Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, 2 September 2021
Dear Joe
The Scottish Government has today published the on the consultation on the draft Gender Recognition (Scotland) Bill, alongside who gave permission for their responses to be published.
The consultation was closed on 17 March 2020, after which work on the Bill, including the consultation, was paused in order to prioritise resources on managing the Covid-19 pandemic. The work has since resumed, and the analysis of the responses undertaken by an external organisation, which has produced this report.
The Scottish Government has not published the responses from individuals, of which around 14,500 gave permission for publication, as this would require them to be individually checked for material that might breach data protection legislation, could be potentially defamatory, or refers to live court cases. Undertaking that process for all individual responses would have involved disproportionate expense and delay.
I hope this is of interest to the Committee.
Yours sincerely
Shona Robison