The Science Secretary, Michelle Donelan, is initiating a review on the collection of gender data by public bodies, aiming to address the shift towards self-identified gender over biological sex. The Telegraph has the story.
Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference, Michelle Donelan will sound the alarm at what she calls the “denial of biology and the steady creep of political correctness”.
Ms. Donelan has been moved to act by examples such as the NHS sometimes using a person’s stated gender rather than their biological sex in data records.
The review will last six months and be headed up by Prof. Alice Sullivan, the Head of Research at UCL’s Social Research Institute.
It will analyse the collection of research and statistics by all public bodies on sex and gender, with specific recommendations to be made at the end.
Ms. Donelan will say in her speech on Tuesday: “To those who think they have the right to impose this utter nonsense on science, let this message go out from this conference hall today… We are safeguarding scientific research from the denial of biology and the steady creep of political correctness.”
She will also say: “We are making a stand before it suffocates British identity and values entirely… That is why we are depoliticising science, because science is the most extraordinary force for good – from curing disease to growing our food – [and] we must keep it that way.”
The intervention comes as the Conservative Party hardens its position on the importance of biological sex being recognised amid the debate about transgender rights.
The issue has played an increasingly prominent role in British political discourse, with all parties facing pressure to make clear how they would strike the right balance.
Rishi Sunak’s Government has long been promising to publish guidance for schools on how they should act when pupils want to self-identify as a different gender from the one assigned at birth.
But ministers have had to water down the proposals after being warned that a change to the Equality Act would be needed to implement them.
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