Uninformed consent: The dubious ethics of the Scottish Health and Wellbeing Census

The Health and Wellbeing Census was a survey of school pupils which was devised by the Scottish Government and was carried out by 16 of the 32 Scottish local authorities in 2021-22. It caused controversy at the time, mainly because it asked questions about the respondents’ sexual activity, and alcohol and smoking consumption, and also because it asked about quite intimate details of their family life. These concerns were dismissed as unfounded by the government. New ethical concerns have been raised about the whole conduct of the survey, especially relating to the way in which consent for participation was obtained, and to the plans for making the dataset of the survey results available from Research Data Scotland for linking to other sources of data. The ethical questions remain important for any researcher who might use the data. The ethical risks that were taken by the Scottish Government in conducting the survey reveal a worrying level of ethical complacency.