A SURVEY asking pupils about their sexual health is too “controversial” and should be rejected, claims a councillor.

The voluntary national health and wellbeing survey covers questions such as mental health, bullying and school work.

It was designed to have age-appropriate sections to better respond to the need of P5-S6 youngsters. Oldest pupils would get asked about drugs, alcohol and sexual health.

But a campaign by Alba and Conservative politicians has claimed the sex questions are too explicit for any youngster and data could be used to identify individual pupils.

Now Labour Councillor Douglas McAllister is proposing a motion for the next West Dunbartonshire Council meeting to block the survey.

The questionnaire - which was not compulsory -has not been given to any local pupils and was already being reviewed by education officials. Individual councils can change the questions and some councils have blocked it.

Scotland’s Children and Young People’s Commissioner also raised concerns about the privacy over the survey because youngsters need to use their individual pupil ID to answer the questions.

Cllr McAllister’s motion asks fellow politicians to agree they are “concerned with the controversial content”.

It states: “The school survey seeks to ask our children to give details of their experience of explicit sexual acts. The Scottish Government’s survey is overly intrusive and unsuitable for our children.

“Therefore, this council rejects the Scottish Government’s survey in its current form and agrees that it is not fit for purpose. This council agrees that pupils in West Dunbartonshire will not be issued with the survey.”

Despite the concerns about 13-16 year olds being asked about sexual activity, other surveys have shown pupils are already exposed to sexual issues.

A Girlguiding study said 67 per cent of girls and young women experienced sexual harassment from other youngsters in school. Ofsted in England found nine in 10 girls were frequently sent explicit, unwanted images.

Council leader Jonathan McColl said: “We understand the concerns being raised and the council are taking time to review the questionnaire. The Scottish Government have been clear that councils have the ability to vary the questions and to only ask the questions which we think will provide useful information.

“The survey is anonymous and it is important to note that participation from pupils is entirely voluntary. Parents will also be able to refuse permission for their children to take part.

“I would ask everyone to give our education professionals time to tailor the survey to meet our needs and pass judgement on it once questions have been set.

“The purpose of this survey is to help us provide better services to improve the wellbeing of our young people, giving them the best possible life chances and we mustn’t lose sight of that.”

The Children’s Commissioner said the Scottish Government should “pause” the survey based on privacy issues. They did not mention the content.

The Commissioner said: “We are concerned that the survey collects the pupil’s Scottish Candidate Number and young people need to be made aware that this may allow them to be identified.”

The Scottish Government in a detailed explanation on their website said: “As local authorities are required by law to plan for children’s services in their local area, they have a legal basis to ask children and young people about their lives and wellbeing to help them with this.

“The individual data about children and young people is being collected by these local authorities for statistical and research purposes only for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.”