Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar on 20 July (HL1761), what is their policy on whether prisoners whose sex assigned at birth was female should use female pronouns to refer to prisoners who identify as female but were assigned male at birth if such prisoners (1) have, or (2) do not have, a Gender Recognition Certificate; and whether there would be any consequences for failing to use female pronouns in such cases.

The Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service are committed to advancing equality and eliminating discrimination, harassment and victimisation, including based on gender reassignment status as defined in section 7 of the Equality Act 2010. The prohibition on discrimination in relation to gender reassignment applies regardless of whether someone has a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Incidents where a prisoner uses incorrect pronouns for another prisoner will be considered on a case-by-case basis, in line with the Prisoner Discipline Procedures policy and the Prison Rules. Prisoners may sometimes make an honest mistake in relation to pronouns and disciplinary action would not usually be appropriate in those circumstances. However, if an officer deems it appropriate to place a prisoner on report, the rule against ‘using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour’ (PR 51 (20) may apply. The adjudicator will weigh each incident on its own merits. The policy stipulates that an offence motivated by another person’s protected characteristic(s) under the Equality Act 2010 is an aggravating factor and may merit referral to an Independent Adjudicator.