Question reference: S6W-16640
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 3 April 2023
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Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 May 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans on introducing a requirement for (a) Police Scotland, (b) the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and (c) the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to record the sex of people charged with or convicted of rape or attempted rape.
Answer
We have no plans to introduce such a requirement. It is a matter for those relevant public bodies collecting information on sex to establish the best approach in their individual institutional settings. In the case of those committing crime, this approach will rightly be shaped by how Police Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service operationalise both the wider legal context (where for example an arrested person is not legally required to answer questions on their sex or gender) and any associated guidance on collecting data about sex and gender.
The information Police Scotland record on the sex of people, which flows through to partners as any criminal proceedings are taken forward, has no impact on how cases are investigated or prosecuted. It will be based on how people present, unless an alternative gender is disclosed. In respect of the offences of rape and attempted rape, the law requires that there is penetration or attempted penetration of the complainer’s mouth, vagina or anus by the perpetrator’s penis, which includes a surgically constructed penis.