Data from a controversial “sex survey” completed by pupils in Perth, Stirling, Dundee and Angus has been made available to external researchers, it has been revealed.
Pupils as young as 14 in the four council areas were among those allowed to complete the government health and wellbeing census after other local authorities pulled out.
The survey was strongly criticised after revelations it included questions about teenagers sexual experience.
Multiple choice answers to the question “how much, if any, sexual experience have you had?” included options for: “oral sex” and “vaginal or anal sex”.
It went to ask whether they or the other person used a condom the most recent time they had penetrative sex.
When it was carried out in 2021 parents said they had not been made aware of the contents and had not been asked for consent for their children’s data to be shared.
But the BBC revealed that the results from the survey are now being advertised to external researchers.
The Scottish Government said it was “made clear” at the time that the data would only be used for research purposes and that individual pupils wouldn’t be identified.
Half of Scotland’s 32 local authorities had refused to take part in the exercise – with Dundee, Angus, Stirling and Perth and Kinross councils among those who did.
In a poll by The Courier, 80% of readers who took part said it should be ditched.
But Nicola Sturgeon, the then first minister, stood by the survey, urging people not to “whip up concern” among parents.
She said at the time: “Either we can bury our heads in the sand and pretend that young people are not exposed to the issues or the pressures that we know they are exposed to.”
Ethical concerns
Those in schools operated by Fife Council were also able to take part but with different questions to those put to teenagers elsewhere.
Education professor Lindsay Paterson told the BBC he had serious concerns about the “unethical” way the data was now being shared.
It has been made available to external researchers through Research Data Scotland, a charity set up by the Scottish Government to make access to health and wellbeing data easier.
Professor Paterson said: “No child and no parent has been asked for permission to pass the data on to other people.
“That’s not to imply that individual researchers are unethical, but the point is the ethical protection is there for a good reason because sadly some people will get access to the data and will abuse the confidentiality, the trust that should be there.”
‘Intrusive’ questions
North East Tory MSP Tess White said the government had been warned about the “intrusive” questions.
She told The Courier: “Many parents didn’t even know these questions were being asked.
“Some councils decided against taking part in the survey — that was the safest thing to do with the information available.
“Those who did press ahead with it, did so with the promise details would not be passed on.
“It is depressing but hardly surprising the information was passed on to a third party.
“Local authorities have been implicated in this massive betrayal of trust by the SNP government and they must act now to deal with justifiable parental concerns about how children’s data is being used.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “All participants in the survey had the opportunity to skip questions they did not wish to answer and councils were responsible for providing advice about opting out.
“It was made clear that the data provided to the Scottish government, and subsequently made available to external researchers, would only be used for statistics and research purposes and therefore not identifiable from any results.”
Conversation