Failure of public bodies to record biological sex means Executive's women and girls strategy is 'nothing more than a slogan' - Beattie

The Ulster Unionist justice spokesperson made the comments after a Freedom of Information request by the Women’s Rights Network NI (WRN NI) revealed that the PSNI does not record biological sex on its central database.

Police confirmed that 24 rapes and 106 sexual assaults were recorded in Northern Ireland’s hospitals between 1 November 2022 and 31 October 2024. However, when asked to provide a breakdown by biological sex, they confirmed that the data would be based on the “gender of the victim/suspect” not their sex.

WRN NI described it as a “serious failure in policing and safeguarding, particularly in institutional settings where women and vulnerable patients should be protected”.

Mr Beattie said that in order to identify crime trends, target resources and build on both the PSNI and Executive Office Strategy on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, it is important to keep up-to-date data.

“Therefore, it is of genuine concern that the PSNI, and I would say other departments and agencies, do not keep data on the biological sex of those victims of sexual offences or indeed the biological sex of the perpetrator”, the Upper Bann MLA said.

He said that the Independent Review of Data, Statistics and Research on Sex and Gender was “scathing” in its analysis of the lack of recording of sex data by public bodies. It said: “the meaning of sex is no longer stable in administrative or major survey data”, resulting in a loss of data and a resultant risk to individuals in certain settings, particularly minors.

The UUP MLA said their recommendations were clear that the word sex, meaning male or female, should be used in the collection of all data, and the word gender should be avoided as it has multiple meanings.

He said until the issue is clarified by NISRA, public bodies “are simply not collecting data on sex correctly, and this needs to change, particularly if ending violence against women and girls is going to be more than just a slogan.”