The UK presently allows its citizens to get a new passport
if they change their name, gender, or appearance if they have plastic surgery,
for example.
The arrangement does not need a requirement for people to
present a gender recognition certificate (GRC) if they want to change the sex
recorded on official government documents.
Freedom of information requests show that between 2018 and
2022, HM Passport Office approved more than 3,000 requests for people to change
their “sex marker”.
However, a report by The Telegraph disclosed that Equalities
Minister, Kemi Badenoch, wanted to close the loophole but needed the backing of
other departments.
The report revealed that she had brought up the case during
Suella Braverman’s time as Home Secretary and still pursuing it with James
Cleverly, her successor.
Campaigners said the loophole creates “self-ID by the back
door” and leads to a danger that single-sex spaces for women and girls could be
compromised, because passports and driving licences are commonly used for
identification in normal life.
A government source said: “This is a major loophole that is
made more problematic by the fact that passports and driving licences are
frequently used as the evidence when applying for a gender recognition
certificate.”
The FOI submitted by campaigner Payton McIntosh revealed
that in 2022, there were 259 requests for people to change their sex from male
to female, and 269 female to male.
Between 2018 and 2022, some 3,188 requests to change the sex
marker were approved.
It is not known how many of these had a GRC – which normally
requires a person to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and for them to have
been living in their affirmed gender for at least two years.
However, only around 6,000 certificates had been issued by
the end of 2021 since their introduction in the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Tory MP Miriam Cates raised the issue in the Commons last
month. She asked Badenoch to do more to “stop this self-ID by the back door”.
“Sex matters, in life and in law, and it is right that the
UK has its own rigorous processes for gaining GRCs, but these safeguards do not
apply to the process of changing sex markers on passports and driving licences,
which are far more commonly used for identification in real life,” she said.
Ms Badenoch replied that it was an example of how the law
needs updating.
“The reason that we have this is not that the government
supported self-ID but that before the same sex marriage law came into being we
wanted people to be able to change their legal documents so that they could get
married,” she said. “Now that we have a law that has fixed that, we should look
again at some of the measures we put in place earlier.”
A petition calling on the government to stop official
documents listing a person’s acquired gender as their sex has acquired has
reached 12,500 signatures.
The government responded that while they are “committed to
protecting the rights of transgender people”, they wanted to ensure that “these
rights are appropriately balanced with the rights of others”.
The response went on to say: “Systems are in place to
support transgender people in obtaining a passport or driving licence in their
acquired gender, without the need for a gender recognition certificate.
“Passports and driving licences are often part of the
evidence provided by transgender people to the gender recognition panel to
obtain a GRC.
“The government is committed to maintaining the safeguards
that allow organisations to provide single-sex services. It is important that
the principle of being able to operate spaces reserved for women and girls is
maintained, in line with the Equality Act.
“We are absolutely committed to championing the rights of
women and girls.”