§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the Home Office Working Group on Gender Allocation, with particular reference to the membership, frequency of meetings, submissions received and expected report date. [130089]
§ Mr. Mike O'BrienThe terms of reference and the membership of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual People were announced, by means of a written answer on 15 April 1999,Official Report, columns 132–33W, by my noble Friend, the then Minister of State, Home Office, the Lord Williams of Mostyn. The Group met once every two months, under the chairmanship of a Home Office official, until January 2000.
Submissions were received from 99 individuals and from the Beaumont Society, the British Medical Association, Change, the FTM Network, Northern Concord, the Gender and Sexuality Alliance, the Gender Identity Research and Education Society. The Gender Trust, Liberty, and Press for Change. Representatives of the last five organisations met the Working Party in January. Further written material was received from a number of these organisations and from the Evangelical Alliance Policy Commission.
The Working Group's report is being carefully considered. It was presented to Home Office Ministers in April and is being circulated to ministerial colleagues in other Government Departments and in the Scottish Executive, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.