Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cases of (1) rape or attempted rape, and (2) sexual misconduct, by individuals whose sex at birth was male but subsequently identified as female have been reported in (a) women's prisons, and (b) women-only spaces outside of prisons such as changing rooms; and how many of those reports led to prosecutions.

There is no reported incident of rape or attempted rape by prisoners who have reported they are declared male on their birth certificate who self-identify as a female in the women’s estate.

Between 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2019, there were 97 sexual assaults in the women’s estate overall and 7 of these assaults involved a transgender prisoner. Out of those 7 incidents, there were 6 sexual assaults where a transgender prisoner was recorded as the assailant or suspected assailant. In one incident the transgender prisoner was recorded as having ‘active involvement’, which means they did not necessarily start the assault. It is not possible from the records available to confirm whether these transgender prisoners were born male and subsequently identify as female. Other groups of prisoners may also be included, including those born female who identify as male, or who identify as non-binary.

We do not hold data for reported assaults that have taken place outside of prison.

Strict safeguards are in place to care for and manage transgender individuals in custody while protecting our staff and other service users.

Details of transgender prisoners were provided by public and private prisons in England and Wales, between 26 March 2019 and 24 April 2019 following an exercise to gather information from transgender individuals in custody. The figures give an estimate of the number of transgender prisoners based on that exercise and may underestimate the true number. Prisoners who have a full Gender Recognition Certificate are excluded from this dataset.