Why won’t Humza close Scotland’s tartan Tavistock?

Another day, another Holyrood mess. This time, it’s hapless Humza Yousaf being criticised for his slow response to the Cass review into gender services. It’s not like the Scottish First Minister to be missing in action when it matters…

If Yousaf’s time as First Minister is defined by anything, it might well be his staggering level of indecision. Just hours after Mr S asked the question about Scotland’s tartan Tavistock, hapless Humza Yousaf finally threw in the towel. This morning, the Sandyford gender clinic in Glasgow has announced it is pausing prescriptions of puberty blockers to new patients under the age of 18 in light of the Cass review. Only took them, er, eight full days after the report was published to react. But the story gets murkier. It has been claimed that two NHS Scotland health boards ‘deferred starting new patients on these treatments in mid-March’ of this year ‘while the publication of the Cass review was awaited’. But why did the First Minister neglect to mention this when asked about the Scottish government’s stance on the Cass report? And the larger question remains: will Sandyford’s gender clinic close altogether? On that, Yousaf continues to dither.

The wide-reaching Cass review last week found ‘remarkably weak evidence’ to support gender treatments for children and concluded that the ‘toxicity’ of the gender debate meant professionals were ‘afraid’ to openly discuss their views. That report came after an independent review in 2022 led to the closure of NHS England’s Tavistock clinic — the only centre in England treating children for gender dysphoria. And while this latest report focuses specifically on services south of the border, it offers a stark warning for gender clinics across the whole of the UK — particularly for Scotland’s very own ‘tartan Tavistock’, the Sandyford clinic, which is still treating children with gender dysphoria. Given the response in Westminster, you might have thought the Scottish government would to have something to say about it all too. Well, don’t hold your breath.

Despite having an opinion on everything under the sun, Yousaf has spent remarkably little time on the matter in a BBC Radio Scotland interview. The First Minister told presenters that his government wouldn’t be taking an ‘inordinate’ amount of time to consider Cass’s findings — but a week on from the report, his beleaguered cabinet still hasn’t figured out quite exactly what it thinks. But while Yousaf dithers over the gender service review, the First Minister has no qualms about defending the need for the tartan Tavistock. ‘I don’t believe there is a case to close the Sandyford,’ he told radio listeners. Talk about being decisive for the cause of indecision.

But the more the Scottish government drags its heels, the more pressure piles on Yousaf. Tavistock whistleblower David Bell, former Scottish Green leader Robin Harper, Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie and even the SNP’s own Joanna Cherry are among the many voices urging Yousaf to act on the report. The Scottish Tories’ deputy leader Meghan Gallacher has fired off a barrage of queries, including: a ministerial statement, a topical question request, an urgent question request and even an amendment to a parliamentary business motion. Yet every single one of these enquiries has been rejected.

But the SNP government’s ambivalence over the Cass report is only drawing more attention to it. An angry Gallacher slammed Yousaf’s ‘deafening silence’ as ‘unacceptable’ while an SNP source told the Daily Mail they felt the government is ‘determined to ignore Cass’. Ash Regan, an ex-SNP MSP who made her name for rebelling against the gender bill, has even accused the Scottish government of ‘hiding behind state-funded lobbyists’ on the trans healthcare debate. Strong stuff. Regan lodged a topical motion on Monday and an urgent question on Tuesday but they were — you guessed it — rejected.

What has the Scottish government got to say about all of this? Erm, not very much. Its spokesperson said this week that the government doesn’t ‘comment on question selection other than to say the selection of questions is a matter for the Presiding Officer’. And in the Chamber on Wednesday, SNP minister Jenni Minto told MSPs that ‘the Scottish government, our officials and our senior clinicians are all looking at what the report contains and we will begin giving an initial review on that as soon as possible’. Talk about leadership.