Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the report from the Sports Councils Equality Group and its Guidance for Transgender Inclusion in Sport, published in September 2021.

The government is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion, as well as safety and fairness across all levels of sport. This is at the heart of our strategy ‘Sporting Future’. Sports governing bodies each have their own rules on transgender issues and it is appropriate that they can determine the right position for their own sport.

The Sports Councils’ Equality Group (SCEG) transgender guidance is a carefully considered report which addresses the complexities of transgender inclusion in sport. The report has concluded that there is an inherent tension between delivering inclusion, fairness and safety when including transgender women into the women’s sport category due to retained physiological differences.

The guidance advises the national governing bodies (NGBs) of each sport to define the best options for their sport, subject to their assessment of inclusion, fairness and safety. It also includes a decision making framework to help sports undertake such an assessment and if appropriate consider options to modify or adapt their offer to facilitate participation.

Our arm’s length bodies Sport England and UK Sport will continue to support NGBs to undertake the necessary assessment for their sport.