Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:00 pm on 9 October 2025.
Tess White
Conservative
2:00,
9 October 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication of its revised guidance on supporting transgender pupils in schools, whether it can guarantee that, effective immediately, single-sex spaces, including toilets and changing rooms, have been made available to all girls during school hours. (S6O-05050)
Jenny Gilruth
Scottish National Party
Under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, education authorities have the statutory responsibility for the delivery of education. The Scottish Government therefore does not carry the legal responsibility for the management of schools, or of their facilities, including the provision of toilets and changing rooms, which is a matter for education authorities.
The Scottish Government’s role is to provide education authorities and schools with non-statutory guidance to inform their work in relation to the legal requirements and associated national policies. The guidance that was published last week fulfils that role. For the avoidance of doubt, that updated guidance reflects the Supreme Court judgment and states that
“separate toilet facilities for boys and girls must be provided in schools”
and that
“the facilities require to be made available on the basis of biological sex”.
Tess White
Conservative
Parents have informed me that girls’ toilets in secondary schools in Angus are being locked during the school day, which is denying girls their legal right to single-sex spaces. That, as the Cabinet secretary has just outlined, is illegal. What immediate steps is the Scottish Government taking to ensure that every girl in every school has unrestricted access to single-sex toilets, as required by the law?
Jenny Gilruth
Scottish National Party
I thank Tess White for raising that point. I am not sighted on the specifics relating to Angus Council, but I will go back to my officials in relation to toilets being locked during the school day. More broadly, she will be aware of the guidance that we published last week following the Supreme Court ruling. That guidance is intended to bring clarity to the teaching profession and to young people in our schools and was our response to the Supreme Court ruling. I am more than happy to take away the specific issue that she has raised.
Rona Mackay
Scottish National Party
I welcome the engagement that the Scottish Government has undertaken with parents and carers, education representatives, LGBT organisations and women’s organisations to develop the recent guidance. Will the Cabinet secretary provide more detail about how that will ensure that support for trans children continues in schools?
Jenny Gilruth
Scottish National Party
The purpose of the guidance is to support our councils and schools in their support for transgender pupils. We know that those matters are really complex and that education authorities will continue to consider the wellbeing of all their pupils, including transgender pupils, as they navigate the support that is required in schools.
The guidance offers advice on legal, policy and practical matters and draws together the signposting of support for parents and carers and for young people. It recognises that those highly personal decisions can be challenging for young people and their families, and for councils and schools, to navigate. The guidance seeks to provide support to those working in our schools as they navigate that complex issue for all.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
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