Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the consistency of the guidance issued for completion of the School Census 2021/22 in relation to the recording of gender with the Education (Information about Individual Pupils) (England) Regulations 2013.

The department’s guidance for completing the school census specifies that in this context, gender should be specified as either 'M' (male) or 'F' (female) (which may be different from the individual’s legal sex). This should be self-declared and recorded according to the wishes of the parent and/or pupil. The school census does not collect the ‘sex’ of pupils.

The department believes that this guidance is consistent, but the changing use of language in this area, and the evolving needs of the school population, have led to the department reviewing its data standards. The department intends to publish a new standard making a distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ in the coming months. School census guidance will need to be updated to conform to the new data standard.