Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason his Department's Notification of Child Death Form asks about the gender with which the child identified at the time of their death in cases where the child was over 10; and whether his Department consulted on that change.

The Notification of Child Death Form, part of the National Child Mortality Database, continues to capture the sex of the child for anyone under the age of 18 years old, in line with sex being a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

Although questions relating to gender identity already existed within one part of the National Child Mortality Database collection, specifically for suicide and self-harm, the change in October expanded these questions to all deaths. This was to capture the language used by young people and their families to improve system learning and to support the prevention of future deaths. It was not subject to public consultation.