Chief Statistician’s draft guidance on collecting data on sex and gender
In December 2020 the Scottish Government published the Chief Statistician’s draft guidance on the collection of data on sex and gender for public bodies. The draft guidance advises that public organisations should not ask questions about biological sex, except where relevant to medical treatment, while ‘legal sex’ should only be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:
Sex and gender identity data in the Census
February 2021: Was the sex question in the 2011 census ‘self-identified’?
February 2021: ONS guidance for the sex question in the 2021 census in England and Wales
January 2021: Discontinuity in the UK censuses on the definition of sex
November 2020: International evidence and the risks of reframing the sex question in the census
November 2020: Policy divergence in the UK census
October 2020: Letter sent to Sir Bernard Silverman, Chair of the Methodological Assurance Review Panel for the 2021 Census
October 2020: WPUK presentation slides WPUK webinar slides ‘Sex and the census’
September 2020: Blog Back under the radar? A review of plans for the census
June 2020: Blog Domino effects: the implications of the framing the sex question in the 2021 census
June 2020: Blog A negligible effect? The untested assumptions behind plans for the 2021 census
February 2020: Blog A tale of two letters: whose views count?
February 2020: Blog and briefing note MBM view on proposals for the sex question in the UK 2021 census
January 2020: Blog Losing consensus on the census
December 2019: Blog Draft guidance under consideration for 2021 census sex question: summary of proposals
November 2019: Blog Last chance saloon: preserving the integrity of the sex question in the 2021 census
October 2019: MBM response to stakeholder survey Scotland’s Census 2021 Impact Assessments Stakeholder Survey: MBM response
October 2019: Blog Losing count: consultation on the sex question in the 2021 census
September 2019: Press article Lucy Hunter Blackburn: Sex question should stick to birth certificate Scotland on Sunday, 15 September 2019
September 2019: Press article Kath Murray: It’s vital that sex data is accurate Daily Mail, 14 September 2019
August 2019: MBM Statement MBM statement on the 2021 census
August 2019: Blog Proposals to test the census sex question guidance miss the point
June 2019: Blog Scotland’s 2021 Census: consultation and question development
April 2019: Blog Q&A on the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill
March 2019: Blog File under random: non-binary sex data and imputation in the 2021 census
February 2019: MBM Briefing note Stage One debate on the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill: MBM briefing
February 2019: Blog Finding the middle ground: sex and gender identity in the 2021 census
February 2019: MBM response to Stage 1 Report Stage 1 report on Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill: MBM response
January 2019: Blog Where next for the Census Amendment (Scotland) Bill?
December 2018: Blog Sex and the Census: A review of the sex question since 2001
Parliamentary evidence on the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill
December 2018: Evidence Supplementary written evidence to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee. 14 December 2018
December 2018: Evidence Stage 1 oral evidence to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee, Lucy Hunter Blackburn. 13 December 2018
December 2018: Evidence Written evidence to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee, 3 December 2018
MBM correspondence on the 2021 census and other data
January 2020: MurrayBlackburnMackenzie letter to the Working Group on Sex and Gender data Chair 20 January 2020
October 2019: Scotland’s Census 2021 Impact Assessments Stakeholder Survey: MBM response
October 2019: Letter to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee: EU legislation on the census
September 2019: Letter to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee: MBM position on data collection 11 September 2019
September 2019: Letter to the Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee: Key issues on the 2021 census sex question 11 September 2019
March 2019: Recording sex in the criminal justice system: MBM letter to the National Advisory Council on Women & Girls March 2019
Criminal Justice data
May 2019: MBM Statment on Criminal Justice data MBM statement on recording in the Scottish Criminal Justice System
March 2019: MBM Call for an independent review Call for an independent review into how public authorities record sex and gender identity
Health data
January 2020: Blog Recording sex on medical records: a case study of NHS Scotland
