According to records leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, female office workers may face administrative action if they object to male-born colleagues using changing rooms and single-sex restrooms.
HR procedures, internal communications, and messages from the Stats intranet suggest that the records system has been subject to “institutional capture” by transgender activists, alleged gender-critical campaigners.
Following criticism of the ONS over claims that a poorly worded question may have overestimated the number of transgender people in the population.
A manager’s guide for supporting transitioning staff is included in a set of Statistics resources on “Gender Identity and Transitioning at Work,” with a section titled “use of single-sex facilities.”
It states: “Have you agreed when the individual will start to use single-sex facilities, such as toilets and changing rooms, appropriate to their acquired sex? This will typically be on the first day of transition.”
According to the report, “if colleagues object to sharing facilities with transitioning employees, the issue may be addressed through discussion, dialogue, and education.”
If coworkers persist in making objections, you may need to address the situation through grievance or disciplinary measures.”
Transitioning staff members make their own decisions
According to the ONS’s gender identity policy, implemented in 2018, it is up to transitioning workers to decide when to use single-sex facilities in their acquired gender.
It states: “As part of their transition process, the employee may have decided that it is best for them to use facilities like restrooms and changing rooms that are appropriate for their gender. Stats recognizes that it is up to the employee to decide how they feel about using these facilities.”
A transgender person should not be expected or asked to use separate facilities, the article notes; to do so may impede the individual’s transition, be uncomfortable or offensive, and could constitute harassment.
Sex Matters, a gender-critical campaign group that reviewed the ONS documents, said the policies showed the organization had “complete disregard for all other employees”.
The ONS policy on single-sex toilets also appears to go beyond the transgender guidance currently being developed by the Civil Service.
Transitioning civil servants without a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) may be asked to use alternative gender-neutral facilities, such as accessible toilets, according to a leaked draft update to the Cabinet Office’s transgender guidance last year.
According to another section of the ONS policy, the organization should undertake the “destruction of all information relating to a person’s former gender” after an employee transitions.
“Place any paper documents that cannot be destroyed in a sealed envelope and attach it to a new employee file, clearly marked as confidential, to be opened only if required,” it says.
Trans activist demands ‘prioritized’
Sex Matters said the “extreme” policy would mean that a new line manager “might not be aware of an employee’s past performance, absence, sickness, or disciplinary records”.
According to Sex Matters, various other sections of the document showed how “trans activist demands have been centered and prioritized, seemingly without regard for the consequences.”
According to the policy, “all trans individuals should be treated according to the gender with which they identify, regardless of their legal gender status under the Gender Recognition Act 2004,” and the ONS acknowledges that treating a transgender person without a GRC the same as someone with one.
Both points, according to Sex Matters, “go far beyond the law, disregarding the impact on other employees.”
Additionally, it added that leaked ONS intranet posts revealed an organization that prioritized accuracy over transgender identities and feelings.
For example, James Barry, an 18th-century surgeon who lived as a woman to practice medicine, was referred to as a “transgender man” in a post on LGBT history and healthcare last month.
‘Institutional capture’
Academics questioned ONS findings from the previous year that suggested there were 262,000 transgender people in England at the 2021 census. More than 60% of the population is over 16.
The figure for those whose primary language was not English was 2.2%, leading the academics to suspect that the question, being used for the first time, may have been confusing.
Respondents to the Census were asked: “Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex at birth?”
Fiona McAnena, Sex Matters’ director of campaigns, said: “The leaked ONS staff documents are inaccurate, ideologically driven, and inflammatory. This is what institutional capture looks like.”
She continued, “Any public sector organization would be concerned by these documents. The fact that they are from the national statistics body helps to explain why the ONS messed up the sex and gender identity questions in the census.”
The ONS stated that they value all of their employees and maintain an inclusive work environment with an emphasis on providing statistics for the benefit of the general public. We have not received any formal complaints regarding the relevant policies.”
