Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to include a non-gendered option on the Census 2021.

The Office for National Statistics recommendations for the next Census are set out in the White Paper 'Help Shape our Future: The 2021 Census of Population and Housing in England and Wales' published in December 2018. This includes the recommendation that the 2021 Census includes for the first time a voluntary gender identity question, in addition to retaining a binary female/male sex question. The relevant considerations are set out at paragraphs 3.34 to 3.45 of the White Paper.

The content of the 2021 Census for England and Wales will be set in secondary legislation, beginning with the Census Order, which will be laid before Parliament in due course.