Conversion Therapy: FOI release

Information requested

• Documentation published by the Scottish Government on the subject of Conversion/ Conversion Therapy
• Evidence that the Scottish Government holds on Conversion/Conversion Therapy in Scotland.
• Correspondence that the Scottish Government and Ministers have received on ‘banning conversion therapy’, ‘conversion therapy’ or evidence received in the last years up to date. Including copies of correspondence received from the UN Independent Expert (Victor Madrigal-Borloz).

Response

All SG publications are available publicly on www.gov.scot/publications however a search for ‘conversion therapy’ shows no results.

We aim to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not hold any evidence in relation to Conversion Therapy. While a UK Government document and not officially held by the Scottish Government, the 2018 National LGBT Survey: Summary Report can be found online at; https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-lgbt-survey-summary-report.  

Your request does not provide a timeframe for the correspondence received in relation to conversion therapy. I have therefore enclosed correspondence received by the Scottish Government from the past three years relating to the terms you have requested; ‘banning conversion therapy’ and ‘conversion therapy’. While we aim to provide information whenever possible, a small amount of the information you have requested has been redacted because an exemption under section 38(1)(b) (personal information) applies.

This is because it is the personal data of a third party, i.e. names/contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

In regards to your request for correspondence from UN Independent Expert, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, I have enclosed the Scottish Government’s response on 4 MARCH 2020 to your FOI request on the 19 FEBRUARY 2020. From 4 MARCH 2020 when this response was issued to the present date, the Scottish Government does not have a record of communications between Victor Madrigal-Borloz and the Scottish Government.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FoI-202000062067 - Information released

File type

12 page PDF

File size

3.1 MB