- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what criteria it considers appropriate for balancing the cost, visual impact, and safety when assessing major electricity infrastructure projects that run through prime agricultural land.
Answer
Potential impacts on communities, nature, and cultural heritage, including the cumulative effects of developments, are important considerations in the decision-making process.
The decision whether to grant consent for an application is taken only after careful consideration of environmental information, consultee responses and public representations.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of the UK Government's consultation, Building the North Sea’s Energy Future, regarding the potential impact in Scotland, whether it has assessed the consultation’s proposals for supporting oil and gas workers in transitioning to new energy sectors; how it plans to engage with stakeholders, including trade unions and local communities, in finalising any policy responses; what assessment it has made of the potential economic and energy security implications of implementing any recommendations arising from this consultation; whether it has had any discussions with the UK Government regarding any reserved or shared competencies relevant to these proposals, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.
Answer
The Scottish Government regularly engages with a wide range of stakeholders on energy policy matters, including business and industry, trade unions and communities.
Offshore oil and gas licensing, as well as consenting and the associated fiscal regime, are all matters that are currently reserved to the UK Government.
The Scottish Government is taking the appropriate time to carefully consider the UK Government’s current consultation on Building the North Sea’s Energy Future, and its potential outcomes.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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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".
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is encouraging the use of faecal calprotectin tests, which help to improve the diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Answer
We expect all healthcare professionals to follow best practice and adhere to current guidelines and standards when providing care and support for people with suspected IBD, including the use of faecal calprotectin tests, to help improve diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
A national IBD pathway for NHS Scotland was published in January 2025: inflammatory-bowel-disease-ibd-pathway.pdf. This pathway is intended to be used for primary and secondary care health care professionals who are concerned that a patient may have undiagnosed IBD.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support calls for debt justice for any countries that are required to take on debt to recover from climate disasters and climate-related loss and damage.
Answer
Scotland remains committed to being a leader and bridge builder on climate justice. This includes by convening and influencing at international events, to champion climate justice and amplify Global South voices.
We have previously incorporated debt justice within our climate justice advocacy positions: advocating prior to, during and after COP29 for a proportion of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to be ringfenced so as to make finance directly available to communities in the form of grants, not loans. As a government we are currently scoping opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on the issue of the global climate debt crisis, including at key upcoming international events.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it supports calls for global debt cancellation to be a key pillar of the UN Loss and Damage Fund, ensuring that climate-vulnerable nations are not required to take on more debt to recover from climate disasters.
Answer
Scotland remains committed to being a leader and bridge builder on climate justice. This includes by convening and influencing at international events, to champion climate justice and amplify Global South voices.
We have previously incorporated debt justice within our climate justice advocacy positions: advocating prior to, during and after COP29 for a proportion of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to be ringfenced so as to make finance directly available to communities in the form of grants, not loans. As a government we are currently scoping opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on the issue of the global climate debt crisis, including at key upcoming international events.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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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).
Answer
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.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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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.
Answer
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.
