On 21 March, the Scottish Parliament announced that staff would no longer be allowed to wear lanyards or badges representing social movements.
Staff have been allowed to wear personalised lanyards since 2017 in accordance with the Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021.
However, the Code of Conduct has since changed to emphasise the impartiality of parliamentary staff.
For this reason, all staff must now wear parliament-issued purple lanyards.
The changes come into effect from 28 March.
A Scottish Parliament spokesperson said:
“This decision will help minimise the risk of perceived bias. It will also help avoid any potential misperception over the absolute impartiality of all Scottish parliamentary staff.”
All personal items “showing support for social movements and towards campaigns or organisations” can no longer be worn.
This includes a ban on rainbow-themed items and pro-LGBTQ+ messaging.
However, staff will continue to be allowed to wear sunflower lanyards – which indicate a hidden disability – and pronoun badges.
An email sent to parliamentary staff stated that:
“Wearing a pronoun pin or badge is a simple but effective way of signalling that we respect people’s pronouns and their gender identity.”
They will also be allowed to wear pins related to their roles, for example, if they are First Aiders or Gaelic speakers.
Personal items showing membership of trade unions recognised by the Scottish Parliament Corporate Body – such as the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Prospect, and the FDA – are also exempt from the new rules.
The email stated:
“This obligation does not seek to curtail or suppress our identities rather it is about preserving individual impartiality and, by connection, the perceived impartiality of the [Scottish Parliament Services].”
“Crazy person’s rainbow lanyard 🙂 ! – photo.JPG” by roland is licensed under CC BY 2.0.