The UK’s Supreme Court has ruled that “man”, “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to sex, not self-ID or paperwork (gender-recognition certificates). This agreed with our legal interpretation. We have published new guidance and are in the process of updating our publications to reflect the judgment. We are also working to provide answers to the questions we're hearing from supporters and the media. We will publish these as soon as possible.

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This post is part of the Digital ID can’t be gender self-ID campaign |

The Data Bill must protect the integrity of sex data

Digital ID must not be gender self-ID

On Tuesday the Data Bill continues its march through the House of Commons. It is an important piece of legislation that will enable a new national system for digital identities.

In the House of Lords, three safeguards were introduced to the bill. They are sensible, practical and essential. They would prevent unreliable data sources being given a top score for reliability, leading to men who identify as women being able to register for women’s sports and women’s services.

The government is seeking to remove the data safeguards, saying that they breach human rights. This is a serious assertion that deserves a serious response.

Today we are publishing a paper which shows that, far from this being the case, the three safeguards are necessary to support everyone’s human rights. We have also submitted evidence to the Parliamentary Committee.

Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom – the parliamentary hero of the Post Office scandal – has provided a foreword to the report.

"There are no safeguards to stop public bodies providing ambiguous and outright wrong data into digital identity systems. I fear that unless the government builds in these safeguards now, as a matter of urgency, we will see the same tragic mix of personal suffering and public waste that followed the Post Office scandal." Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom

Read the report or download the PDF:

Filed under Data and statistics   Digital ID can’t be gender self-ID   Updates  

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