Male Homosexuality (Hansard, 27 November 1997)

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey:

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

137WA

Letter to Lord Belhaven and Stenton from the Director of the Office for National Statistics, Dr. T. Holt.

I have been asked to reply, as Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), to your recent questions about the proportion of the adult male population that is exclusively heterosexual, the proportion that is actively homosexual, and the life expectancy of (a) the male population as a whole and (b) the actively homosexual male population.

According to the results of the ONS Omnibus Survey, 92 per cent. of adult men said that they had had sex only ever with women, and 6 per cent. said that they had not yet had a sexual relationship.

Information is not collected about the proportion of the adult male population that is actively homosexual, although the Omnibus Survey found that 1 per cent. of adult men said they had had sex with both men and women, and a further 1 per cent. said they had sex only ever with other men. We have no information on how many men are currently actively homosexual.

The expectation of life at birth in the United Kingdom for men is 74.3. This is a provisional estimate from the Government Actuary's Department based on data for 1996, the latest year available.

Expectation of life for homosexuals is not available. Information about a person's sexuality is not recorded at death registration, and it is therefore not possible to distinguish between deaths of homosexuals and non-homosexuals.