In December 2020 the Scottish Government published the Chief Statistician’s Draft Guidance on Sex and Gender in Data, and invited feedback by 12 Feb. We have produced a short overview of the draft, and will submit a detailed response in due course.
https://mbmpolicy.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/invisible-women.-mbm-briefing-note-on-draft-guidance-on-collecting-data-on-sex-and-gender-january-2021.pdf
The draft states that public bodies should not ask about biology, except potentially, where directly relevance to a person’s medical treatment. An accompanying ScotGov summary states: ‘in most cases.. data should be collected on the basis of gender identity rather than sex’.
The draft also states that in a small number of instances, it may be necessary to record a person’s legal sex, but that 'this would be on an individual basis for a very specific purpose’. The draft guidance and accompanying summary are here.
https://mbmpolicy.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/invisible-women.-mbm-briefing-note-on-draft-guidance-on-collecting-data-on-sex-and-gender-january-2021.pdf
Biological sex is a key determinant of a person’s experiences and outcomes, and one of the most important variables for the purposes of policy, planning and research. The draft does not discuss why current gender identity is now seen as more useful to collect.
Scotland is already at serious risk of losing the capacity to gather data that, for decades, has provided the building blocks for policy-makers and researchers to monitor and tackle discrimination based on sex. If accepted, the draft proposals are likely to cement this loss.
We are quoted in this piece about the draft guidance in today's Times: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/questions-on-biological-sex-are-wiped-from-official-data-klskthtfc
Questions on biological sex ‘are wiped from official data’

Questions about a person’s biology “should not be asked” according to draft guidelines from Scotland’s chief statistician, in a paper that has fuelled concern that sex is being increasingly erased

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/scotland/questions-on-biological-sex-are-wiped-from-official-data-klskthtfc
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