Police Scotland reverse Nicola Sturgeon’s trans self-ID guidance
Former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon (Getty Images)
Police Scotland has announced that it is reversing the pro-trans policy set out by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon in which trans people were allowed to self-identify their gender.
Now, the Scottish police force will record biological sex and separately note whether the individual is transgender. This new policy will apply to all victims and complainers, suspected and accused people, and people at risk across all crimes and offences.
The previous policy, which came under Sturgeon’s Scottish National Party government between 2014 and 2023, was guidance rather than legislation.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon’s LGBTQ+ legacy – the good, the bad and the unresolved
But Police Scotland has now changed that guidance amid national rollbacks on trans rights, including a legal challenge from For Women Scotland last year, which opposed data collection by gender instead of biological sex, as well as the hotly contested 2025 Supreme Court ruling that defined “woman” as biological sex under the Equality Act.
“Updating Police Scotland’s 22 relevant systems to meet this new data recording standard is a complex process,” Police Scotland said in its Sex and Gender Review published on 17 March.
“Although the ability to record sex/gender already exists,” it continued, “technical updates are required to clarify our data fields, introduce the transgender data set and ensure that biological sex and transgender status are clearly distinguished and not used interchangeably.”
The review confirms that the interim guidance on the new policy will be published in April 2026.
“This approach, i.e. recording of biological sex, is broadly aligned with existing operational practice across the organisation and in that respect does not represent a significant change to data recording,” the review states.
“Rather, it reinforces the Chief Constable’s stated position and provides clarity as to the interim approach as we move towards full system upgrade.”
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