Non-binary equality action plan

Section 6 - 3. Legislation, Guidance, Access to Services and IT Systems

Objective

The development of legislation, guidance and policy takes into account the non-binary community and removes barriers to non-binary people accessing services.

Context

We need to ensure that non-binary people do not face barriers in accessing their legal rights and protections. We will ensure that future Scottish legislation, in general, does not use unnecessarily gendered terminology or assumptions across the law.

We will carry out research on how legal gender recognition of non-binary people could work in Scotland. We also want to make it easier for trans and non-binary people to change their name.

We also want to ensure that non-binary people are able to access services and feel that their identities are respected.

We want to make sure that we have guidance in place to assist service providers when reviewing and developing new IT systems to make them more inclusive of non-binary people, where possible, including a review to the CHI number system in health settings.

Commitments

Our commitments reflect the recommendations of the Working Group on Non-Binary Equality. Where we accepted a recommendation, the wording of the commitment relating to that recommendation remains the same. Where we partially accepted a recommendation, our commitment reflects the aspects of the recommendation that we accepted. The numbering of the commitments reflects that of the recommendations. The commitments used to develop this section of the plan are as follows:

Legislation, Guidance and Access to Services

Commitment 19

Produce clear guidance about name changes for trans and non-binary people.

Commitment 25

Ensure that future legislation does not further entrench unnecessarily gendered terminology or assumptions across the law.

Commitment 26

Review the use of, and take action to remove, unnecessary gender markers from identity documents, including by working with the UK Government to take action where ID is administered on a UK-wide basis.

Commitment 30

Work with Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) and LGBTQI+ stakeholders to ensure that the needs of non-binary people experiencing gender-based violence are fully understood and consider their needs in a way that protects both VAWG policy and non-binary people through the Equally Safe refresh.

IT Systems

Commitment 10

Review the use of a sex code in Community Health Index (CHI) numbers and enable non-binary people to be recognised in medical records.

Commitment 21

Review of new or enhanced IT systems that are within scope of the Technology Assurance Framework.

3.1. Legislation, Guidance and Access to Services

Actions

5.1 We will produce guidance for individuals, including for trans and non-binary people, on how to change your name in Scotland.

Commitment

19

Timescales

Short Term

Impact

This will clarify the process for individuals looking to change their name.

Partners

National Records of Scotland

Actions

5.2 Trans and non-binary inclusion issues will continue to be considered as we continuously review our internal Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) guidance. In live training and coaching sessions, we will explicitly prompt policy teams to consider impacts on trans and non-binary people when conducting EQIAs. This will ensure that their needs are actively and thoughtfully addressed, upholding their rights under the Equality Act 2010.

Commitment

25

Timescales

Medium Term

Impact

This will ensure the impact on non-binary people is fully understood when changes to law and policies are being considered.

Actions

5.3 We will continue to follow the ongoing policy to use gender neutral language in all legislative drafting. The latest published edition of the drafting guidance, Drafting Matters!, includes an express reference to non-binary people in regards to the use of gender-specific pronouns as well as alternatives to gender-specific nouns.

Commitment

25

Timescales

Medium Term

Impact

This will ensure the impact on non-binary people is fully understood when changes to law and policies are being considered.

Actions

5.4 We will develop a reusable Digital Identity Service, which would reduce the need for repeated use of traditional identity documentation, which may include gender markers, and reduce the need for organisations to verify and store unnecessary information about individuals when providing services to them.^[13]

Commitment

26

Timescales

Medium Term

Impact

This would reduce the need for organisations to verify and store unnecessary information for service provision, which may include gender markers.

Partners

Disclosure Scotland

Public Sector Organisations

Actions

5.5 We will assess the suitability of emerging UK and International frameworks for the development of standards based digital identities.

Commitment

26

Timescales

Short Term

Impact

This would reduce the need for organisations to verify and store unnecessary information for service provision, which may include gender markers.

Partners

Disclosure Scotland

Public Sector Organisations

Actions

5.6 We will explore non-binary people’s experience of the continuum of gender-based violence in order to develop a greater understanding on which to build an evidence-based approach to policy making, service provision and funding.

Commitment

30

Timescales

Short Term

Impact

We will have a better understanding of non-binary people’s experience of gender-based violence to inform policymaking.

Partners

VAWG stakeholders

LGBTQI+ Stakeholders

Health Stakeholders

Actions

5.7 We will consult with VAWG and LGBTQI+ organisations within the engagement process of the Equally Safe strategy refresh.

Commitment

30

Timescales

Short Term

Impact

We will have a better understanding of non-binary people’s experience of gender-based violence to inform policymaking.

Partners

VAWG stakeholders

LGBTQI+ Stakeholders

Health Stakeholders

3.2. IT Systems

Actions

6.1 We will complete an initial review with relevant policy colleagues and the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) the end of April 2024 to understand how the demographic information held in the new CHI system might reflect the range of non-binary definitions, and explore options, including in other core health systems.

Commitment

10

Timescales

Short Term

Impact

We will have a better understanding of the impact of changing the information held in CHI and use this initial review to inform our approach.

Partners

Chief Medical Officer

Chief Scientist Office

NHS National Services Scotland

National Digital Platform

Actions

6.2 We will complete a review with the Chief Medical Officer by end April 2024 in the context of Scotland’s Data Strategy for Health and Social Care on the wider clinical impact of amendments to the CHI number.

Commitment

10

Timescales

Short Term

Impact

We will have a better understanding of the impact of changing the information held in CHI and use this initial review to inform our approach.

Partners

Chief Medical Officer

Chief Scientist Office

NHS National Services Scotland

National Digital Platform

Actions

6.3 We will complete a review by end December 2023 on lessons learned from our current work on the new CHI project.

Commitment

10

Timescales

Short Term

Impact

We will have a better understanding of the impact of changing the information held in CHI and use this initial review to inform our approach.

Partners

Chief Medical Officer

Chief Scientist Office

NHS National Services Scotland

National Digital Platform

Actions

6.4 We will ensure new online services are independently assessed to ensure they follow set standards. This assessment will review the approach the team have taken and ensure that any actions identified for non-binary people have been followed through.

Commitment

21

Timescales

Medium Term

Impact

This will ensure that new online services have assessed the needs and impacts of the services on non-binary people.

Partners

LGBTQI+ Stakeholders

Public Sector organisations