Offenders: Gender Recognition

(asked on 19th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have for the police in England and Wales to follow the reported approach of Police Scotland of recording male perpetrators of rape or attempted rape who self-identify as female, as female on relevant police systems.


Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This question was answered on 28th April 2021

The Government takes all forms of sexual violence extremely seriously, regardless of between who it takes place or the profile of the perpetrator. Whether it is committed by a woman or a man, sexual violence in any situation, is completely unacceptable.

A total of 162,936 sexual offences were recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2020.

More details on the prevalence of sexual offences can be found at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/sexualoffencesprevalenceandtrendsenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020

It is an operational matter for the police to determine what relevant information should be recorded to assist in their investigation of individual crimes.

Home Office statisticians work with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) on the quality of data from the police. The OSR have issued guidance on the collection and reporting of data about sex in official statistics which informs on-going conversations the Department has with policing partners on the issue of data:

https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/draft-guidance-collecting-and-reporting-data-about-sex-in-official-statistics/

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