Scottish Parliament to restore MSP gender search after trans survey

The Scottish Parliament will restore the ability to search for MSPs by gender on its website after completing a diversity survey.

Members have been asked to disclose their sex and trans status in line with the statutory code of practice laid out by the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission.

That information will then be published online, with consent from members, allowing the public to filter searches for representatives by gender.

It comes after the gender search functionality was removed from the website following the 2026 Holyrood election as part of an ongoing review.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) said it was committed to ensuring diversity information was "handled with care and sensitivity" and presented as "accurately and transparently as possible".

Some MSPs had raised concerns about women being "erased" from the website after the search filter was removed last month.

Two Scottish Green MSPs, Iris Duane and Q Manivannan, became the first openly trans members at Holyrood following the May vote.

Manivannan also identifies as non-binary.

The survey was sent to all members by the parliament's director of people, communications and inclusion, Lorna Hunter, with a deadline set for Friday 5 June.

It states the public has a "legitimate interest" in understanding the "sex and, where appropriate, trans status" of elected representatives.

Hunter said in the email: "Following the election, some information was made available online before it had been confirmed directly by individual MSPs. Once identified, it was removed from the Parliament's website.

"To address this, an additional confirmation step has been introduced for the current parliamentary session to ensure relevant diversity information is confirmed directly with individual MSPs before use."

MSP's will be asked whether they "consider themselves to be trans", defined as "people whose gender is not the same as the sex they were registered at birth".

They are also asked to detail their trans status. The survey uses examples of "non-binary, trans man, trans woman".

It finally asks for their consent to "process the data" for publication on the Scottish Parliament website and to be held by its internal systems.

Members have the option not to consent to their sex or trans status being published online.

In that situation, their information would be listed as "undisclosed".

The survey says that publishing the data helps constituents to identify which representatives they want to consult.

"More generally, it also assists the public to understand the representative make up of their parliament," it adds.

The SPCB said collection of the data would assist it in carrying out a "gender sensitive audit".

A previous audit was carried out between February 2022 and May 2026 and focused on how women were represented and participated in the Parliament.