Toilets and changing rooms in schools: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for "There is particular evidence that there are experiences of outing and people being challenged for their use of toilets and changing rooms particularly." Could you please provide this source of this evidence..

Response

An exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to all of the information requested because we intend to publish that information shortly, and within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release all of this information before the planned publication date.

Amendments to the Equality Impact Assessment after publication will be made mainly to include data previously published elsewhere in order to provide the full context for its findings. These were included in the final version of the Impact Assessment, completed as part of development of, and before publication of, updates to Supporting Transgender Children and Young People - guidance for schools, however were not reflected in the online version of the EQIA due to a processing error. The HTML and PDF will be updated to reflect these changes. The Scottish Government is currently within the preelection period, during this time there are limitations on the publication of information. I will provide a copy of the updated EQIA to you as soon as it is available.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of the interest in the topic area, and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.