Criminals are allowed to record their gender, with the Government refusing to implement recommendations from an independent review that urged police to record biological sex rather than self-declared gender identity.
The review, published on Wednesday, called for Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to issue a mandatory order to all police forces in England and Wales to collect data specifically on sex.
However, the Government would not commit to implementing the recommendations, saying merely that the report would be considered alongside views of "other interested parties".
The review, led by Prof Alice Sullivan from University College London, found that criminals are currently free to pick their gender in police records.
Criminals are allowed to record their gender
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The review called for Yvette Cooper to issue a mandatory order to all police forces in England and Wales to collect data specifically on sex
POOL"Many police forces record crimes by male suspects as though they were committed by women at the request of the perpetrator or based on how a person 'presents'," her report stated.
This follows Telegraph revelations that police forces and courts routinely allow criminals to self-identify their gender, with transgender rapists among those recorded as female.
Prof Sullivan warned this practice poses significant risks to public safety and data integrity.
She revealed that cancer referrals have been missed and previous convictions overlooked because biological sex was not being recorded.
She warned of operational risks if a person did not inform police they had changed their legal sex.
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The police national computer system allows the sex of people to be changed
GettyThe police national computer system allows the sex of people to be changed, a practice the review said should end.
Guidance notes for officers state it is "quite possible" that an arrested person with a gender recognition certificate could be released before any link to their previous offending history is known.
The review found that the conflation of sex and gender was "systemic" across public bodies.
"There seems to be a legal fiction that public bodies cannot collect data on sex," Prof Sullivan told The Telegraph.
She warned that public records on sex were "no longer stable" because of the "reframing of gender" and that the loss of sex data posed risks to individuals, especially children.
The report recommended that those with a gender recognition certificate should be listed according to their biological sex, not their legal sex.
The report, which was commissioned by former Tory science secretary Michelle Donelan under Rishi Sunak, was published quietly on the government website on Wednesday afternoon.
The report recommended that those with a gender recognition certificate should be listed according to their biological sex, not their legal sex
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A Government spokesman said: "This Government is clear that the collection of accurate and relevant data is vital in research and the operation of effective public services, particularly when it comes to sex."
The spokesman added that departments would consider the findings alongside the views of "other interested parties".
A Department for Health spokesman said they would "urgently investigate" the "serious findings" in the report.
Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, said the review was "devastatingly clear about the harms caused by carelessness with sex data".
"The destruction of data about sex has caused real harm to individuals and research, and undermined the integrity of policy-making," she said.
She added that conflating sex and gender identity was "not a harmless act of kindness but a damaging dereliction of duty".
Forstater urged the Government to "swiftly implement the recommendations" to "restore administrative integrity" in state data collection.
