Review of school sex survey to be published

A review of a controversial school sex survey which was first requested almost three years ago is to be published in the next month, the Scottish government has said.

It comes after the boss of the UK's Office of Statistics Regulation (OSR) wrote to them demanding that the long-awaited review be published within 30 days.

The Scottish government's Health and Wellbeing census first hit the headlines in 2021 after asking pupils as young as 14 about their sexual experiences.

The OSR wrote to the Scottish government in 2022 warning that they had "underestimated the significance" the survey would have for parents and calling for a review of how the questions were designed and the way it was tested.

The Health and Wellbeing census was organised and promoted by the Scottish government but half of Scotland's 32 councils pulled out following concerns about a lack of informed consent and worries over the anonymity of pupils.

In the end, about 130,000 pupils answered the questions online in classrooms and were told that their answers would not be shared.

The questions that were asked varied for different age groups but those in S4 (ages 14 and 15) were asked about their sexual relationships and contraception.

One question asks: "People have varying degrees of sexual experience. How much, if any, sexual experience have you had?"

The multiple choice answers include "oral sex" and "vaginal or anal sex".

At the time of the survey, campaigners warned that it must protect children's right to privacy and give informed consent.

However, consent was done on an "opt-out" basis, meaning parents or pupils had to specifically refuse to take part.

Parents said they were not told the nature of the questions in advance and were not asked to agree that their children's private information could be shared.