Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 3 February (HL3955), for what purposes they require local authorities, under the Collection of Client Level Adult Social Care Data (No 3) Directions 2023, to collect data on gender.

Under the 'Collection of Client Level Adult Social Care Data (No 3) Directions 2023', local authorities are required to report data on gender as part of the subset of administrative data that is included in their quarterly Client Level Data return. The Department requires this data so it can be analysed and reported on at a national level, providing new and more detailed information about the characteristics of people who use adult social care.