Education secretary Jenny Gilruth has paused a controversial survey that asked upper secondary school students about sex and relationships, MSPs have been told.
Ms Gilruth admitted that the Scottish government must “do better” in how information is gathered from students. She said that she will be raising concerns with officials.
Her comments came after the that data from the , which gathered data from half of Scotland’s council areas, was being advertised for use by external researchers.
The government has said pupils will not be identifiable from any data gathered, and Ms Gilruth told the Scottish Parliament that access to the data is being put on hold.
Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher raised the issue as an urgent question in Parliament on Wednesday, saying the “school sex survey” had involved children as young as 14 being asked “highly intrusive and inappropriate questions” about sexual experiences.
Parents were not informed of the details of the survey, she said, adding: “Since the SNP adopted an opt-out model for parents and pupils, many children were exposed to this inappropriate questionnaire without the active consent of their parents”.
Education secretary recognises ‘strength of feeling’
Ms Gilruth said she recognised the strong feelings on the topic and that the data had only been collected on one occasion, and that parental consent should have been communicated via schools.
She also said: “I, as cabinet secretary, have also taken a decision to pause how we collect this data.”
She added: “I have directly discussed these concerns with the chief statistician and I will be meeting with him this evening following Parliament concluding.
“I have also been reassured he is taking appropriate steps that will reflect the strength of feeling in future discussions to collect this type of information.”
Ms Gilruth said a number of surveys take place to understand the lives of young people, although she acknowledged that 16 out of Scotland’s 32 local authorities decided not to take part in the health and wellbeing survey.
The education secretary said: “I do need to reflect that I think we need to do better in the future in relation to how that’s done.”
Data from the health and wellbeing census will be removed and access will be paused while the issue is considered, Ms Gilruth told MSPs.
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