Gender and sex questions in next census debated

Holyrood’s Culture Committee has agreed with the general principles of the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) bill. However they also found serious deficiencies in the way consultation was carried out around planned changes to the 2021 census.

They also raised concerns that the way the bill is worded could cause “confusion”. The Committee propose amendments including that the mandatory sex question should remain binary and that ‘trans-status’ should be added as a category for census questions on the same basis proposed for ‘sexual orientation’.

The Bill received many submissions from different organisations, many arguing for a different conclusions on what should and should not be in the census – you can read the range of different views here: https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/109902.aspx

 

 

 

Image credit: Stinging Eyes, Flickr