To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will provide an explanation for the removal of the “female” category from the Scottish Parliament’s search function, despite the UK Supreme Court ruling in April 2025 that confirmed “woman” and “sex” under the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body recently discussed and agreed to continue to collate and publish data about the diversity of MSPs. We recognise the importance of biographical data about MSPs on the website so that the public can understand and decide who they wish to contact on an issue. This data is also important for understanding and monitoring the diversity and representative make up of Parliament in the longer term.
The Gender Sensitive Audit (GSA) report in session 6 had cross party support. Its recommendations included enhancing the collation, monitoring, and reporting of diversity data at Holyrood.
It is SPCB’s intention that a web filter enabling the public to filter members by sex and trans status will be provided on the website, reflecting the diversity of parliament from session 7. This takes account of various considerations, including equalities, data protection and privacy requirements. This work is being carried out respectfully by officials recognising the sensitivities involved.
Turning to the explanation for the temporary removal of the filter following the election, some diversity information was mistakenly made available online before it had been confirmed directly by individual MSPs. Once identified, it was removed from the Parliament’s website.
That information was not sourced from, or verified by, current MSPs and was not collected in line with the terms of recommendations set out in our GSA report of March 2023. As noted, this is being remedied as a matter of urgency, and we are sorry for the confusion and upset this has caused for many people.
Accordingly, on Monday 1 June 2026, all MSPs were invited to complete a short survey on sex and trans status. This process ensures that relevant diversity information is confirmed directly with individual MSPs before use. This is in line with the recommendations of the GSA report.
The short survey should only take MSPs a few minutes to complete and seeks their consent to publication of their personal data on the Parliament’s website. It will be used in relation to the search filter regarding individual MSP website profiles and for use for internal and external reporting on aggregate data and other relevant purposes such as SPICe enquiries.
It is the SPCB’s aim to have the survey responses returned, the technical work completed and the filter reintroduced as soon as possible.
