Non-binary people's experiences in Scotland: evidence review

Context and Purpose

This report is a review of existing evidence to understand the experiences of non-binary people in Scotland.

The Scottish Government’s Non-Binary Equality Action Plan 2023-2028^[1] sets out actions that the Scottish Government will take to improve the lives of non-binary people and the wider trans community in Scotland. The Non-Binary Action Plan’s vision is for Scotland to be a place where everyone’s identity is recognised, respected, and celebrated. Scotland should be a place where everybody can participate, access rights and opportunities and thrive in society. The plan aims to address inequalities and barriers faced by non-binary people and is based on the accepted and partially accepted recommendations in the Working Group on Non-Binary Equality’s Report (2022)^[2].

The purpose of this report is to address actions related to Commitment 18, “Support specific research and evidence-gathering with non-binary people in the absence of high enough response rates from non-binary people in population-level surveys” which sits within the wider ‘Data and Research’ objective^[i]. The actions related to Commitment 18 are:

Graphic text below:

• Evidence Review [action 7.5] and Update Equality Evidence Finder [action 7.6]
• Engage with stakeholders to agree priorities for filling evidence gaps [action 7.7]
• Work with stakeholders to co-design research [action 7.8]
• Commission research and publish findings [action 7.9].

These actions will allow the Scottish Government to develop more inclusive, evidence-based policies, which will improve service delivery and outcomes for non-binary people in Scotland. For this reason, the research outlined below focuses primarily on the key issues and discrimination that non-binary people experience. As agreed within actions 7.7 and 7.8, the work will be informed by third sector equality organisations and non-binary people, who can help to identify gaps and co-design subsequent research. This publication reports on existing evidence and discussions with stakeholders, both individuals and organisations, concluding with a summary of the gaps that could be explored further.

The actions informing this Evidence Review and subsequent research are also reiterated in action 22 of Scottish Government’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025^[3]:

‘We will undertake work to strengthen the evidence base on the experiences of non-binary people in Scotland. By the end of 2023, we will carry out and publish a review of available quantitative and qualitative evidence on the experiences of non-binary people in Scotland. Throughout the period of the strategy, we will expand the range of evidence on non-binary people’s experiences presented on the Equality Evidence Finder to include third sector and academic research. By the end of 2024, we will engage with stakeholders to identify and agree priorities for filling evidence gaps. By the end of 2024, we will work with key stakeholders to co-design research to fill priority gaps, working within available budget and other resource constraints. By the end of 2025, we will publish a report of findings from the commissioned research.’