UK Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch is working to consider closing a ‘major loophole’ that allows people to self-identify their gender on passports and driving licenses. Photo: Internet Source

Between 2018 and 2022, some 3,188 requests to change the sex marker were approved. It is not known how many of these had a GRC - which normally requires a person to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and for them to have been living in their affirmed gender for at least two years. Photo: Internet Source

A report from the Telegram detailed that at present, there is no requirement for people to present a gender recognition certificate (GRC) if they want to change the sex recorded on an official government document.

Freedom of information requests show that between 2018 and 2022, HM Passport Office approved more than 3,000 requests for people to change their “sex marker”. 

Campaigners say the loophole creates “self-ID by the back door” and leads to a danger that single-sex spaces for women and girls could be compromised because passports and driving licenses are commonly used for identification in normal life.

Mrs Badenoch wants to close the loophole but needs the support of other departments. The Telegraph added that she raised the issue with former Home Secretary Suella C. Braverman when she was Home Secretary and followed it up with a letter to her successor, James Cleverly.

Issue a 'major Loophole' - Gov't Source

“This is a major loophole that is made more problematic by the fact that passports and driving licenses are frequently used as the evidence when applying for a gender recognition certificate,” a government source said.

The FOI submitted by campaigner Payton McIntosh revealed that in 2022, there were 259 requests for people to change their sex from male to female, and 269 from female to male.

Between 2018 and 2022, some 3,188 requests to change the sex marker were approved.

It is not known how many of these had a GRC - which normally requires a person to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and for them to have been living in their affirmed gender for at least two years.

However, only around 6,000 certificates had been issued by the end of 2021 since their introduction in the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

The UK  government responded that while they are “committed to protecting the rights of transgender people”, they wanted to ensure that “these rights are appropriately balanced with the rights of others”.