Gender Identity and Healthcare Access team information: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many members are there on the Gender Identity and Healthcare Access team?

2. How many members of the Gender Identity and Healthcare Access team are members of WPATH?

3. How many members of the Gender Identity and Healthcare Access team are members of EPATH?

4. How many of the members of the Gender Identity and Healthcare Access team work for the Scottish Government? How many of theses are MSPs?

5. Copies of all correspondence with the Cass Review team regarding the Gender Identity Healthcare Standards, including when they were consulted for the draft standards.

6. As the standards are healthcare standards , so clinical, what percentage of the Gender Identity and Healthcare Access team have clinical qualifications and what are their qualifications? I appreciate names can not be given.

7. Which governing bodies are the Gender Identity and Healthcare Access team members of eg the GMC? How many are members of the GMC? How many are registered with HCPC? How many are registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council?

8. Please provide information regarding how an equitable and fair representation of all interested parties involved in the standards was made.

9. Were all members screened for competing interests, such as links to pharmaceutical companies? If so, were any declared and who with?

Response

In your request, you ask a number of questions about the Gender Identity and Healthcare Access (GIHA) team, which I have addressed below. I have also provided some background information on the Scottish Government and the Civil Service.

Questions 1 and 4

You ask how many members are in GIHA team, how many are Scottish Government employees, and if any of the GIHA members are Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP).

To answer your questions:

There are currently four civil servants working in the GIHA policy team. This sits within the Population Health Directorate of the Scottish Government. All members are, therefore, employees of the Scottish Government and none of them are Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP).

As per the Scottish Government website: ‘The civil service helps the government of the day develop and implement its policies as well as deliver public services. Civil servants are accountable to ministers, who in turn are accountable to Parliament.’

Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) are not part of the civil service and, as such, are not members of the GIHA policy team, which is accountable to Ministers, who in turn are accountable to Parliament.

Questions 2, 3, 6 and 7

You also ask how many members of the GIHA team are members of EPATH and/or WPATH; which, if any, governing bodies the members are part of; and, more specifically, how many are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC), the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), or the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

To answer your questions:

None of the members of the GIHA team are registered medical practitioners. None are members of the representative professional organisations and/or governing bodies you refer to.

Civil servants are recruited to specific roles on the basis of merit order and through fair and open competition, provided they can demonstrate that they have relevant skills and knowledge required for a given role. In addition to Chief and Deputy Medical Officers, Scottish Government also employs a number of other clinical advisors from different areas of medicine and healthcare, such as general practitioners, paediatricians, specialty doctors and nurses, pharmacists and others, that work alongside civil servants and support and advise them as they develop policies and advise Ministers. You can find more information on Scottish Government recruitment principles and processes here.

Questions 8 and 9

You also ask questions about the development of the standards for gender identity healthcare services published on 3 September 2024 by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). Specifically, you ask for ‘information regarding how an equitable and fair representation of all interested parties involved in the standards was made.’ You also ask whether ‘…all members [were] screened for competing interests, such as links to pharmaceutical companies? If so, were any declared and who with?’.

Your reference to ‘all members’ was interpreted to mean individuals involved in the development of the HIS standards.

The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for in questions 8 and 9. This is because the Scottish Government did not develop the standards, but commissioned HIS to carry out this work. The development of standards to support health and social care organisations to improve the quality of care and support they deliver is one of HIS’s core functions, and HIS follows an established process – including the use and recruitment of development group membership - and standardised, robust methodology. You can find details of how to contact them to request the information you seek at the following link: Freedom of information – Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

However, I can confirm that the GIHA policy team was not part of the standards development group. You can find more information on the development group in Appendix 2 of Gender identity healthcare: Adults and young people standards.

Question 5

You also ask for ‘Copies of all correspondence with the Cass Review team regarding the Gender identity healthcare standards, including when they were consulted for the draft standards’

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested, specifically the correspondence when the Cass Review team were consulted for the draft standards. This is because, as previously explained, Scottish Government did not develop the standards but has commissioned HIS who has also run a consultation on the draft standards as part of their development process. You can find details how to contact them to request the information from Freedom of information – Healthcare Improvement Scotland, and they may be able to help you with information you requested. 

However, some of the information you have requested is available in an Annex (pages 80, 93, and 102) from Prescribing puberty hormone suppressants and cross-sex hormone medication to young people: FOI release - gov.scot (www.gov.scot). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the websites listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

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.

About FOI

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