Access to ‘sex survey’ data paused by Sottish government

The Scottish government “need to do better” in how sensitive information is gathered from schoolchildren after access to a controversial census on sexual experiences was halted.

Education secretary Jenny Gilruth told MSPs she would be raising concerns with officials after BBC Scotland News found data from the 2021 health and wellbeing survey was being advertised for use by external researchers.

The government said pupils would not be identifiable from any data gathered, but Ms Gilruth said access to the data was being put on hold.

Parents claimed they were unaware the answers might be used in this way.

Ms Gilruth said: “I do need to reflect that I think we need to do better in the future in relation to how that’s done”, in relation to how the information was gathered.

More than 130,000 school children took part in the census, carried out in 2021.

Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher had raised the issue as an urgent question at Holyrood on Wednesday.

She said the census had involved children as young as 14 being asked “highly intrusive and inappropriate questions” about sexual experiences.

Gallacher claimed parents were not informed of the details of the survey because an “opt-out” model had been used.

Half of Scotland’s 32 councils pulled out of the survey following concerns about a lack of informed consent and worries over the anonymity for pupils.

At the time of the survey, campaigners warned that it must protect children’s right to privacy and give informed consent.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office has guidelines on consent which say it must be “opt-in”, rather than relying on parents or pupils specifically refusing to take part.

The education secretary said she recognised the strength of feeling on the topic and the data had only been collected on one occasion.

She added that parental consent should have been communicated via schools.

Data from the census will be removed from the catalogue and access to it will be paused to allow time for the issue to be considered.

Ms Gilruth said: “I, as Cabinet Secretary, have also taken a decision to pause how we collect this data.

“I have directly discussed these concerns with the chief statistician.”

She added that “appropriate steps” were being taken by the statistician to reflect the “strength of feeling” on the survey.

School pupils in S4 to S6 were asked to give their views on a range of subjects from physical and mental health to bullying and the pressures of school work.

However, a section on sexual relationships caused controversy, asking pupils multiple choice questions about their experiences, including whether they’d had “vaginal or anal sex”.

The 16 councils that went ahead with the survey were Angus, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Glasgow, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Shetland, South Ayrshire and Stirling.