The Gender Recognition Act 2004
The Act gives transsexual people the legal right to live in their acquired gender.
The Act
The Act established the Gender Recognition Panel, who have the authority to issue a Gender Recognition Certificate.
Issue of a full certificate provides legal recognition of the transsexual person’s acquired gender.
Under the Act, information relating to an application for a Gender Recognition Certificate is ‘protected information’ if it is acquired in a professional capacity.
It is an offence to disclose protected information to any other person unless an exemption applies.
Some of the exemptions are:
- the person has consented
- the person cannot be identified from the information
- information is needed for prevention and investigation of crime
- information is needed to comply with a court order
The Gender Recognition Act 2004
Records management considerations
Applicants to the Gender Recognition Panel are required to supply evidence from a medical practitioner in support of their application.
As ‘protected information’ covers all information that would identify a person as being a transsexual, if successful in their application a new health record must be created so that protected information is not disclosed.