The UK Supreme Court’s ruling that the definition of “woman” in the Equality Act is based on biological sex has turned attention on gender recognition certificates and their legal standing.
In a unanimous decision, the judges said on Wednesday that transgender women with a gender recognition certificate were not classed as women under the Act.
The decision could have implications for trans women accessing single-sex spaces, such as women’s refuges, hospital wards and changing rooms.
Over 8,000 gender recognition certificates have been issued in the UK since the Gender Recognition Act came into force two decades ago.
Implemented on April 4, 2005, the Act grants adults the legal right to change the sex recorded on their birth certificate.
The change is facilitated through a gender recognition certificate, a document confirming an individual has met the criteria for legally changing the sex recorded on their birth certificate.
Applications are reviewed by the Gender Recognition Panel, comprised of legal and medical professionals, who issue certificates only when specific criteria are met.
These criteria include a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, living as the acquired gender for a minimum of two years, and the intention to continue living as that gender permanently.
A total of 8,464 full certificates had been granted in the UK up to the end of March 2024, according to the latest available figures from the Ministry of Justice.
Some 1,088 were granted in 2023/24, up sharply from 871 in 2022/23 and 495 in 2021/22.
This is the second highest annual number on record, behind only the 1,179 granted in 2005/06.
There has been a similarly steep jump in the number of applications for certificates, which climbed from 466 in 2020/21 to 802 in 2021/22, 1,240 in 2022/23 and a record 1,397 in 2023/24.
This increase is likely to reflect changes in the application process.
The application fee for a certificate was cut in May 2021 from £140 to £5. There was also a switch to online applications in July 2022.
The mix of applications has changed over time.
In 2005/06, the first full year that certificates were available, 911 (77 per cent) were granted to people whose sex at birth was male, with 268 (23 per cent) going to those who were female.
By 2015/16 the gap between these percentages had narrowed to 67 per cent and 33 per cent, and by 2023/24 – the latest available year – the figures were almost equal, with 52 per cent of certificates granted to people whose sex at birth was male and 48 per cent for those who were female.
Of the 1,088 certificates granted in 2023/24, the vast majority – 973 – were for people who were single, while 95 were for married applicants and 20 were recorded as “other/unknown”.
Nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) of certificates granted in 2023/24 were to people who had been born from 1990 onwards, with almost one in five (18 per cent) having been been born in 2000 or later.
