Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government for how long they have required the notice of deaths of children between 10 and 18 to include details of their “sex registered at birth” and “by which gender did the child identify at time of death”; why this categorization was introduced; for how long they have required the gender of the mother to be specified; and what were the reasons for that inclusion.

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.

The Child Death Notification Form does not require the gender of the mother to be specified.