Today, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) has published draft guidance entitled ‘Collecting and reporting data about sex in official statistics’. The guidance sets out what producers should consider when collecting and reporting data about sex, to meet the expected…
Read More Time to fight for the principle of collecting data on biological sex
Our response to the Justice Committee's emergency consultation on freedom of expression in Bill is provided below. A PDF version of the briefing can be downloaded here. The Issue Our concern is whether the law will provide a clear point…
1. Introduction Less than six weeks before the date of the 2021 census in England and Wales, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the guidance which will accompany the compulsory sex question. The guidance is of critical importance…
Read More Was the sex question in the 2011 census ‘self-identified’?
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill extends the existing offence of "stirring up hatred" in relation to race, to a wider range of characteristics. As described here, the Justice Committee agreed with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on…
The next census in England and Wales will take place on 21 March 2021. For the past few years, both expert data users and feminist groups have been taking a close interest in the sex question and how this is…
Read More ONS guidance for the sex question in the 2021 census in England and Wales
Tomorrow the Justice Committee was due to debate a range of amendments seeking to strengthen the protection for freedom of expression in the Hate Crime and Public Order Bill (background here). This afternoon the Cabinet Secretary for Justice announced on Twitter…
Hate Crime and Public Order Bill: Stage 2 Briefing. The need for tailored freedom of expression protection for transgender identity. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill proposes to introduce stirring up hatred offences for all the protected characteristics…
The Justice Committee will start to consider potential amendments to Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill on Tuesday 2 February. How many more sittings there are will depend on how much time the Committee decides it needs to consider…
Read More Protecting Freedom of Expression: When less is less
As reported in the Sunday Times (24 January 2021), the Chief Statistician Sir Ian Diamond has stated that the sex question in the forthcoming census in England and Wales will be framed in terms of legal sex, although it should…
Read More Discontinuity in the UK censuses on the definition of sex
During the Stage 1 oral evidence sessions on the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill, the definition of ‘transgender identity’ was discussed. This briefing traces how ‘cross-dressers’ came to be included within the definition of transgender identity in the…
Read More The inclusion of ‘cross-dressers’ under the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill
