Confidentiality and the Law
The Law in Scotland states:
- That a girl has to be 16 before she can consent to have sex with a man.
- That for two men to consent to sex they must be 16 or over.
- No consent is required for two girls to have sex.
If young people under 16 years decide they want to have sexual relationships they must think about contraception to protect themselves and their partners from unintended pregnancies and STIs.
You do not need to be over 16 to get free confidential advice or to be supplied with a method of contraception that suits you and your partner.
Under 16s can give consent to receive contraception (or any other treatment) provided that the Doctor, Nurse or worker they are talking to feels the young person understands what they are doing and they are aware of the consequences of using or not using contraception and their actions.
Whoever you receive contraception from may advise you to discuss this with your parents if you are under 16 but it is your decision whether or not you tell them. The Doctor, Nurse or worker cannot tell your parents without you agreeing to this. The only time they might discuss this with parents or anyone else would be if they felt you were in a situation where you needed to be protected because you were being harmed. Even in cases like this the person must discuss it with you before taking action and ideally obtain your permission to talk to anyone else.