Data (Use and Access) Bill
A new government bill built around a trust framework for “digital verification services” (DVS) to allow people to exchange verified personal information about themselves easily without relying on paper documents.
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EHRC consultation: asking about sex at birth
This is the second in a series of posts focusing in detail on individual parts of the Equality and...
4th July 2025
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Digital identities risk enabling “catfishing” crimes
The Children’s Commissioner’s Office has agreed to meet with Sex Matters after we raised concerns that the government’s plans...
29th June 2025
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Sex and digital identities – briefing for Parliamentarians
The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 got royal assent on 19th June. Concerns had been raised that digital...
26th June 2025
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Letter to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, June 2025
The Data (Use and Access) Act got royal assent on 19th June. We wrote to Peter Kyle MP to...
25th June 2025
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Secretary of State writes to Sex Matters supporters about the data bill
On Friday (16th May) we received a letter from the Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State for...
19th May 2025
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Letter to the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
We wrote to Peter Kyle MP on 18th May 2025 to flag three key problems with the reassurances he...
19th May 2025
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Reply from the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
We received a letter from Peter Kyle MP on 15th May in response to our campaign asking you to...
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Government admits that passports are not reliable
Yesterday afternoon the House of Lords debated safeguards to ensure accurate sex data in digital identity services. These rely...
13th May 2025
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Letter to the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation
Sex Matters wrote to Lord Vallance about comments he made in the House of Lords debate on amendments to...
13th May 2025
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House of Lords to debate digital identity amendments again
The Data Bill is back in the House of Lords this afternoon for the ‘ping pong’ stage of counter-amendments...
12th May 2025
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Data Bill – briefing for House of Lords debate on 12th May 2025
Following the recent Supreme Court judgment which has confirmed the importance of biological sex as a characteristic in life...
12th May 2025
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Inaccurate sex data: excuses and bad arguments
On 7th May the House of Commons debated new clause 21, a proposed amendment to the Data Bill. It...
9th May 2025
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“The Supreme Court gender ruling had given us clarity. Now this Labour law will torpedo that”
Women’s rights campaigners warn that a Government bill could endanger vulnerable women by blurring the lines between sex and...
7th May 2025
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URGENT ACTION: email your MP today on the Data Bill
The Supreme Court has confirmed that “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 means, and has always meant, “biological sex”....
5th May 2025
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Data Bill: amendment NC21 – briefing for Parliamentarians
Report stage – House of Commons 7th May 2025
5th May 2025
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We call on Peter Kyle to guard the information gateway
Peter Kyle, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, is steering the Data Bill through Parliament. It...
11th April 2025
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The Sullivan Review and the Data Bill – Parliamentary briefing
The Review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender was published by the Department for Science, Innovation...
20th March 2025
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Why the government must act on the Sullivan Review and fix the sex data problem urgently
The long-awaited report of a review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender commissioned by the government...
19th March 2025
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Government removes safeguards from digital identity bill
The government is passing legislation to establish a “trustmark” for digital identity services, and to allow these services to...
11th March 2025
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Is the government sleepwalking into a digital disaster?
The digital identities framework needs to account for individuals’ sex, says James Arbuthnot.
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Digital ID can’t be gender self-ID
We all have a right to have the fact of our sex correctly and reliably recorded.
3rd March 2025
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The Data Bill must protect the integrity of sex data
On Tuesday the Data Bill continues its march through the House of Commons. It is an important piece of...
3rd March 2025
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Data (Use and Access) Bill: going to the Commons – Parliamentary briefing
The government’s Data (Use and Access) Bill will soon be moving to the House of Commons, with the second...
7th February 2025
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Keep the safeguards in the Data Bill
The government’s Data (Use and Access) Bill has finished in the House of Lords and is now moving to...
7th February 2025
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Digital identities: we have to get this right
On 21st January, Lord Patrick Vallance KCB, the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation, told the House...
22nd January 2025
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Data (Use and Access) Bill: Lords report stage – Parliamentary briefing
The government’s Data (Use and Access) Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 23rd October 2024. Report...
21st January 2025
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Sex and the Data Bill – summary report
The government’s new trust framework for digital verification services has a critical flaw: government data itself is not trustworthy...
6th December 2024
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The government’s Data Bill: sleepwalking into self-ID?
The first day of the committee stage of Parliamentary scrutiny in the House of Lords on the government’s Data...
5th December 2024
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There’s still a fatal flaw in the government’s digital trust framework
The Office for Digital Identities and Attributes last week published the latest version of the UK digital identity and...
2nd December 2024
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A new scandal on the horizon?
Yesterday the Data (Use and Access) Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords. Lord Arbuthnot of...
20th November 2024
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Sex and the Data Bill – briefing for Parliamentarians
The second reading of the Data (Use and Access) Bill in the House of Lords is on Tuesday 19th...
18th November 2024
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Sex and the Data Bill
The government's new trust framework for digital verification services has a critical flaw: government data itself is not trustworthy...
18th November 2024