The Solicitors Regulatory Authority doesn’t understand the Equality Act

[SlipperyLizard]

Seen this on Twitter and am appalled (hope the link works).

The SRA will be asking solicitors to confirm which “gender do you identify with” and asking no questions about sex. Answers are “man” “woman” “other preferred description” or “prefer not to say”.

They say it is to be “inclusive” but many have rightly pointed out that it doesn’t include those of us who don’t have a gender identity. Oh, and of course it is not “gender identity” which is a protected characteristic.

twitter.com/ejvw100/status/1118042196899397632?s=21

Gah, I don’t think the link worked!

I wonder if a protest response by GC solicitors of “prefer not to say” to every question would register?

Man, woman or other preferred description? . What else are they describing themselves as these days?? The mind boggles...
If you can literally call yourself anything, or prefer not to disclose your sex (not fucking gender), what’s the point in keeping records at all?
They’re completely meaningless.

Stick double square brackets round it SlipperyLizard.

twitter.com/ejvw100/status/1118042196899397632

Ah, cheers nauticant - every day is a school day!

Hi Emily, after discussions & feedback on this issue from a number of groups and a short survey on social media, we adopted a question format based on gender which gave everyone an opportunity to answer

A number of groups, eh? I bet not one of those represented the interests of women.

is there an obligation to have a questionnaire to monitor sex discrimination?

(sorry not a v. bright question but a genuine one...)

But that would need sex being recorded properly to be of the slightest use, wouldn’t it?

From the SRA website:

“All regulated firms have to collect, report and publish data about the diversity make-up of their workforce. We require firms to report their data to us every two years. We last collected in August 2017 and plan to collect again in June 2019. Please do not enter any new data until we confirm we are ready to receive it. You will have four weeks to submit your information when the portal is ready.”

The SRAs questionnaire asks law firms to gather equality and diversity data

Argh, pressed post too soon...

This is nuts. I believe the SRA (and a trade newspaper) both want to speak to the woman who asked the question. Hope they manage a better response having thought about it...

The SRA uses the data to report on diversity within the industry, and asks about a number of factors including protected characteristics but also social mobility questions.

Completion by individual solicitors isn’t mandatory.

In that case they’re taking the piss allowing their employees to self ID as anything they please, and opt out entirely if they choose to. Idiots.

There were two women who asked, braver women than me, I’m not active on Twitter but if I was I’d hesitate to question this madness using my real name. I might contact the SRA separately, just not publicly.

Of course it understands the Equality Act.

The authority chooses to act dumb exactly because of the understanding. Just in case.

I predict a riot.

So it’s a questionnaire for firms to fill in?
But in that case how will the firm know what to say? Individual solicitors don’t see these forms it is handled by the admin people.

we adopted a question format based on gender which gave everyone an opportunity to answer

Everyone except all of us who are gender free. And our numbers are growing.

Tell them you are genderfree. Sex: female.

They need to recognise genderfree as a valid identity to be inclusive.

we adopted a question format based on gender which gave everyone an opportunity to answer
Isn't it worrying that the idea of inclusiveness for a small minority that trumps the idea of nulifyingthe definition for a demographic protected under the law. It goes to show how little even legal bodies care about the legal protection from sex discrimination.

amoregentlemanlikemanner no the surveys are distributed to all individual staff members by the firm and everyone is asked to answer anonymously. The data is then sent back to the SRA by the firm.

2BthatUnnoticed there is no option to state sex anywhere. I could answer "prefer not to say" to the question "what gender do I identify as" but there is then no box to state sex. So the SRA would have no idea I'm a woman from my answer. Rendering their sex data utterly meaningless.

Does gender have any legal meaning?

And is there a legal difference between 'gender' and 'gender identity'?

I'm not a lawyer - but, isn't this really serious? This (the SRA) is the regulatory body of that whole section of the legal profession. And they have decided to stop monitoring for sex discrimination in employment, in every firm of solicitors in England and Wales.

Can an actual solicitor let me know if I've got that wrong? Because I haven't, then surely this isn't a case of unfortunate wording, and getting people to answer the question creatively. If I haven't, then shouldn't the EHRC be coming down on them like a ton of bricks?

Don't hold your breath for the EHCR to intervene.

The EHCR Chairman is David Isaacs, solicitor at the wokest of woke law firms, PINSENT MASONS (in 2019, voted by Stonewall as the wokest employer in the land). He is also the former chair of Stonewall, and regularly voted as one of their top LGBTQ+ champions. Was also on the board of The Big Lottery Fund when they were handing cash to Mermaids.

TheBullshitgoeson this is from the ONS website and is the definition of sex versus gender used by the government

Themostbeautifuldogintheworld I'm a solicitor. I am appalled by this but I doubt that their intention was to stop monitoring sex discrimination. I don't think they'll have even considered that any women wouldn't want to answer the question about gender identity with "female", unless Trans. They'll be assuming that women will say they have a female gender identity and will answer the follow up question, which is "do you consider your gender identity to be different from the sex you were registered at birth?" (Yes/no answer) with a no, from which they could then extrapolate the sex as woman.

However as we know, many women will not want to answer the gender identity question, so will put the only other option of "prefer not to say", then the SRA will have no way of establishing the sex of the person. So it has the effect of rendering their sex data utterly meaningless. And isn't in line with ONS guidelines on surveys or the wording of the Equality Act.