The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee will conclude its work in March 2026 ahead of the next Scottish Parliament election. While it will continue to meet, the Committee has agreed it will not consider petitions submitted after 10 October. This is to ensure all petitions currently in the system can be considered before the next Scottish Parliament election. It is also unlikely that the Committee would be able to schedule and meaningfully progress petitions submitted after 10 October before the election. Contact the Committee team at petitions.committee@parliament.scot for more information about the petitions process.
If you are seeking emergency action or an urgent policy change please contact one of your 8 MSPs or the Scottish Government directly
Under consideration PE1876: Accurately record the sex of people charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to require Police Scotland, the Crown Office and the Scottish Court Service to accurately record the sex of people charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape.
Previous action taken
We have met the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician to argue for the need to collect accurate data on sex in various contexts, including in cases of rape and attempted rape.
Draft guidance subsequently issued by the Chief Statistician rejected this in all but exceptional circumstances, which did not include the recording of these cases.
Background information
Police Scotland recently stated that a person directly charged with rape or attempted rape could be recorded as female. The Scottish Government has stated that ‘this is a matter for Police Scotland’.
Rape is defined in law as involving penetration by a penis without consent and is therefore, by definition, the act of a male body (cases involving a surgically constructed penis appear to be unknown to date).
Women may be charged with rape as accessories, but this is extremely rare.
Only a very small proportion of offenders directly charged with rape or attempted rape would therefore need to be recorded as female to have a substantial and misleading effect on the understanding of female offending. The same issue appears to arise for information collected in other parts of the criminal justice system.
Recording sex accurately in these cases matters for data accuracy and trust in official statistics, public policy, media reporting, research, and for trust in public bodies.
13,613 signatures
This petition is now under consideration
Click here for further information about the consideration of this petition.