A majority of MSPs have refused to disclose their sex in diversity study

By MICHAEL BLACKLEY, SCOTTISH DAILY MAIL POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 20:02, 29 June 2026 | Updated: 20:02, 29 June 2026 A majority of Scotland’s MSPs have refused to say if they are male or female in response to a new Holyrood ‘diversity survey’. Only 31 parliamentarians said they were male and 25 declared themselves female when asked by Scottish Parliament officials. It means that the sex of 73 MSPs is now listed as ‘undisclosed’ on the official website. In the diversity survey, only 62 out of 129 MSPs responded. Of them, half-a-dozen did not give consent for ‘personal data’ on their sex being published. Holyrood officials opted to list the sex of the six and the other 67 who did not respond as ‘undisclosed’. Marion Calder, a director of For Women Scotland, said the approach of the Scottish Parliament is ‘ridiculous’ when the two openly transgender Green MSPs have made their own details public knowledge already. She said: ‘It’s an embarrassment. There seems to be no adults in charge. ‘People can tell someone’s sex at 20 paces – this is not private and confidential information. It is quite frankly obvious to all. Only 31 Holyrood parliamentarians said they were male and 25 declared themselves female ‘What if someone wants to use the website to seek out a female MSP specifically? This is not helping the public and who benefits from this? It is daft and it is a slippery slope where they can’t state the bleedingly obvious.’ In last month’s election, two openly trans MSPs were elected for the first time – Greens Q Manivannan and Iris Duane. The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body had asked all MSPs to complete a survey about their sex and, as appropriate, trans status. MSPs were told their answers would be used for equalities monitoring and also for the Scottish Parliament website, and that this would ‘provide transparency for members of the public when seeking a particular representative’. Initially, a deadline was set of June 5 for responses but this was extended to June 23 with reminders sent out to all MSPs. The Scottish Parliament website was updated with the new information on Monday but only 62 MSPs had responded to the survey. This included the six who responded but did not give consent for the information to be published. The MSPs whose sex is listed as ‘undisclosed’ on the parliament website includes all 15 Green MSPs, 35 from the SNP, four from Labour, six Conservatives, eight from Reform, and five Lib Dems. No MSPs gave consent for their trans status to be published. Ms Calder said some MSPs might have refused to respond to the survey ‘because it’s so ridiculous’. In an email to MSPs, Lorna Hunter, Director of People, Communications and Inclusion at the Scottish Parliament, said the survey was taken following a gender sensitive audit (GSA). She said: ‘Despite cross-party agreement for the GSA, it is clear there is no consensus from all MSPs on how to fulfil its recommendations in practice. ‘It highlights the difficulty the Parliament will most likely have in publishing any further diversity data on other protected characteristics. ‘It makes tracking and addressing under-representation all the more difficult, despite the laudable recommendations of the Gender Sensitive Audit. ‘For now, all the survey responses received have been actioned by parliamentary officials.’ The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.