ANAS Sarwar has accused Humza Yousaf of being boastful and "complacent" after attacking his record on misogyny within Police Scotland.
The Scottish Labour leader said that as Justice Secretary in 2020 Mr Yousaf had promised to root out the boys’ club culture, but had failed to deliver.
Four former female officers, including a former assistant chief constable (ACC), told BBC Newsnight this week about a “culture of misogyny” at all levels within the Scottish force.
Angela Wilson, former ACC of Tayside Police, said women currently working in the force are too afraid to speak out about their experiences.
Ms Wilson, who took early retirement in 2013, said her 30-year career was disrupted by trying to address the culture, and has called for a judge-led inquiry into the issue.
Georgina Gallivan, an IT civilian role in the force for 20 years, said her appraisals had all been excellent until she complained about a male colleague in 2017.
She said: “After that, it all kind of became ‘she’s a problem, she’s got mental health issues, she’s just causing trouble’.”
She said the male officer made comments about her being “hormonal”, adding “it was humiliating in front of colleagues that you’ve worked with for such a long time”.
READ MORE: Final abortion clinic buffer zone plans to be published by June
At FMQs, Mr Sarwar said Mr Yousaf vowed in 2020 the Government would move “at pace” to address cultural problems in the force and there would be “no dithering”.
Yet Newsnight showed women still scared to speak out and quitting the force early.
🕒 Today is the last day to save on a full year of digital access with our lowest EVER offer starting from £24.
Don't miss out on full access to the latest news, exclusives, opinion and premium content.
“Is that the decisive action that the First Minister was talking about?” he asked.
Mr Yousaf said there had been decisive action in the justice system, including reducing court backlogs, low crime figures and more police per head of population than south of the border.
“In terms of misogyny, we are taking decisive action,” Mr Yousaf said.
He added: “ I know from my engagement with the Chief Constable (Sir) Iain Livingstone how seriously he takes the issue of misogyny. We take as a Government, and I know the police do, extremely seriously any concern raised against police officers.”
Mr Sarwar replied: “I am sorry, but that is a complacent answer from the First Minister.
“He seems to be in denial. The fact that female police officers feel compelled to speak to the media in order to inspire change from the Government is a record of failure, not one of success or progress.
“There is chaos across our criminal justice system. Courts are backlogged, prisons are overcrowded and the police force is being starved of resources.
“Is not the problem with the First Minister that he likes to talk big, but consistently fails to deliver? This is an incompetent and dysfunctional SNP Government which, after 16 years, has left every Scottish institution weaker.
“Is it any wonder that, every day, more and more people are losing trust and faith in this failing SNP Government?”
READ MORE: UK Government to 'robustly defend' gender law veto
Mr Yousaf said he was giving Mr Sarwar the facts and said Scottish Labour was less popular than the SNP and not trusted by the public.
Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said: “Policing in Scotland is not immune from sexism and misogyny which persists across society and we are tackling this challenge head-on to improve the experiences of all women, including our officers and staff.
“The onus is on us to address policy, process and education gaps and challenge bias at every level, and wherever it occurs to maintain and build confidence will all communities.
“Police Scotland strives to enable our people to make their voices heard so we can make effective and sustainable change based on what they tell us.”
However, he said there are “no quick fixes”, with efforts ongoing to address the issue, including the appointment of a dedicated officer to drive the required change.
The force also said the grievances raised by Ms Gallivan were “appropriately concluded” and no employment claim has been made in the case.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here