DG Corporate
• Unit Head, DG Education and Justice
• Deputy Director, DG Corporate
• Director, DG Corporate
• Communications Manager, DG Corporate
• Strategy & Coordination Lead, DG Communities
• Strategy & Coordination Officer, DG Communities

Items and actions

Introduction

Director of Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights, chaired the meeting in the absence of the DG Education and Justice who submitted apologies. He welcomed members and thanked them for their flexibility regarding the change in meeting time.

Minutes

Members approved the minutes from last meeting.

Update on UK Government meeting on Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Code of Practice

The Director of Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights provided an update on the recent meeting with the UK Government regarding progress on the review of the EHRC Code of Practice.

A further discussion with the UK Government is scheduled for late March.

Legal update

An update was given on recent developments and activity taking place in the following weeks. 

Updates from DG areas

High level updates were provided by representatives from DGs:

• Communities
• Education
• Health
• Justice
• Corporate
• Economy
• Net Zero
• Social Security Scotland

Update from Communications

Communications colleagues provided an overview of recent and upcoming work.

Members were reminded of the upcoming pre-election period and impact this will have on communications.

AOB and Close

The Permanent Secretary thanked colleagues for the assurances of progress and preparedness of the working group.

The Chair brought the meeting to a close, thanking members for their contributions.

Actions

Members were reminded to update the pre-election tracker with any material that may be affected by the forthcoming pre-election period, and to consider anything they wish to raise at the next meeting.