'Gender ID' on a housing allocation policy consultation

[sashh]

Sorry for the long title.

My local Council are consulting on changes to their housing allocation policy. Great, consult, get people's opinions and use that to decide policy.

Then at the end it states :

Equality Data Monitoring
X Council as a public sector organisation has a responsibility to ensure that we do not unfairly discriminate in the services we provide and are accessible to everyone. In order to do this, the Council collects equality monitoring data.
Why do we want to know these things about you?
It is very important for X Council to collect information about respondents to understand whether the feedback we get from these surveys is representative of our resident population.
The disclosure of this data is treated in the strictest confidence.

Then there are these questions

13. What is your sex? (a question about gender identity will follow)
Male
Female
Prefer not to say

14. Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?
Yes
No
Prefer not to say

15. What best describes your gender?
Female
Male
Non-binary
I use another term
Prefer not to say

I mean why would you want to know this information?

Yes I have emailed them.

What a load of unutterable bollocks.
”I use another term”!!! Who the fuck cares?

Monitoring sex ✔️
Question 14 is fair enough in intent - it's asking about people who might have the PC of GR, but needs to reword, because asking if your gender is the same as your sex makes no sense. And gender identity is not a PC.
No need for question 15.

think it breaches data protection as well as not being inline with the Equality Act. How can they keep accurate data if they are not collecting accurate data?

They need another box with i don't have a gender identity

The law

The protected characteristics
The following characteristics are protected characteristics—

• age;
• disability;
• gender reassignment;
• marriage and civil partnership;
• pregnancy and maternity;
• race;
• religion or belief;
• sex;
• sexual orientation.

characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person's sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

13. What is your sex? (a question about gender reassignment gender identity
will follow)
Male
Female
Prefer not to say

14. Are you proposing to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone a process of gender reassignment Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth ?
Yes
No
Prefer not to say

15.Data breach as not needed under the EA
What best describes your gender?
Female
Male
Non-binary
I use another term
Prefer not to say

and under UK law there is only 2 sex based options anyway so non binary is a "double" breach

Now is this layout correct?????

13. What is your sex? (a question about gender identity will follow)
A) Male >>>>
Female
Prefer not to say

15. What best describes your gender?
A) >>>> Female
Male
Non-binary
I use another term
Prefer not to say

Now that is survey bias and is old fashioned sexism 💅💅

To take a step back the purpose of collecting data on age, sex, race etc., is so that in terms of allocations or any other service the provider (in this case the Council) can assess whether its allocation process is fairly reflecting allocations in line with the local population.

So for example, if those most in need of housing are single mothers, they should be able to find out how well they accomplished housing them in proportion to need.

But there is a big difference between collecting data that is then separate from say the form completed asking for housing, as opposed to this data being used as part of the process to decide allocations.

So whilst agreeing with comments by PP about the actual wording they need to make why this data is being collected.

If it isn't going to be used in either way, then they shouldn't be asking for it.

Sorry - just to add that in theory it is nice to say people can help decide a policy, but if individuals personal views bear not relation to the actually housing needs in the area it doesn't make sense. ie if those most in need of proper housing are for instance pensioners on a limited income, but local people all vote for prioritising young families, how is that a "policy". That is opinions.

Well another way around that is to never use the data anyway.

Also the data isn't collected under oath, so people could lie anyway.

Collection of personal data is sensitive and particularly restricted under GDPR.

You can only collect this information for very narrow specific purposes.

They should not be asking anything along these lines which is no compliant with the EA for good reason because you need to be very clear about the use of this data.

Well as I pointed out a week ago, the Governments own website for Blue Badges only collects "Gender" (from people who care to share it, that is). Although unlike some (mainly provided by US companies) recruitment questions you can prefer not to say.

They don't need to know your gender. Whats the purpose of knowing your gender? As opposed to your sex?

They are going to have issues with this language.

I dunno. I just had to fill the form in. My friend probably has a lower tolerance for bollocks than I do (being wheelchair bound can have that effect).

But we return to something I have never received a coherent answer to in (checks) over 43 years.

And that is: since these equality things are (a) voluntary*, (b) unverified and (c) self reported, then how in the name of all that is holy can anyone base anything other then a hot cup of coffee on them usefully ?

Or maybe I'm doing science wrong. I mean it may look like temperature I am recording. But what if it identifies as mass ? Or charge ?

*Except in Northern Ireland. Don't worry. I won't go there 😀

Yep. This question assumes everyone has a gender.

Or voluntary but the form won't let you complete it unless you respond to every question.

Even yours response 'prefer not to say' is a position.

Look. Do you want a badge or not ?

Oh OP your council are amateurs at this gender ideology capture. Mine required me to tell them my gender and my pronouns, in order for them to come and collect my old sofa when I wasn't even there!

I have had a response:

Thank you for your recent complaint regarding

Complaint in relation to housing consultation questions.

If you are not in agreement with our understanding of your complaint as documented above, please contact the Customer Liaison Team so that any necessary amendments or additions can be made.
I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your Stage 1 complaint dated 16 July 2025 which is being looked into by the EDI team who will arrange for you to receive a response. Your complaint will be dealt with as quickly as possible and a final response should be sent to you by the deadline date of 6 August 2025. If your complaint requires longer to investigate, we will let you know and advise you of progress.

In the meantime, if you would like to enquire about the progress of your complaint please do not hesitate to contact. If you are dissatisfied with the response that you receive to your Stage 1 complaint and would like to request a further investigation, please contact the Customer Liaison Team in writing within 20 working days from the date of your stage one letter as follows:

Having looked around the website the EDI team is all rainbows, in fact they are trying to make a 'Rainbow City' so I expect I will be fobbed off.

But I can only wit and see.

The the EDI team have to follow the law.

If not collecting for a PC what is the basis of collection and processing such data for a housing policy......

I know they don't seem to have a clue what they should be doing.

The clock is still ticking in relation to responding to your information request within 20 working days. It’s nice of them to send an acknowledgment of your request alongside an update on who’s handling it though!

Oh, sorry. I didn’t grasp that it was a complaint. I skimmed and thought it was a FOI about why they collect the info and how analysis of it will inform the consultation.

Im a bit one-track-minded re FOIs at the minute

I understand that totally. Have you seen the various replies 'Fair Cop' have been getting on twix?

I haven’t I’m having a full on time at work at the moment. I’ll take a look later.