Why resist it?

The Government is resisting an independent advisor’s call to get tough on the NHS, police and other public bodies that have been allowing people to self-identify their gender without recording their biological sex.

This is despite serious issues being identified by Prof Alice Sullivan, of University College London, who said previous convictions of criminals who have changed their legal sex are being overlooked by the police and courts because the crimes were committed under their original identity.

The professor said NHS patients are being put at risk because they are not invited to the appropriate screening appointments for their biological sex. Cancer referrals have also been missed.

Prof Sullivan’s review of the way sex and gender are recorded was commissioned by Rishi Sunak, the then prime minister, who said biological sex “really matters” after the public outcry about the case of Isla Bryson, the biological male rapist who was sent to a women’s prison in 2023.