What’s changed in OSR’s guidance?

This guidance updates and supersedes the OSR previous draft guidance on collecting and reporting data about sex in official statistics, published in 2021. 

This guidance was developed based on feedback on our pre-existing guidance, as well as our regulatory work on these issues. We sought feedback on a draft version from official statistics producers across a wide range of government departments and the Devolved Administrations. We also met with a number of external stakeholders to gather wider views. We would like to express our gratitude to all the individuals who engaged with us, this process was instrumental in the development of this guidance.  

Any future updates to this guidance will be recorded here. 

1. First publication – 29 February 2024  

1. Current version – 17 December 2024 update  

• Amended the terminology section for gender identity to read as follows – . Gender identity is not constrained to the binary male/man and female/woman categories and includes others such as non-binary and gender fluid.  

Previous text was, Gender identity is not constrained to the binary male and female categories and includes others such as non-binary and gender fluid. 

• Moved the section “OSR programme of work on sex and gender identity” to earlier in the document. Updated the text in this section to reflect the publication of OSR’s final report on the Gender identity review of the 2021 Census in England and Wales.  

• Updated the section “Questions used to collect data about sex and gender identity” to now also reference new GSS Harmonisation publications. Removed the reference to the Census 2021 questions and retained the reference to the Scottish Government Chief Statisticians guidance. 

• Whole document reviewed for readability and grammar (copy edit review) and minor edits made where these benefit the reader.