Transgender and non-binary categories have been added to official documents for reporting the death of a child.
The Department of Health and Social Care has this month updated the forms that must be submitted following the tragic loss of a young person.
The paperwork asks: ‘Which gender did the child identify as at the time of death?’
It includes the categories ‘male (including trans male)’, ‘female (including trans female)’ and ‘non-binary’.
As recently as July the form simply listed ‘male’, ‘female’, ‘other’ and ‘unknown’ under the ‘sex’ category.
Labour MP Charlotte Nichols called for changes to the Gender Recognition Act following the murder of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey last year, ‘to allow transgender people who are deceased to be legally remembered by the gender they lived by’.
But while the change will be welcomed by some, it has attracted criticism.
Tory spokesman for women and equalities, Mims Davies, said: ‘It is a deep insensitivity for families to then be asked… if their late child was trans or non-binary in order to tick the boxes for NHS diversity officials.’
Helen Joyce, from charity Sex Matters, said: ‘This ill-conceived, agenda-driven question needs to be dropped immediately.’
The Department of Health and NHS England were contacted for comment.
