THE roll-out of a controversial survey which asks school pupils about their sexual activity has been postponed by Fife Council. 

The Scottish Government have faced calls to pull its Health and Wellbeing Census amid criticism it asks children as young as 14 intimate questions on sexual experiences, including whether they have had anal or oral sex, and drug and alcohol use.

Fife Council paused their involvement previously to review the questionnaire’s content, and councillors have now voted formally to refer the survey back to the Government.

Labour councillor Linda Erskine said: “The issue for me is the relevance and the extremely intrusive nature of some of the questions being asked as part of this.”

The education and children’s services sub-committee was asked on Friday to agree the range of age-appropriate questions and to note that any information would be collected for “statistical and research purposes only” – as part of the local authority’s duty to plan for children’s services in the Kingdom.

However, Cllr Erskine's amendment effectively punted the survey back to Holyrood, asking the Scottish Government to reconsider the approach to data collection to ensure complete confidentiality and to review the appropriateness of all questions – in particular those about sexual health – in light of parental and carer concerns. 

SNP committee convener Craig Walker had put forward a “compromise” which aimed to alleviate concerns over anonymity and questions deemed inappropriate by some.

That would have seen the survey go forward but without the sexual health section in its entirety, he was also willing to remove pupil candidate numbers from the surveys to stop identification, although it would ask for part-postcode, gender and ethnicity.

However, the Labour amendment was voted through 10-8. 

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted previously that the census was confidential and “ensures that any results of the research or resulting statistics will not be made available in a form which identifies individual children and young people”.

One of the survey questions – aimed at pupils in S4 and S6 – asks: ‘People have varying degrees of sexual experience. How much, if any, sexual experience have you had?’

Multiple choice answers include ‘oral sex’ and ‘vaginal or anal sex’.

It also asks how many people they have had sexual intercourse with in the past 12 months, and also poses questions on drug and alcohol use, gambling, eating behaviour and body image among others.

The census was also to be given to primary school children in years P5-7 but the younger groups’ questions are targeted at matters such as physical activity, mental health and sleep patterns.

Councillors were told that parents and children themselves could opt out of the survey or leave answers blank if they felt uncomfortable.

Dr Joy Tomlinson, director of public health at NHS Fife, described the survey as “very important”.

“We glean so much about the difficulties young people are experiencing and the harms to their wider health,” she said.

“We know we have really big challenges here in Fife and one of those is teenage pregnancy, so we have to look at this.

“This is about us as a population understanding the needs of our young people and it’s really important to have this survey this year and make sure we’re getting things right.

“I don’t think we should be fearful and it’s always welcome to have a debate about these things.”

SNP councillor Fay Sinclair said: “Teenagers know about sex, teenagers are having sex.

“I think we’d be doing our young people a disservice not to expose them to any mention of this.”

But Conservative councillor Andy Heer was one of those unconvinced about data protection issues, suggesting the use of pupil candidate numbers on the survey would not make it anonymous.  

“If it’s possible, then there’s always the possibility of someone somewhere misusing that information,” he added.

George Haggerty, Catholic church representative on the committee, said parents were very concerned about the content of the survey and the speed with which it was being rolled out.

“I’m not against research – I’m against a blunt, blanket, big bang approach to this,” he commented.

Around a third of Scotland’s 32 local authorities have refused to take part, with only eight so far committed fully to sending out the survey – including Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Clackmannanshire, Glasgow City, North Ayrshire, Stirling, Angus and South Ayrshire. 

Labour councillor and Fife Council co-leader David Ross had stated already that his party would not support the survey roll-out as it stands.

“We are especially concerned that responses to the survey will not be truly anonymous and that it will be possible to track responses back to individual young people,” he stressed.

“Assurances from Scottish Government that this will only happen in rare circumstances are insufficient to address our concerns and we have no confidence that this information could not be used for other purposes than child protection.”

Dunfermline councillor James Calder said: "The questions on this census were intrusive for our young people and clearly impacted on their privacy. There were also clear questions over data security.

"There are significant concerns that need to be addressed which was why I voted against going ahead with it in the current form. The Scottish Government needs to think again.

"I am glad it has been rejected today and Fife has joined other local authorities in pushing back on this."