Chamber and committees

Sharon Dowey MSP submission of 5 October 2021

PE1876/P: Accurately record the sex of people charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape

I am writing to you regarding the petition PE1876 on Accurately recording the sex of people charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape with approximately 13,000 signatures to date.

It came to my attention that Police Scotland recently stated that a person charged with rape or attempted rape could be recorded as female based on self-declaration of the perpetrator. As evidenced by a parliamentary question posed by former MSP Joan McAlpine, the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service records cases by ‘self-declared gender’, rather than physical or legal sex, ‘unless evidentially relevant to the crime’. I find this to be a great cause for concern. Out of 2,343 reported rapes or attempted rapes in 2019-20 in Scotland, there were 300 prosecutions and 130 convictions. All convictions were recorded as male; therefore, the figures for female offenders are very sensitive to any reclassification of cases.

The current policy can have a significant impact on data accuracy and trust in official statistics and public policy. However, in April 2021, the Scottish Government deflected the issue as a matter for Police Scotland.

This petition raises a variety of important questions regarding trust in statistics and public organisations, as well as questions about how courts and police recording practices can affect victims.

Therefore, after familiarizing myself with the background of this issue, I would like to express my full support for this petition and urge the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee to investigate this matter further. Acting now could be crucial in preventing a potential distortion of data in the future, which could have a significant negative impact on policy development in Scotland.