Next census will allow trans people to change their sex

It has been announced that transgender individuals will be allowed to change their sex on the next official census, where it is different to their birth certificate.

 

The survey in 2021 will allow respondents of adults and children to identify as transgender which has never been an option before. 

 

It has been warned that allowing this could skew statistics or distort population data which the Government uses to inform future policies. 

Dr Juile Maxwell, a paediatrician for the NHS, has raised concerns that these statistics could have an impact on public funding. 

 

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, she said: "Almost every kind of illness behaves differently in men and women,"

 

"If the national statistics are skewed in this way so you don't know how many biological men or women there are, and if you add on to that the fact people are already changing their sex on medical records, you lose any meaningful knowledge of how often health problems are happening in men and women. 

 

"And my biggest fear for children is they are not going to get appropriate health services allocated for their needs because of messing around with statistics."

 

The official census is not the only public body focusing on how biological sex is recorded. The NHS, prison services and education sectors are all taking steps to allow individuals to register as the gender with which they identify - even if the individual has not undergone any physical changes. 

 

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) published a set of "rehearsal" questions earlier this month which included the new options. The census form should explain why the question is asked and is expected to say that answers will help "charities, organisations, and local and central government to understand what services people might need".

 

The census is set to be sent out in March 2021 to 26 million households. It will also be sent electronically rather than by post for the first time. 

 

Broadgate Legal

London Solicitors