1. Background and timing In early 2020, the UK census authorities will finalise the questions they propose to ask in the next census, which will take place on 21 March 2021. Draft census orders will be laid in both the…
Read More Draft guidance under consideration for 2021 census sex question: summary of proposals
Conservatives: No reference to reform of the Gender Recognition Act. Liberal Democrats: "Complete reform of the Gender Recognition Act to remove the requirement for medical reports, scrap the fee and recognise non-binary gender identities." Other related proposals: "Introduce an ‘X’…
Read More 2019 UK general election party manifesto commitments on GRA reform
Last month, following a parliamentary evidence session on the 2021 census, the Scottish Parliament's Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee (CTEEA) Committee wrote to the National Records of Scotland (NRS), asking for further clarification on several points. This blog discusses…
Read More Last chance saloon: preserving the integrity of the sex question in the 2021 census
The Government's Programme for Scotland 2019/2020 states that the Scottish Government will 'consult on the detail of a draft Gender Recognition Bill by the end of this year, setting out our proposals to reform the current process of obtaining a Gender…
Read More 20 questions on GRA reform and gender self-declaration
We have completed the National Records of Scotland (NRS) online survey on the draft Equality Impact Assessment for Scotland's 2021 census. Our main substantive responses are shown below. Q. What do you think are the most significant impacts on you/your…
Read More Scotland’s Census 2021 Impact Assessments Stakeholder Survey: MBM response
BackgroundIn June 2019 the Scottish Parliament passed the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill, with the effect of introducing new voluntary questions on gender self-identity and sexual orientation in the 2021 census. The detailed census questions will be agreed by the Scottish…
Read More Losing count: consultation on the sex question in the 2021 census
Earlier this year, MSPs from all parties voted to include a new question on trans status in the 2021 Census. Gender reassignment is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, so it is right that the census collects data…
We have been delighted by the response we've had to our paper on policy capture and gender self-identification in the current edition of Scottish Affairs. It was downloaded almost 5,000 times in the 12 days following publication. In his column in…
As part of its preparation for the 2021 Scotland census, National Records of Scotland (NRS) are planning to commission testing which looks at the effect of offering different forms of accompanying guidance for the sex question. The sex question itself…
Read More Proposals to test the census sex question guidance miss the point
This post brings together material relating to Losing Sight of Women’s Rights: the unregulated introduction of gender self-identification as a case study of policy capture in Scotland, available here (open access) in Scottish Affairs Vol 28 (3). Authors’ statementWe share the view of Professors…
Read More Losing Sight of Women’s Rights (Scottish Affairs vol. 28 3)
