SEEN in Health has formally raised concerns about the failure of the NHS England staff survey to comply with equality legislation.

The NHS has 1.5 million staff and is the biggest employer in Europe.

Inaccurate data collection leaves the NHS unable to monitor protected characteristics accurately to prevent discrimination.

Failing its Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Act 2010 defines nine protected characteristics, including ‘sex’ and ‘gender reassignment’. However, the staff survey wrongly uses the word ‘gender’ instead of ‘’sex’. Gender has no legal definition and is a highly ambiguous term.

The ‘gender’ question asks if people are male or female, but also includes options such as non-binary and self-descriptions, which relate to gender identity and not to the protected characteristic of sex. This totally undermines the data’s usefulness in monitoring sex-based discrimination, which is a requirement under the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Breach of the Code of Practice for Statistics

The anonymised staff survey data is considered an ‘official statistic’ by the UK Statistics Authority, which makes this mistake even more serious, as NHS England may be in breach of the Code of Practice for Statistics which public sector bodies must adhere to.

The data collection categories also fail to recognise trans staff who may need protection under the protected characteristic of ‘gender reassignment’ or ‘sex’, as these staff will go unrecognised if they select male or female as their ‘gender’.

Promotion of a contested belief system

Many people do not have a gender identity. ‘Gender identity’ lacks any legal definition and some people believe that it reinforces harmful stereotypes and others do not recognise the concept.

SEEN in Health members see gender identity ideology as a belief system, comparable to religious belief. Beliefs are personal and subjective and should not be imposed on others.

Public institutions are expected to remain neutral. By promoting contested beliefs as though they are fact, the staff survey risks alienating many of its staff.

SEEN in Health is calling on the NHS to update the question on ‘sex’ to reflect the law, asking staff whether their sex is male or female. They should have a separate question about gender reassignment and if they wish to add a third question, which isn’t a legal category, about ‘gender identity’, they should offer a ‘no gender identity’ option as an answer.

These changes would ensure compliance with equality law, improve data accuracy, protect all staff and maintain neutrality.