Questions and answers

Question reference: S6F-04003

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 24 April 2025

To ask the First Minister what impact the Scottish Government anticipates that the Supreme Court judgment regarding For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers will have on the implementation of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-36211

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review its guidance for public bodies on the collection and publication of data regarding sex, gender identity and trans status to take into account the recommendations of the UK Government review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender (the Sullivan Review).

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach that aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

The Sullivan Review specifically recommends that the Scottish Government reviews its guidance in light of its recommendations. The Scottish Government has previously committed to reviewing its guidance on collecting data on sex and gender by the end of 2026 as part of the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan.

Ahead of this review, the Office of the Chief Statistician is engaged with wider-UK work on this topic. The Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonisation Team is currently developing harmonised standards for collecting data on sex and gender identity. The Office of the Chief Statistician is contributing to this work, and will consider its outputs as part of its review of the Chief Statistician’s guidance.

Question reference: S6W-36216

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ensure that, whenever sex is recorded, it is made clear whether this refers simply to sex, or to a person's "legal sex" based on a Gender Recognition Certificate.

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024. The Scottish Government guidance provides definitions for terms such as ‘legal sex’ which can be used by users or producers of the data.

The Scottish Government has previously committed to reviewing its guidance on collecting data on sex and gender by the end of 2026 as part of the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan.

Question reference: S6W-36214

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to mandate that data on sex be collected by default in all research and data collection that it or its non-departmental public bodies commission.

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data (for operational, statistical and research purposes) that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-36220

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to undertake quantitative research to assess what the general public considers to be the meaning of key words in relation to sex reassignment that may be used in data collection, including "transgender man", "trans man", "transgender", "trans", "transsexual" and "gender reassignment".

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach which aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

The Sullivan Review specifically recommends that the Scottish Government reviews its guidance in light of its recommendations. The Scottish Government has previously committed to reviewing its guidance on collecting data on sex and gender by the end of 2026 as part of the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan.

Ahead of this review, the Office of the Chief Statistician is engaged with wider-UK work on this topic. The Government Statistical Service (GSS) Harmonisation Team is currently developing harmonised standards for collecting data on sex and gender identity. This work will include user engagement and question testing with stakeholders and the general public, which will help to determine how users would interpret different questions and phrases. The Office of the Chief Statistician is contributing to this work, and will consider its outputs as part of its review of the Chief Statistician’s guidance.

Question reference: S6W-36219

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will continue to ask questions that combine sex and gender identity in a single question, when collecting data.

The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.

Within the guidance, there are two recommended questions. The first asks people about their sex, with respondents able to answer ‘Female’, ‘Male’ or ‘Prefer not to say’. The second question asks people whether they consider themselves to be trans or have a trans history.

Question reference: S6W-36212

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 11 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether future legislation that it introduces will use the word "sex" instead of "gender".

Our future decisions around the terminology to be adopted in proposed Scottish Government legislation will be made in the light of all relevant matters. This will include matters such as the proposed legislation’s operation in conjunction with existing law, or any need to maintain consistency when the proposed legislation would textually amend provisions in another enactment.

There is published information on the Scottish Government’s approach to drafting proposed Acts of this Parliament in the second edition of the Parliamentary Counsel Office drafting manual, Drafting Matters!: https://www.gov.scot/publications/drafting-matters/pages/1/.

Question reference: S6W-36221

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Ivan McKee on 8 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to protect (a) it and (b) public bodies from any internal activism that seeks to influence outward-facing policy, including through staff networks.

Civil Servants appointed to the Scottish Government must adhere to the Civil Service Code and Standards of Behaviour. They must act with integrity and impartiality, avoiding any appearance of bias or misuse of position and refrain from using their official role to advance personal interests. Failure to do so could result in disciplinary action being taken up to and including dismissal.

Network activity is governed by a network role descriptor “The core purpose of a staff network is in providing a space for peer support.” Internal Staff networks have no role in informing external policy.

This response addresses only the Scottish Government and its executive agencies. Public bodies have local responsibility for staff management.

Question reference: S6W-35708

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to (a) create simpler reporting systems for retail staff and (b) improve coordination with police, for the reporting of retail crime.

Our Budget will make an additional £3 million available in 2025-26 to tackle retail crime.

This funding will support the formation of a Retail Crime Taskforce which will provide a visible and measurable impact on retail crime and will deliver on the following objectives:

Prevent: Stop people from becoming perpetrators of Retail crime by developing and implementing intervention and diversion mechanisms with partners.
Pursue: Target retail crime by bringing perpetrators to justice, with a focus on repeat offenders and organised criminals.
Protect: Strengthen the collective protections against Retail Crime by engaging directly with retailers on crime prevention and training.
Prepare: Mitigate against the impact of Retail Crime by exploring innovate opportunities for direct reporting systems.

New technologies will also be utilised to explore ways to make it easier for retail staff to directly report crimes to police, as well as capitalising on Police Scotland’s existing Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC), to secure early criminal justice outcomes.

This builds on a successful proof of concept within Fife Division and will aim to provide an efficient and effective direct reporting system to retailers.

Question reference: S6W-35707

Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 28 March 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote the health and safety of retail employees who may be subject to retail crime.

Those working in our retail sector should be lauded for the important work they are continuing to do during such challenging economic circumstances. They, like anybody, should be able to work without fear of abuse.

Retail workers (as well as all other workers) are protected by a wide range of criminal laws (i.e. the statutory offence of threatening or abusive behaviour; the common law offence of assault; and the common law offence of breach of the peace).

In addition, the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-Restricted Products) (Scotland) Act 2021(“the 2021 Act”) came into force in August 2021 and created a statutory offence of threatening, abusing, or assaulting a retail worker, adding to the offences that can already be used to prosecute those who abuse retail workers.

Scottish Government partners, like the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF), share best guidance and resources, such as the free GroceryAid helpline, and Victim Support, for victims of violence and abuse in a retail setting.

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