I need help taking a complaint further.

[sashh]

Do you remember I complained to the council about their consultation asking for 'gender ID'? Well today I got a reply. And I am not happy - please read and comment.

Corporate Stage 1 Complaint

Thank you for your recent complaint regardingquestions relating to gender as part of our equality monitoring. I apologise that you are dissatisfied with the service you have received from the City of Wolverhampton Council. I am sorry that on this occasion the service we provided did not meet your expectations; I have investigated what happened and can now reply as follows:

On your question about why the Council ask questions about gender identity, and why it is relevant, as part of the Public Sector Equality Duty, The City of Wolverhampton Council has a responsibility to ensure that we do not unfairly discriminate in the services we currently provide, or plan to provide. Therefore, by asking equality monitoring questions as part of our consultations, we can break down the responses we receive and assess whether any protected characteristics will be unfairly treated because of the proposal being consulted on and plan suitable adjustments accordingly.

The Equality Act 2010 recognises gender reassignment as a protected characteristic which has not changed following the Supreme Court ruling of For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. We ask questions about gender so we can identify responses from this equality group to see if they are engaging with our consultations and check if this protected characteristic have identified any adverse impact in their response. This is why asking questions around gender is relevant.

Furthermore, our equality monitoring questions were developed to align with the questions asked as part of the Census 2021, which enables us to check if the responses we receive are representative of the diverse makeup of the City of Wolverhampton. As part of the Census 2021 individual questionnaire, question 27 was focussed on gender and therefore, this is another reason we ask a similar question as part of our monitoring.

On your concern about ensuring accuracy without a I don’t have a gender identity option, our equality monitoring questions are not usually mandatory on Citizen Space, so questions don’t need to be answered where someone feels the question is not relevant to their identity. Additionally, each will have a prefer not to say option to allow people to opt out of questions they don’t feel comfortable answering.

Therefore, we do not uphold the element of your complaint that we are discriminating against you or not processing your data correctly by including questions on gender in our consultations as there are opportunities to abstain from questions you do not want to answer.

On your question on why the Council does not ask questions about pregnancy or maternity, the council aligns our equality monitoring questions with the Census 2021, where the only question relating to maternity was an employment-based question which wouldn’t be relevant for the Council to ask as we do not gather data on employment as part of our equality monitoring questions on consultations.

If you are dissatisfied with this response and would like to request a further investigation, please contact the Customer Liaison Team in writing within 20 working days from the date of this letter as follows:

Ah, the nonsense of 'cis'

Do you understand that the LA should not be collecting data for no reason?

They have no lawful reason to collect a person feelings about their gender.

@sashh fyi
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-sector-equality-duty-guidance-for-public-authorities/public-sector-equality-duty-guidance-for-public-authorities#myth-buster

Myth 8: “I must consider other demographics beyond the protected characteristics.”
Unless there is a clear correlation with a protected characteristic, considering demographics that are not protected characteristics will not help you to comply with the duty. In fact, it could obscure compliance in your supporting records. Examples of demographics that are not protected characteristics include:

• class
• gender
• gender identity
• caring responsibilities
• single parenthood

Depending on context, some of them may be linked to race, sex, or gender reassignment

They have a legal obligation to collect data about women who have a PC of pregnancy and maternity

149 Public sector equality duty PC
(7)The relevant protected characteristics are—

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

But the reason they offer for not doing that is that the 2021 Census only collects employment data and therefore they cant work out how many women in their area will fall within the PC.

The LA have a legal obligation to keep up-to-date records of (most) pregnancy and the EA defines the period of time that maternity covers.

So the LA could run the maths on a daily basis.

They also have an obligation to collect data for the PC gender reassignment.

The letter show that the staff involved do not understand the LAs legal duty and are spending public funds on a data collection process which fails its objective.

I don't subscribe to belief in gender identity, so no thank you, and no thank you to cisgender. Please stop trying to force your belief system onto people. Thank you.

Yeah, they should have that option or even just a simple 'N/A' box. But the question in itself isn't totally unreasonable.

Another person here who does not have a 'gender identity'.

Hopefully, @spooge has now realised that their theory that 'everyone has a gender identity' is, in fact, complete bollocks wrong.

Whats your opinion on why they decided not to collect data any data on the PC which has the potential to directly impact up 50% of their whole polulation?

Sorry, I'm not sure I understand your question.

I don't have any strong opinion on what demographic data any council tries to collect. I just see it as data gathering to be used for internal and decision making purposes.

