Have Royal Mail got this wrong?

[Yambabe]

And if so, how would I challenge it?

Background: DH is currently out of work so is applying to be a temporary sorter/postman over the Christmas period. The application is done via an online account, and I'm helping as I'm generally better at that sort of thing.

The form is a bit waffly and not very well put together in general (it asks if he has a driving licence in 4 different sections for example) but I've got to the bit which I assume is to collect stats for EA purposes and I'm cross! It asks if he is disabled, it asks for his race and religion, it asks for his sexual orientation but then asks for his gender not his sex.

I'm pretty sure that's wrong, but have no idea how I would go about contacting them to tell them. I know some of you have successfully got organisations to change gender to sex, can I have your advice about how to go about it please?

These references would suggest that you are correct about what you cannot ask:

www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recruitment

www.reed.co.uk/career-advice/interviews-questions-you-should-not-be-asked/

However, taking that advice literally would mean that you CAN'T ask someone their sex, but could ask them their Gender.

But I am not a lawyer.

I never fill in most of the EA questions anyway and have told DC not to either. As far as I'm concerned my religion and sexual orientation iS NYOB.

They should only collect data about an individual if there is a justifiable reason for doing so. I struggle to see how collecting data about someone's gender is ever appropriate - what has it got to do with anything!
If they are monitoring applications for equal ops purposes, they should ask about all of the protected characteristics - so sex and gender reassignment should both be included.

The form really isn't clear about why it's asking (although if you tick Y to disability it asks what reasonable adjustments you need them to be able to make).

You can't just leave this section blank though, as the questions are asterisked and if you don't complete them you can't submit it. Ethnicity and religion both have a "prefer not to say" option, gender is male or female, disability is yes/no, and sexual orientation was also a list although I can't recall the exact wording (am at work now, did it at home)