Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the status is of his Department's Gender Identity and Intersex guidance; and whether his Department has currently operational guidance in this area.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Reigate on Tuesday 21 January 2025 (UIN 23677, tabled on 13 January 2025).
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the gender diagnosis gap for autism.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that diagnosis rates of autism are lower in women and girls and lower than the best evidence on prevalence. This may reflect differences in how autism presents in males and females, which may make autism more difficult to identify in women and girls.
Autism assessments should be undertaken by appropriately skilled clinicians who consider a number of factors before coming to a clinical decision. Integrated care boards and health professionals should have due regard to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines when commissioning and providing health care services, including autism assessment services. The NICE guideline Autism spectrum disorder in under 19s: recognition, referral and diagnosis sets out considerations for clinicians when assessing for autism, including highlighting that autism may be under-diagnosed in women and girls.
NHS England has also rolled out training across mental health services with 5,000 trainers having been trained as part of the National Autism Trainer Programme, and this training covers autism presentation in women and girls. These trainers will cascade their training to teams across mental health services.
Asked by: Chris Coghlan (Liberal Democrat - Dorking and Horley)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if the Government will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Supreme Court judgment in the case of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers of 16 April 2025 on trans people with Gender Recognition Certificates.
Answered by Nia Griffith
A Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) allows a trans person to change their legal sex to align with their acquired gender. Those with a GRC are recognised in their acquired sex and gender unless specific exceptions apply. The Supreme Court ruling clarified that the Equality Act is one such exception; it is important to note that the ruling also emphasised that trans people remain protected from harassment and discrimination on the basis of gender reassignment in the Equality Act 2010.
A GRC still allows trans people to legally change their sex for a range of reasons that matter in their lives – birth, death, marriage and civil partnership certificates, for example.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the Court of Session’s judgment on the Petition of the Scottish Ministers for Judicial Review of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, published on 8 December 2023.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Scottish Government confirmed in a statement to the Scottish Parliament on 22 April 2025 that it has no plans to bring back the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to (a) modernise and (b) simplify gender recognition legislation.
Answered by Nia Griffith
As set out in the King’s Speech, our priorities in this session are to bring forward our draft Bills on banning conversion practices and on race and disability equality, alongside strengthening protections from hate crime for LGBT people and improving trans people’s healthcare.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2025 to Question 51904 on Prisoners: Gender Recognition, how many of the prisoners with a Gender Recognition Certificate are housed in the correct prison facility for their biological sex.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The latest published data (a snapshot from 31 March 2024) shows that there were 10 prisoners known to have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). The full data report can be viewed here: HMPPS Offender Equalities Report 2023/24 - GOV.UK.
Because the number of prisoners who hold a GRC is so low, we are unable to provide further information beyond the total figure (including other personal characteristics and location) as this risks disclosing which individuals hold a GRC, which is an offence under Section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2025 to Question 51904 on Prisoners: Gender Recognition, how many of the prisoners with a Gender Recognition Certificate are biological (a) males and (b) females.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The latest published data (a snapshot from 31 March 2024) shows that there were 10 prisoners known to have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). The full data report can be viewed here: HMPPS Offender Equalities Report 2023/24 - GOV.UK.
Because the number of prisoners who hold a GRC is so low, we are unable to provide further information beyond the total figure (including other personal characteristics and location) as this risks disclosing which individuals hold a GRC, which is an offence under Section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have a gender recognition certificate.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The number of prisoners known to have a Gender Recognition Certificate is published in the annual HM Prison & Probation Service Offender Equalities Report.
In 2023/24, there were 10 prisoners known to have a Gender Recognition Certificate. The full report can be viewed here: HMPPS Offender Equalities Report 2023/24 - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many gender recognition certificates have been issued in each of the past 10 years.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede
The table below shows the number of applications received by the Gender Recognition Panel that were granted full Gender Recognition Certificates in the last 10 years.
Table 1: Number of Gender Recognition Certificates granted in full during the complete financial years from 2014/15 to 2023/24
Financial Year | Gender Recognition Panel |
2014/15 | 244 |
2015/16 | 329 |
2016/17 | 316 |
2017/18 | 351 |
2018/19 | 323 |
2019/20 | 364 |
2020/21 | 427 |
2021/22 | 495 |
2022/23 | 871 |
2023/24 | 1,088 |
Date source: Tribunals statistics quarterly: October to December 2024 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the decision of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 on 16 April, whether they will review Census 2021 data and publish data based on male and female biological sex.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
The Rt Hon. the Lord Blencathra
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
1 May 2025
Dear Lord Blencathra,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, following the decision of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 on 16 April, whether Census 2021 data will be reviewed and published based on male and female biological sex (HL6931).
Sex is a core demographic variable of fundamental importance for a range of census users providing vital information for national and local population statistics. In Census 2021 for England and Wales, as in all previous censuses, a binary sex question asked whether respondents were female or male. Supporting online guidance for this question from 9 March 2021 onwards stated, "If you are considering how to answer, use the sex recorded on your birth certificate or Gender Recognition Certificate.” This was changed on 9 March from guidance based on legal documents, following a court order[1].
The sex variable in Census 2021 data is based on the sex recorded by the person completing the sex question[2]. We cannot retrospectively change the basis on which those data were collected and defined, nor would it be possible to accurately derive a new ‘biological sex’ variable based on responses to one or more Census 2021 questions.
The Government Statistical Service (GSS) is currently prioritising work to develop new harmonised standards for data on sex and on gender identity. This will include providing guidance for official statistics producers on definitions, survey questions, suggested presentations, and information for data users. The new standards will be developed through rigorous research and testing with a range of users. It will also include learnings from the experience of other countries and their census data collections, as well as from the independent report published by the Department of Science Innovation and Technology, the Review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender[3]. This work will also take account of any relevant guidance issued by the UK Government following the Supreme Court ruling of 16 April.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/updatedstatementoncensus2021sexquestionguidance