Details of Gender Recognition Unit: FOI release

Information requested

I cannot find any official webpage about the Gender Recognition Unit on the Scottish Government website nor through a Google search. Please provide me with the following information as soon as possible:

• The web address for the Gender Recognition Unit.
• The remit for the Gender Recognition Unit.
• The latest budget for the Gender Recognition Unit.
• The name, title and contact details of the civil servant in charge of the Gender Recognition Unit.

Response

The web address for the Gender Recognition Unit
The Gender Recognition Unit has no web page on the Scottish Government Website. This is currently under review.

The remit for the Gender Recognition Unit
The Gender Recognition Unit is responsible for policy and administration related to the proposed Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.

The latest budget for the Gender Recognition Unit
The Gender recognition unit has five members of staff presently. Information about potential expenditure if changes should be made to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 was contained in the draft Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment included as part of the Scottish Government’s most recent consultation in this area: Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill: consultation -gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The name, title and contact details of the civil servant in charge of the Gender Recognition Unit
An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested, because it is personal data of a third party, in that it consists of personal information that may identify an individual 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.

The Cabinet Secretary and officials have met with several organisations, in support of, and critical of, the proposed reforms.

All meetings have taken place ahead of the Bill being introduced to Parliament – in addition to the opportunities to input into two consultations. Further significant opportunity will be provided when Parliament scrutiny begins. We will seek consensus where possible and will work to support a respectful debate and to ensure people are clear on actual proposed changes.

We appreciate the range of strongly held views on our proposals and the Social Justice Secretary has always been keen to seek consensus where possible and to work to support respectful debate and will continue to do so.

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.