Sex and "The Data (Use and Access) Bill" - Supreme Court Ruling Undone by Stealth?

[KnottyAuty]

A new thread to discuss what might be done about this potential disaster for accurate data recording on sex and implications. As before, if sex data is not recorded this will be default, government backed gender self ID.

"Core to this bill is a trust framework for “digital verification services” (DVS) to allow people to exchange verified personal information about themselves easily without relying on paper documents"

In other words a male can register with the app as a female, and the app will create a type of pass for entry into any single sex space.

Background briefing from last December:
https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Summary-report-Sex-and-the-Data-Bill.pdf

Briefing on the Amendment for accurate recording of sex - MPs voted against last Wednesday (7th May):
https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Data-Bill-briefing-%E2%80%93-Amendment-NC21.pdf

Many of us will have emailed our MPs after this thread last weekend:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5328897-urgent-bh-terfing-write-to-your-mp-today-5th-may-on-the-data-bill

Many of us have had no reply. Others have received a reply and been called transphobic by their MP! This is despite public opinion clearly hardening against self ID on YouGov polls.

The Bill is going to the Lords next Wednesday 12th May.

What can be done to press for accurate recording of sex in this new digital ID system?

Oh my gosh people have been called a transphobe by their MP?! That's fucking shocking.

I was wondering about starting a separate thread for mp responses. Mine (Labour) has ignored me. I put personal experience in the email so she could understand it was coming from a real human. A decent person would acknowledge that, I feel. Especially as it dated back to my childhood.

Fwiw, I have in the past received a very empathic reply from a lib dem MP who ultimately disagreed with me. So it can be done.

The media will be the solution to this. A high profile campaign showing how the usual suspects have worked behinds the scenes to implement this in order to undermine both safeguarding and the SC judgement.
Labour's reputation for ignoring the rights of women and safeguarding children is about as low as it could be so lots of campaigning and letter writing needed I reckon.

This does have disaster written all over it.... Is there any chance the Lords can reject it? Amend it?

We do seem to have sensible types in there like baroness Nicholson and others...

What can we do now????

My MP hasn’t yet replied to my email and abstained.

I think the House of Lords is able to send a bill back down for the HoC to think again. This in combination with high media coverage would seem our best option.

Who / how is the high media coverage going to happen? Needs to go beyond Telegraph and Daily Mail....

I think The Times would cover this, expect radio silence from the Guardian obviously!

I haven't had a reply from my MP yet. It's tricky because I do know her personally. She voted by proxy, so at least she wouldn't have spoken.

I'm going to give mine a bit longer before deciding that they are a horrible person. I imagine she might have received quite a few emails.

That said, when I wrote to her about an equally divisive issue last year she replied almost instantly.

We already have self id government identification though no? Passports and driving licences, which I imagine most people would accept as legitimate forms of ID, can already be changed with just a doctor’s note. Isn’t this just a continuation of that?

Do we know what Sex Matters are doing on this re media? Is anyone else taking a lead on it??

Are there people in the Lords we should be being in touch with???

What about contacting Lady Tanni Grey-Thompson? She's a disability advocate and is obviously aware of disabled women's vulnerabilities. She's also spoken up for single sex spaces.

It doesn’t undo the SC ruling but makes it harder to enforce. But it still must be enforced, including recording sex for PSED.

In terms of media - the whole issue has only got as far as it has because it has been supported by the Media. BBC News have had 19 articles about the death of one drag queen since the start of the year - they are desperate propagandists and many other news sources are not far behind.

Totally agree re the media, and although I have very strong reservations, I wonder if we could get reform to make some noise?

Labour are sufficiently worried about them in red wall seats, and the tories want to unsettle them where they can. It is obviously a risk that Reform wouldn’t necessarily understand, or be interested in the issues in any detail. And I for one do not align with most of their policies or approach.

Do we think it’s too big a risk to try to leverage the way they scare the other parties?

My MP replied with "I agree." (Sir Desmond Swayne, Conservative)

Unfortunately using Reform, who are aiming to reduce women’s rights further, would use this to their own gain not to that of women per se. I would steer clear of a party that has no plan apart from sound bites and minority hatred as its backbone.

My MP voted no although I did write to her.

Breakdown of votes here:
https://votes.parliament.uk/votes/commons/division/2016#noes

Labour are sufficiently worried about them in red wall seats

I think Labour are more worried about the Muslim vote these days, and definitely no support for women’s rights there.

I biggest issue with Reform is they are still a protest party. They don’t know what they stand for as a political ethos. Even their anti-immigration stance seems a shoogly peg. It doesn’t, as a party, have much democratic structure.

They can try and undo it by stealth.

But legally if they are auditing incorrectly, they still could be liable as ignorance is no defence in law.

It makes it harder for women to prove they are being discriminated against, however if you can point out how they are auditing fails to correctly identify sex, in certain areas they are making it EASIER for women to prove they are legally being discriminated against because the data collection on an institutional level is flawed.

So whilst in theory, you might be collecting data that is compliant with the data law, you might be collecting data which is incompatible with your responsibility under the equality act.

Of course this would need taking to court to demonstrate, but I would argue that this is just another people of bad law, rather than it necessarily removing the rights of women.

The Supreme Court ruled that for the purposes of the Equality Act BIOLOGICAL sex matters. If the data you are collecting is just birth certificate information, thats not a declaration of biological sex. Its a piece of data which is fundamentally different from biological sex...

Then what justification is there for collecting that piece of data?

Good question. To deliberately enable discrimination against women would be the answer...

I also there is scope for making it difficult for service providers to use the digital ID service. A well drafted legally robust request to a service provider stating you require a single sex service in accordance with the EA 2010. Any failure by them to provide that service through using inaccurate verification processes (where such inaccuracies are already in the public domain) will be regarded as failing to act with due care and actionable detriment under the EA 2010.

They can’t argue they didn’t know about the issue when it’s been debated in Parliament!

I suspect their insurers will get twitchy very quickly.

Even defeated amendments serve a purpose because they can bring issues into the public record that would have been hidden otherwise. It’s a tactic that has been used to great effect in the HoL to expose things to daylight.

This will be an app. Available instantly and carried around with you. Gives me more powerful vibes - I couldn’t imagine challenging someone in the ladies and them getting a passport out… but a quick flash of a government approved app… yep some folk will really enjoy using that. Don’t need to bother trying to pass?