Scottish Household Survey & SSCQ: FOI release

Information requested

1. All information relating to the Office for Statistics Regulation review into the gender identity question in the Scottish Household Survey.

2. All information relating to the adaption of the same question in the Scottish Survey Core Questions that has been undertaken in 2021/2022.

Response

In relation to the first part of your request, a previous FOI responded to on 2 July 2021 includes background information relating to the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) review: Information regarding “gender identity” question in Scottish Household survey: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The findings from the review have also been published on the OSR website: Ed Humpherson to Alastair McAlpine: Office for Statistics Regulation’s review of gender identity question and the Scottish Household Survey – Office for Statistics Regulation (statisticsauthority.gov.uk).

Annex A of the attached supporting document includes a copy of further information related to the first part of your request.

In relation to the second part of your request, the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies on the collection of data on sex, gender identity and trans status in September 2021. The Scottish Surveys Core Questions (SSCQ) were then updated in accordance with this guidance. For more information please see the guidance (Sex, gender identity, trans status - data collection and publication: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)). An updated document detailing the current SSCQ will
be published on the Scottish Government website in the near future and this will note that the questions follow the Chief Statistician’s guidance (Scottish Surveys Core Questions (SSCQ) - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)).

Annex B of the attached supporting document includes a copy of further information related to the second part of your request. Some information has been omitted from Annex B where it was already included as part of Annex A.

An exemption under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK 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.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. This applies in several instances where information has been published on the Scottish Government website.

Further information has been redacted from documentation where it does not relate to the scope of this request.

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 202200303620 - Information released

File type

95 page PDF

File size

1.6 MB