Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the General Medical Council about its policy of describing doctors on its register by gender rather than by sex.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is the regulator of all medical doctors practising in the United Kingdom. It sets and enforces the standards all doctors must adhere to. While the GMC is independent of the Government, it is directly accountable to Parliament, and is responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of its statutory duties.

The GMC maintains an official list of doctors, which is called the List of Registered Medical Practitioners. The GMC is obliged under the Form and Content of the Register Regulations to obtain and publish information in relation to a doctor's gender rather than sex. The Government has not had discussions with the GMC about the doctors on its register being described by gender rather than by sex.