Prisons
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A policy in search of evidence
Why we need to treat with caution claims about the specific harms of keeping trans-identifying men in male prisons
21st March 2023
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New MoJ transgender prisoner policy: Sex Matters’ response
Sex Matters welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s announcement that men who identify as women will no longer be housed in women’s prisons if they have male genitalia or have committed sexual or violent crimes, with exceptions only to be made with ministerial authority. We join Woman’s Place UK and...
6th March 2023
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Searching for a simple answer
What does a gender-recognition certificate actually do? The question comes into sharp focus when people are forced to undress, or have to submit to intimate touching. It is a question of central importance to HM Prison and Probation Service’s policy on searching. Human rights As the Divisional Court in...
22nd February 2023
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Accommodation of transgender prisoners and Article 3 ECHR
Claire Methven O’Brien writes for Scottish Legal News on how attention has recently focused on policy and practice concerning accommodation of transgender prisoners in Scotland. However, the role of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been little discussed in this context. Accordingly, this...
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Call out bad reporting with our new tool
Media coverage of sex and gender is often confused, biased, misleading or simply wrong. This has become clearer than ever in recent weeks as the spotlight has fallen on Adam Graham, a man who decided he was a woman after appearing in court on rape charges. As in previous...
7th February 2023
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Rights and wrongs: how gender self-identification policy places women at risk in prison
Jo Phoenix, Professor of Criminology at the University of Reading, describes how the decision to include anatomical males who identify as women in a population of female prisoners creates a new layer of vulnerability for an already vulnerable group.
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Charlie Falconer’s testimony
The Women and Equalities Committee held an evidence session on 31st January on the Gender Recognition Reform Bill and the Equality Act. It featured Robin White, Barrister at Old Square Chambers; Naomi Cunningham, Barrister at Outer Temple Chambers (and Sex Matters’ Chair); Dr Michael Foran Senior Fellow, Policy Exchange...
2nd February 2023
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Fair Play For Women
Campaigning and consultancy group which raises awareness, provides evidence and analysis, and supports policy-makers to protect the rights of women and girls in the UK. Opposes sex self-ID, and also played a large part in the government’s decision to abandon plans to introduce it in England and Wales in...
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Trans law is a ‘magic key’ for predators
Mark McLaughlin for The Times
Sex Matters Chair Naomi Cunningham is the legal expert quoted.
A legal expert has warned Scotland’s controversial gender laws will provide men “who cross-dress for erotic purposes” with a “magic certificate” to access women’s spaces. -
Female inmates do not trust Nicola Sturgeon to decide who is sent to female prisons
Ex-Cornton Vale Prison inmate Amanda Benson talks to Times Radio.
“Putting a double rapist into a female prison, I don't know what risk assessments they're doing to have these men in the prison.” -
Minister defiant over trans rapist Isla Bryson
Mark McLaughlin for The Times
Maya Forstater is extensively quoted. The article was later revised.
The Scottish justice secretary has refused to stop the imprisonment of rapists in women’s prisons after a party colleague accused a double sex offender of “gaming the system”. -
Clarify the Equality Act: sign the petition
The Equality Act 2010 protects everyone’s rights and covers everything from schools to hospitals, pubs to sports, and everybody’s workplace. It includes protection against sex-discrimination, and allows single-sex services. But on 13th December a judge in Scotland pronounced that Equality Act does not recognise biological sex as a protected...
16th December 2022
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Woman’s Place UK (WPUK)
Grassroots feminist campaign formed in 2017 by women with backgrounds in trade-union and broader social movements. Aim was to ensure women’s voices would be heard in the consultation on proposals for self-identification and to uphold single-sex exceptions. Played a large role in getting government plans to reform the Gender...
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Mass harassment in HM Prisons and Probation Service
As reported in The Telegraph today, HM Prisons and Probation Service’s Pride in Prison and Probation (PiPP) staff network has circulated documents for Trans Awareness Week telling MoJ staff to recognise a series of words and phrases as “transphobic dogwhistles”. The PiPP is an official staff network, with a...
