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The census in England and Wales will take place on 21 March. The Office for National Statistics has abandoned the principle of collecting data on biological sex. This report sets out how they arrived at this position. Please take a look and contact your MP #WomenCountSoCountWomen https://twitter.com/Womans_Place_UK/status/1359552675172483073
The census sets the standard for other data collection exercises and practices. A recent YouGov survey asked respondents to identify themselves ‘on the gender spectrum’ and, it appears, entirely omitted a question that asked for respondents’ sex:
In correspondence with someone who had been invited to respond to this survey, YouGov said that it had implemented the change to reflect the forthcoming UK census, and that other market research companies were planning to do the same:
When the Kings College London Zoe Covid App launched, it carried a question about users' sex which was framed in this way (screenshots taken on 24 March 2020):
Less than a month later, new users signing up to the app were presented with a revised version of the sex question (screenshots taken on 20 April 2020):
A survey by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine considering how people were coping with the Covid pandemic and how information about the disease was being shared in communities listed five potential responses to the question ‘What is your gender?’:
The sex question used by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) incorporates an ‘other’ option which it states is ‘included for staff whose sex aligns with terms such as intersex, androgyne, intergender, ambigender, gender fluid, polygender and gender queer’.
In 2018 the Scottish Government changed the binary sex question in the Scottish Household Survey, to a question that asked respondents to describe their gender identity, stating that this was ‘in line with similar changes being made to other major surveys in Scotland’.
Widely considered to be the ‘gold standard’ of population surveys, the UK census’ flagship status also means that the census authorities are giving implicit licence to other data collection surveys to follow suit.
As a result, the UK is now at a serious risk of losing the capacity to gather data that, for decades, has provided the building blocks for policy-makers and researchers to monitor and tackle discrimination based on sex. https://murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2020/06/20/domino-effects-the-implications-of-the-framing-the-sex-question-in-the-2021-census/
Letter in today's Times from a group of senior social scientists sounding the alarm about the loss of robust, high quality data on sex in the UK. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/times-letters-ten-year-jail-sentence-for-lying-about-travel-x2tdcdxph
The academics write: "Two of the UK’s most senior governmental statisticians have signalled their intent to abandon the principle of collecting data on biological sex, in favour of data on subjectively defined gender identity."/
"Sex remains a key determinant of outcomes across the full spectrum of public policy areas. Information on gender identities is also welcome, but can only be properly understood in combination with data on sex."/
"The ONS is conflating the two distinct variables of biological sex and gender identity in next month’s census. Meanwhile the Scottish Government’s Chief Statistician is proposing to cease the collection of data on sex, bar in some exceptional circumstances."/
"The public servants leading this process have failed to engage in a serious and timely way with those outside government who have substantial expertise on the collection and use of population data in the social sciences."/
"No robust evidence or argument has been provided to support such a fundamental change. We feel it our duty to voice our deep-seated alarm that we are on the brink of losing robust, high quality data on sex in the UK. Once gone, we may never get it back."
The letter is picked up in this news story: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/plan-to-ignore-birth-sex-in-census-alarms-academics-vn6k5p9dq
Meanwhile, PCS is calling for the census in England and Wales to be postponed until 2022 (as it has been in Scotland), citing "blinkered senior [ONS] managers...leaving staff to sort out the mess". https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/10/call-for-england-and-wales-census-to-be-postponed-amid-covid-concerns
![Meanwhile, PCS is calling for the census in England and Wales to be postponed until 2022 (as it has been in Scotland), citing "blinkered senior [ONS] managers...leaving staff to sort out the mess". https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/10/call-for-england-and-wales-census-to-be-postponed-amid-covid-concerns](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Et7n8JvXIAgHE89.jpg "Meanwhile, PCS is calling for the census in England and Wales to be postponed until 2022 (as it has been in Scotland), citing \"blinkered senior [ONS] managers...leaving staff to sort out the mess\". https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/10/call-for-england-and-wales-census-to-be-postponed-amid-covid-concerns")
A longer version of the letter that appears in The Times can be found here. https://twitter.com/ProfAliceS/status/1359793482513211393