I think the ones who pop up to claim everyone has a gender identity think we're lying or mistaken when we say we don't. Although I hope that isn't the case because if it was flipped, if we said Joan Bloggs doesn't have a gender identity. He just gets off on wearing his wife's knickers. Well, you'd hear the cries of transphobia faster than you could say 'hate crime'.

Why do you think they decided not to use data they collected about women for internal and decision making purposes?

I have no idea. I didn't know they collected no data on women. I'd presume they'd collect it somewhere? I don't know why saying it's reasonable to ask about trans needs to be akin with not asking about women. If it is the case they've excluded women then I disagree with it.

They did exclude women.

They have a legal obligation to collect the two sets of data under section 149(7) Public sector equality duty of the Equality Act
a) pregnancy and maternity and
b) gender reassignment

So 2 questions are needed

Eg pregnancy and maternity
Are you currently pregnant or were you pregnant within the last 26 weeks.
□ Yes
□ No

Eg gender reassignment
Are you proposing to undergo, are undergoing or have undergone a process of gender reassignment
□ Yes
□ No

They said they do not collect the data for women because the 2021 census did not ask women if she had given birth within 26 weeks of the Census date or was pregnant on the census date.

1. "The Census did not ask" is not a lawful reason to not collect the data.

2. the LA have the data:
   The LA collected a record of all births in 2021.
   The ONS has a large amount of data collected nationally
   https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/birthcharacteristicsinenglandandwales/2021

So what you may say so what:

Say the LA is planning to refurb the local pools.
It will remove all storage and replace it with lockers which will only fit a backpack.
A swimmer will not be allowed in if their belongings can not be stores in the space.

No buggy space = you cant swim with your baby or bring older children to swimming etc.

The consultation forces the LA to look as PCs as special groups.

You are pregnant and organise all the women giving birth to ask for storage provision for a small fold up buggy. Say 2000 write in.

Your gender IDing friend organises a similar number 2000 of IDing people to ask for an internal shelf in the locker.

Your and her request is at a population level of 2000 / 236,700 .

Gender ID as gender reassignment PC has a extra weight of 2000 / 2000 for refurb plan adjustment.

Pregnancy and maternity PC has a extra weight of 0 / 0 for refurb plan adjustment.

The LA have to add the proposal to add a shelf and/or ask if it is discrimination to not have one.

The buggy space can be excluded from the proposed adjstments as no PC is recognised so no discrimination can happen.....

If that was across all the functions of the LA no provision designed to allow women with buggies access the services is required its up to the whim of the staff in charge.

Thank you for this information. I don't condone the exclusion of women at all.

I don't see why they can't ask about women and trans people?

They should and have to by law.
However the staff involved are not following the it.
The question becomes is it by not having the proper training or is it an active choice.

Copy pasteing questions from the the Census indicates no understanding of the Data Protection Act nor the Equality Act.

Isn't part of the complaint that the structuring of the data requests and the underlying principles they are using to make decisions means it is quite likely that they'll get a partial, non very useful data set which if they use to make decisions could lead to poor decision making.
It isn't that asking questions about % of respondents who are trans is inherently wrong, but much more about the likelihood of poorly linked questions, coupled with poorly constructed questions and questions not asked will give poor data and then we're all (well those who living in Wolverhampton) reliant on someone in the LA going 'hmm, does this feel right' and given that they're using the census 2021 as a benchmark, I wouldn't be very confident in their ability to count to 10 let alone anything more nuanced

I agree. Can I ask what is has to do with the data protection act? Sorry I'm a bit ignorant on some of this.

Using my example

When you ask for a bigger locker you would give your name and address and maybe a phone number and email address.
That is all your personal data.

Note You may not be pregnant or have a baby but you know all your swim friends need to have a big locker to go to baby swim hour.

The LA will also ask you to provide personal data for

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

They dont need to know all that to add
" Please buy some lockers big enough to hold a buggy and a bag to the refurb purchase order."

They may have to buy them because there is a law which said provide services which meet the needs of the group with a PC pregnancy and maternity (woman likely with young baby needs bigger locker).

Still no need to for you to say you are a 25 year old, deaf, with no body dysphoria, not pregnant, white, pastafarian, female, who is bisexual.
That is all your very personal to you personal data

All that data is collected to run checks in the collection process
Eg
51% of the population should be female so 51% of the submissions should be from females

2% of the population should be bisexual so 2% of the submissions should be from bisexuals

If 30% of the submissions say they are bisexual and want a buggy locker provided something has gone wrong with the data collection process.

