MBM response to the Chief Statistician’s Working Group on sex and gender identity data

In December 2020 the Scottish Government published the Chief Statistician’s draft guidance on the collection of data on sex and gender for public bodies.
The draft guidance advises that public organisations should not ask questions about biological sex, except where relevant to medical treatment, while ‘legal sex’ should only be collected ‘in a small number of instances’ and ‘on an individual basis for a very specific purpose’ . Instead, it is advised that ‘in most cases… data should be collected on the basis of gender identity rather than sex’. Our response to the guidance is here: