Petition · past parliament

Keep the category of sex a mandatory question in the 2021 Census.

Closed 4,729 signatures

What the petition asks

We oppose the published tentative recommendation by the Office of National Statistics to make sex a non-mandatory field in the 2021 Census. We demand that sex remains a mandatory question in the Census and is included in all government demographic data collection in accordance with SDG5 commitments.
Data collection disaggregated by sex gives us vital information for policy making and distribution of resources. If implemented, the ONS recommendation will make widely acceptable that sex becomes a voluntary question. This will render useless equal opportunities monitoring designed to combat sex discrimination. It will influence governments worldwide making difficult the monitoring of imbalances resulting from sex-selective abortion, female infanticide and unequal treatment of girls and women.

Timeline

11 Oct 2017 Petition opened for signatures
11 Apr 2018 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 4,729
Status Closed
Opened 11 Oct 2017
Closed 11 Apr 2018

Follow this petition

Sign in to get an email when the government responds, a debate is scheduled or held, or the petition closes.

Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.