Dear X

Thank you for your letter. I am sorry to tell you I am not satisfied with your answers.

You state Public Sector Equality Duty, The City of Wolverhampton Council has a responsibility to ensure that we do not unfairly discriminate in the services we currently provide, or plan to provide

However the guidance states:

The duty is a statutory duty on listed public authorities and other bodies carrying out public functions. It ensures that those organisations consider how their functions will affect people with different protected characteristics. These functions include their policies, programmes, and services. The duty supports good decision-making by helping decision-makers understand how their activities affect different people.

The protected characteristics are:

age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief

Gender reassignment is not a protected characteristic.

So your assertion:

We ask questions about gender so we can identify responses from this equality group to see if they are engaging with our consultations and check if this protected characteristic have identified any adverse impact in their response. This is why asking questions around gender is relevant.

Is untrue. Sex is relevant as is gender reassignment, gender is not.

You are discriminating against everyone who's protected characteristics are not counted in the data. You are also collecting data on a political point of view ie 'gender identity' as described by Mr Justice Linden who went on to call it “highly controversial”.

In short the council is failing in its duty under the Equality Act 2010.

And quite frankly I am appalled that you are not gathering data about pregnancy and maternity. Surely that data is relevant to both planning and allocating council properties?

I was surprised when you then went on to assert that the council:

Furthermore, our equality monitoring questions were developed to align with the questions asked as part of the Census 2021, which enables us to check if the responses we receive are representative of the diverse makeup of the City of Wolverhampton. As part of the Census 2021 individual questionnaire, question 27 was focussed on gender and therefore, this is another reason we ask a similar question as part of our monitoring.

The 2001 census has been highly criticised. Several commentators have written about this but I will draw on Biggs (2024) who points out, according to the data collected by the 2021 census, the highest number of people who identified themselves as having a gender ID different to their sex was Newham in London, Brighton came in 20th however other data (from gender clinics and a petition to to allow transgender individuals to self ID) it is clear Brighton should not be so low.

Also gender is still not a protected characteristic.

Your letter continues with: our equality monitoring questions are not usually mandatory on Citizen Space, so questions don’t need to be answered where someone feels the question is not relevant to their identity. Additionally, each will have a prefer not to say option to allow people to opt out of questions they don’t feel comfortable answering.

You are asking a question about a political ideology, 'prefer not to say' is not an option. Would you ask a question about race that took the form

What is your race?
A) Black
B) Prefer not to say

Of course you wouldn't.

I find the last paragraph of your letter astounding. You have already said the council has a duty under the equality act, but then you say. Which is it? The Duty under the Equality Act, or not?

the council aligns our equality monitoring questions with the Census 2021, where the only question relating to maternity was an employment-based question which wouldn’t be relevant for the Council to ask as we do not gather data on employment as part of our equality monitoring questions on consultations.

I look forward to receiving a coherent reply that actually addresses the points raised.

Biggs, M. (2024). Flawed census question leads to inaccurate data on gender identity. Sociology .

Gender reassignment is not a protected characteristic.

I think you meant to say "gender identity" here.
Also btw your proposed reply is good but really much too long.

Well spotted, thank you.

I had expected to see 'sex' in your list of protected characteristics. Is there a reason that you didn't include it?

Nope.

So glad I posted on here. I have not had much sleep. Thank you.

Also gender is still not a protected characteristic.

Should be ‘gender identity’

You are asking a question about a political ideology, 'prefer not to say' is not an option. Would you ask a question about race that took the form
What is your race?
A) Black
B) Prefer not to say

I don’t think this has the right focus as I wouldn’t say race is an ideology. Perhaps use a religion analogy or say something like:

‘Prefer not to say’ as a response to ‘what is your gender identity?’ does not allow for respondents who do not subscribe to gender ideology to respond truthfully or accurately. ‘Prefer not to say’ could mean ‘I have a gender identity but do not wish to disclose it’, or ‘I might or might not have a gender identity but do not wish to disclose whether I do or not’.

Perhaps

Are you Catholic or CofE?

a) Catholic
b) CofE
c) Prefer not to say

I've changed that part from race to 'which party did you vote for?
A) Labour
B) prefer not to say

BTW the signature from this person has their pronouns in their signature.

They are apparently an 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisor' bloody hell he is being paid for this.