Stats watchdog admits there are FEWER trans people in UK than officially recorded - with 'misunderstanding' to blame
The Census has come under fire for using "activist language"
PA
The number of transgender people in England and Wales is lower than recorded in the 2021 Census, the UK's statistics regulator has said.
In a report released on Friday, the regulator - the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) - said "concerns" had been raised about the "published estimates of the trans population".
The 2021 Census had asked respondents whether "the gender you identify with" is "the same as your sex registered at birth".
Those who answered were given two options: "Yes", or "No, write in gender identity" - and an 18-character box to "self-identify".
Respondents were given two options: "Yes", or "No, write in gender identity"
ONS
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says that of the nearly 46 million over-16s who answered the question, 45.4 million (93.5 per cent) answered "Yes" and 262,000 (0.5 per cent) answered "No".
But the watchdog has said the question "did not work as intended", adding that their evidence suggested respondents "found it confusing" and were pushed to give "a response that did not reflect their gender identity".
The regulator also said the gender identity question would likely have been more confusing for people who did not speak English as their first language.
And the OSR admitted that neither it nor the ONS were aware there "was a significant risk that certain groups of people were more likely than others to misunderstand the question" while developing the Census.
In response to the report, gender-critical campaign group Fair Play for Women warned that "lots of people" said they were transgender "by mistake" - thus inflating the figures.
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The Office for National Statistics just 0.5 per cent of over-16s answered "No" to the gender identity question
PA
The group accused ONS researchers of being "captured by gender ideologues" with "basic questionnaire design principles abandoned in favour of ideological language and motives".
In a scathing statement today, Fair Play for Women said: "Rather than simply asking: 'Are you transgender?', the gender activists wanted to embed the idea that everyone has a gender identity.
"Everyone was expected to declare whether their 'gender identity' matched their sex. They failed. This isn't a well established concept. It's activist language."
The regulator acknowledged concerns from Census users that the ONS had "been captured by interest groups" and exhibited "a lack of objectivity".
Though it noted that the ONS's communications had been "closed and at times defensive", the regulator defended itself, saying it "found no evidence" of interest group-inspired bias "through any of our work".
The OSR said "concerns" had been raised about the "published estimates of the trans population" following the Census
PA
It also said the final Census gender statistics were "not likely to be materially misleading" - despite "information on the size and nature of all the potential biases" remaining "incomplete".
In its report, the OSR requested that the gender identity estimates from the 2021 Census "should no longer be accredited official statistics" and should instead be classified as "official statistics in development".
Ed Humpherson, the director general of the OSR, said: "We welcome ONS's request to us to remove the accreditation of these statistics.
"Our report sets out the reasons that the statistics do not comply in full with the Code of Practice for Statistics, together with the lessons that emerge for ONS, and OSR."
GB News has approached the OSR for further comment.