Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Domestic Homicides and Suspected Victim Suicides report 2021-2022, published 25 August 2021, what methods her Department used to collect that report's data on gender reassignment; and whether the gender reassignment data (a) reflects self-declared gender and (b) requires an individual to have a Gender Recognition Certificate to be counted.

The Domestic Homicide Project is led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Vulnerability Knowledge Practice Programme (VKPP) and funded by the Home Office. The data collection and methodology are managed by the project, not the Home Office. The project team have outlined their methodology below.

The options on the submission form for ‘gender reassignment’ are: ‘Yes, No, Not Known’. This information is collected from those officers who are submitting the form and is based on their records. The definition provided in the guidance reads, “please indicate if the individual has, or is going through, gender reassignment. This is defined as a person whose gender identity is different to the gender assigned at birth. This does not require specific treatment or surgery as it is a personal process rather than a medical one. If not known, please select Not Known.” This definition had been drafted in relation to the Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance (Gender reassignment discrimination | Equality and Human Rights Commission (equalityhumanrights.com)).

Therefore, any response of ‘yes’ to this question may or may not involve the victim or suspect having a Gender Recognition Certificate. However, we have not received a ‘yes’ to that question on any of the submissions within our database from Year 1 (the August 2021 report) up to the present date. It is possible that there may be some individuals who have undergone gender reassignment (in a personal and/or medical capacity) but this was not known / recorded by the police and available to the submitter, and we do not have any evidence to suggest this in what we have been provided.