Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 22 April 2021 to Question 183091, whether reporting of incidents involving a prisoner who is biologically male and who has a Gender Recognition Certificate, report that prisoner’s involvement as that of a female/woman; and whether that prisoner's transgender status is recorded.

The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) do not hold data on how many people hold, or receive, a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) in custody. Prisoners are not legally obliged to disclose this. We are actively pursuing ways to improve data relating to gender and gender identity, whilst also continuing to respect the legal rights and privacy of those who hold GRCs.

HMPPS systems record the legal gender of prisoners. For transgender prisoners, this is in line with the Gender Recognition Act 2004, which states that when someone holds a GRC, their gender becomes for all purposes their acquired gender. Where required for statistical purposes, data on the characteristic of gender reassignment is obtained via a separate matching exercise, using information from the annual collection of data on transgender prisoners.

Further information on how we support and manage transgender offenders can be found in ‘The Care and Management of Individuals who are Transgender’, available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-care-and-management-of-individuals-who-are-transgender