Consultation - Review of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 questions: FOI release

The publication of the consultation was highlighted by email to a range of groups and organisations, including those listed in Annex K (at https://www.gov.scot/publications/review-gender- recognition-act-2004/pages/21/), as well as to a number of individuals who had asked the Scottish Government to inform them of the consultation’s publication. These requests followed on from the Scottish Government’s public commitments in 2016 made in the Fairer Scotland Action Plan (at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/10/9964/0) and the Programme for Government (at http://www.gov.scot/programme2016) to review and reform the 2004 Act.

Any individual or organisation interested in consultations or other news from Scottish Government can sign up in advance to be issued with alerts about consultations being published by email at https://register.scotland.gov.uk/Subscribe/Step1. Over 2,800 individuals and organisations are signed up to receive such alerts. The consultation Citizen Space page noted that the following groups and individuals might have a particular interest in engaging with and responding to the consultation: (a) equality, welfare and rights; (b) law and order; and (c) children and families.

On publication of the gender recognition consultation on 9 November 2017, the Scottish Government issued a news release (https://www.gov.scot/news/gender-recognition-act/) and highlighted the consultation on social media. In addition, the Scottish Government included the news story about the consultation https://www.gov.scot/news/gender-recognition-act/ in the daily digest news email that we send out. On 9 November 2017 when the consultation was published 14,419 subscribers received that email. 2,562 recipients opened the email and of those 137 clicked through to the https://www.gov.scot/news/gender-recognition-act/ news story.

The then Cabinet Secretary issued a statement through the Fairer Scotland blog at https://blogs.gov.scot/fairer-scotland/2017/11/14/gender-recognition-consultation-vital-conversation/. The publication of the consultation was reported on television (on both the BBC and ITV) and in online news as well as in articles in both national and local newspapers.

Is/was the procedure and practicalities of connecting with public awareness identical to other public consultations?

Officials in the Family Law Team in the Justice Directorate worked with other colleagues in Scottish Government and public sector organisations as part of the preparations for the consultation. You can find information about the consultation preparation process and those involved in the Scottish Government FOI Release at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-17-02964/.

The content of the gender recognition consultation and other documents or actions taken associated with it such as the content of the news release referred to were approved by the Scottish Ministers. Each Scottish Government consultation will have a different context. Guidance to officials indicates that the consultation exercise undertaken should, where there is no legal requirement to carry out the consultation, be appropriate for the type of policy and the needs of the intended audience. Decisions about how a particular consultation is undertaken will be taken in the light of the relevant facts and circumstances.

You can see a range of Scottish Government consultations through Citizen Space at https://consult.gov.scot/.

Is ScotGov required to accept input from outside of Scotland?

On occasion, a consultation or a particular form of consultation is a legal requirement.

In practice, the Scottish Government is unable to validate an individual respondent's residence.