Civil servants back down on plans to quiz people if they are transgender at next census

[IwantToRetire]

Civil servants have backed down on plans to quiz people about whether they are transgender at the next census.

The government funded Office for National Statistics (ONS) faced a fierce backlash from women’s rights campaigners the last time it asked that question.

Confusing wording of a question on gender identity on the 2021 census resulted in 'unreliable' statistics which vastly overestimated the number of trans people living in England and Wales.

Now the ONS has confirmed it will not be asking 220,000 households in six local authority areas what gender they identify as in next year's census test – a dry run before the official census in 2031.

Women's rights campaigners hailed the news as 'a win for common sense'.

Article continues at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15688111/Civil-servants-ditch-plans-transgender-census.html

It's a fourth declension noun not second declension, innit? So in Latin it's singular and plural 'census'.

As pp have said, in English usage it is censuses.

I think.

Thanks. So, what's the collective noun?!

"...but it was illegal to be anything but straight."

Really? That was certainly the case for men, but never for women. Or so I thought?

True, but was that at least in part because it was simply something no one would talk about let alone be mentioned in a census!

They'll need to include a note defining "transwoman" and "transman" because I think quite a lot of people are still confused about which is which, (e.g. they think a transman is a man who identified as a woman.)

Thanks for point that out.

But if this is the case even more stupid.

Surely the whole point of a test run is to make sure that the quesions etc., work.

So in what part of the universe would anyone think that the question that caused so many problems last time will not be included in the test run.

Of any of the questions to be tested if this is to be included it has to be part of the test.

Is everything else always this irrational or is it only when it is anything to do with the myth making around trans.

What a complete FU.

I can’t begin to tell you how isolating it is to be GC in the CS. There is a man in our organisation’s women’s network and I’ve completely pulled away from it. It’s toxic.

ONS definitions of “Woman” in Statistical Classifications

FOI reference: FOI-2025-3308

You asked

I am submitting this request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I am requesting only information already held within ONS statistical classifications, coding standards, or metadata frameworks.

No new analysis or interpretation is requested.

Please limit your response solely to definitions recorded in classification systems, metadata documentation, census standards, or harmonised principles.

I would be grateful for point-by-point confirmation of the following.

1. Statistical Classifications and Harmonised Standards
1a. Does ONS hold any definition or classification wording for "woman", "female", or "adult female" within its statistical standards or harmonised principles?
1b. If yes, please provide the recorded wording.

2. Census or Survey Metadata
2a. Do ONS census or survey metadata documents contain a definition of "woman", "female", or "adult female"?
2b. If yes, please provide the wording exactly as recorded.

3. Sex and Gender Coding Standards
3a. Do ONS coding frameworks include definitions that distinguish between biological sex and gender identity, specifically in relation to the term "woman"?
3b. If yes, please provide the wording exactly as held.

To read response to FOI go to https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/onsdefinitionsofwomaninstatisticalclassifications

The problem the ONS has is designing a question that everyone understands and can answer accurately, and provide meaningful information.

They want only transgender people answering the question. But all of the language around trans is so bonkers, other people will accidentally answer too. Having to explain what trans is to everyone, not offend trans people themselves in the process and then ask questions that breakdown the numbers of TW,TM and male and female non binaries isn't as simple as asking about religion.

They'll have their work cut out to get there by 2031.

ONS: trans is when someone’s gender identity…

Member of public: hang on, what is gender identity?

ONS: it is the gender you…

MOP: what do you mean by gender?

ONS: it is the expressions, behaviours and things we associate with men and women

MOP: so you are asking if I identify with regressive sexists stereotypes that vary over time and location and oppress women?

Apparently a non-binary person may or may not be trans.

I'm so sorry, it must be horrible 💐

Where is the Plain English Campaign when you need them?

This should be fairly straightforward. If you take the last census at face value, the biggest concentration of trans people in the UK is not in Brighton and Hove, but in the London Borough of Newham.

People who know Newham will know that it doesn't have a particularly visible rainbow community, but it does have lots of residents whose native language is Bengali or Urdu or Yoruba, and who can't make much sense of the ONS's ideologically loaded question.

There are ways to deal with this in the census.

1a. What is your sex as registered at birth? F/M
1b. Do you identify as transgender? Y/N
1c. If you answered yes to <1b>, here is a free text box to specify how you identify (trans woman, trans man, non-binary, faeself etc)

This might actually be useful to the trans community, who are always bellyaching about how they can't get appropriate healthcare, but who also don't want the census to accurately record the number and distribution of trans people in a way that might be useful for their community.

Shame they forgot what happened in 1991

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199293/cmhansrd/1992-06-22/Debate-1.html

"the number of persons whose names appear on the register of parliamentary electors in force on the enumeration date under the Representation of the People Acts for the constituency."

Many hon. Members on both sides of the House have expressed concern about the accuracy of the present electoral register. We know that it is inaccuratethat has always been the caseand it has been a particular problem in inner city areas, for obvious reasons. The turnover of people tends to be great and people arriving do not fill in the appropriate forms. Indeed, much evidence suggests that many people in different parts of the country simply do not receive the forms. Nor do they have in mind the necessity to get on to the electoral register. Many people assume that they are already on it and do not check to see whether that is so. In the last general election, many of us had the experience of people who thought that they were on the register because they had lived in the area for many years but then found that they were not and were denied the right to vote.
One of the many effects of the poll tax has been to make the electoral register even more inaccurate. It made breaking the law an acceptable act for many people who would never have contemplated such an act in the past. That is one of the legacies with which we must live for many years to come. Some people believe that the census carried out in 1991 will be inaccurate because people were in a state of mind that did not discourage them either from misrepresenting the position to the enumerator or simply not bothering to fill in the form. Indeed, many people have simply disappeared from the poll tax register or the electoral register and will not feature in the census.

Where is the Plain English Campaign when you need them?

Exactly they now know they made a mistake.

And yet are preparing to run trials of the next census but WITHOUT a rewording of the one question they knew as a problem.

Everyday now it seems what is going on in politics is what could be the start of a tv comedy series.

Whoever has overall management of the census should be sacked.

Dont know whether to laugh or cry.

I think you need a "don't know" as suggested by a pp for "do you identify as transgender".

I dont think it's clear in the general population whether it means "want to permanently be the opposite sex" or "you don't feel you have a gender identity that you believe aligns with your sex" or anything in between, including cross-dressers etc.

I think it should just be in with whatever the question is that asks about beliefs.

Do you hold or follow any of these beliefs/faiths/religions?

Christian
Islam
Judaism
Pastafarian
Transgender
Bahá'í
Scientology
Buddhism

Etc