Will the government solve the sex-data problem in this Parliament?
As part of the King’s Speech on 13th May the government said that it will introduce a Digital Access to Services Bill during this Parliament in order to introduce a free, voluntary form of digital ID to modernise how citizens interact with public services.
It aims to remove bureaucracy and put people more in control of their data by allowing them to prove who they are and to share only the information required to access particular services. But in the consultation launched in March 2026 the government revealed that it was planning to leave sex off digital ID altogether.
The Digital Access to Services Bill will set out the information that the digital ID will contain and how it can be issued, maintained, stored and verified. This is an opportunity to sort out the problem of official data that confuses sex and gender identity, so that anyone can prove their sex easily and be assured that it will be recorded accurately and clearly.
During the consultation Sex Matters and many concerned individuals told the government that leaving off information about sex was just not good enough.
As part of our response we produced an equality impact assessment which shows just how bad an idea it is for the government to leave sex out of its plan for digital ID.
And we have written to Darrren Jones MP, chief secretary to the Treasury, asking for a meeting to discuss the proposal to include sex on digital ID.
Thank you for your great work. Could you make the Sex Matters response into an email that Sex Matters supporters can send to our MPs? This should be worthwhile because a lot of Labour MPs will likely feel less secure in their seats than they used to, while other parties will want to consolidate their positions, which should make all of them more responsive to what their constituents have to say. Also, although I despise the mainstream media, I hope Sex Matters is sharing your response with them because we need to gain a groundswell of opinion to sway the government and stop this blinkered approach to a Bill, which ultimately will be very damaging to women and girls.
Hi guys
I am great supporter of you and think you do amazing work but this is fiddling while Rome burns. Digital ID is aimed, in my opinion, to complete the closing down of freedom of speech and freedom of expression that this Government have already been pushing forward. I think we need to oppose the whole thing never mind whether they don't collect sex data correctly.
Dusty