20th November 2022
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Why Sex Matters is calling for clarification of the Equality Act 2010
Sex Matters has launched a petition calling on the government to clarify that in the Equality Act 2010, “sex” means biological sex, and is not modified by the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This would protect the rights of people of both sexes, as well as people who identify as...
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Why sex matters for human rights – our organisational framework
Sex Matters’ mission is to promote clarity on sex in law and policy in order to protect everybody’s human rights. This document sets out the key human rights that are relevant, and why and how our work is guided by the promotion of human rights. (Also see our short guide...
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Women’s Rights Network
Combined grassroots groups of women who oppose sex self-ID. Supports local, in-person networking. Has topic-related groups (such as sports, prisons, schools) that create resources, including videos and podcasts and social-media posts, and coordinate national campaigns. Was a core member of the “Respect My Sex” campaign before the local elections...
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DBS checks and identity verification: safeguarding loopholes created by changes of identity
An analysis by Keep Prisons Single Sex of the exceptional privacy rights given to those who change their gender as well as their identity.
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Keep Prisons Single Sex
Established in 2020 to campaign for the sex-based rights of women in prison to single-sex accommodation and same-sex searching. Also campaigns for data on offending to be recorded by sex throughout the criminal justice system. Spokesperson is Kate Coleman. Email: [email protected]
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Groups defending sex-based rights
Overview of groups opposing sex self-ID in the UK, set up by individuals and collectives concerned by the failure of established third-sector organisations to defend women’s sex-based rights, child safeguarding and evidence-based policymaking. Also listed on our website.
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Self-ID: tell the Scottish Parliament your views!
When the Gender Recognition Act came into force in 2004, it was a single regime for the UK. The Scottish Executive at the time considered whether Scotland should have separate legislation, but rejected this approach due to “cross-border anomalies”. In 2019 the UK government stepped back from its plan...
3rd May 2022
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How police forces in England and Wales record suspects’ sex in crime and incident reporting
Keep Prisons Single Sex reports that from its research it is clear that many police forces record suspects’ gender identity in lieu of sex registered at birth, frequently on the basis of self-identification.
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“We hardly get any of those here” – working with girls and women
Charlotte Weinberg writes for Probation Quarterly on whether changes to the perception, treatment and approaches to work with women and girls affected by the criminal justice system have occurred, to what extent and to what effect.
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We can resolve the debate on trans prisoners with compassion and common sense
Former prison governor Ian Acheson writes for CapX that there is a blindingly simple way to both eliminate risk and protect transgender prisoners themselves.
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Excluding female offenders in policy and practice: how the Scottish prison service overlooks the sex-based needs of women in prison
Women’s prisons in Scotland are now effectively mixed-sex facilities. Keep Prisons Single Sex look at the implications.
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A woman’s place is not in prison
A transcript of Jo Phoenix’s presentation at a panel discussion organised by Woman’s Place UK and the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
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Women’s prisons and male transgender prisoners
The ruling handed down in FDJ v SSJ in the High Court of Justice last week is further proof that UK law does not work for women. In dismissing the claim by FDJ, a woman prisoner who had suffered a sexual assault by a male prisoner while in a...
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Were we unkind?
We have had this email about yesterday’s post on the prisons judicial review to which we think we should respond: The first thing we want to say to the writer is “thank you”. We mean that. If one of our own supporters writes this to us, then it’s a...
4th July 2021
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The law must protect women in prison
Today the High Court handed down a shocking and disappointing judgment, that the Ministry of Justice has not broken any law in its policy of housing fully intact men who identify as women in women’s prisons, despite the judges recognising: “a statistically greater risk of sexual assault upon non-transgender...
2nd July 2021
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Truth and reconciliation
How should the public sector leave the Stonewall Champions Scheme?
6th June 2021
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Time to #LeaveStonewall
This is the letter we have sent to the CEOs of the 850 organisations that are members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. Re: Leaving the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme We are writing to call on you to withdraw from the scheme, both for the sake of your own...
29th May 2021
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Is Gender Recognition an “access all areas” pass?
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 was passed with little public scrutiny or consideration for women’s rights. A critical question concerns the provision in Section 9 that a gender recognition certificate changes a person’s sex for all purposes. Is this an “access all areas“ pass? When the Act was passing...
14th April 2021