Justice spokesperson, Doug Beattie MC MLA, has highlighted that the failure to collect data on sex is making ending violence against women and girls nothing but a slogan.

Beattie said, “In order to identify crime trends, target resources and build on both the PSNI and Executive Office Strategy on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, it is important to keep up-to-date data. Therefore, it is of genuine concern that the PSNI, and I would say other departments and agencies, do not keep data on the biological sex of those victims of sexual offences or indeed the biological sex of the perpetrator.

“The Independent Review of Data, Statistics and Research on Sex and Gender was scathing in its analysis, outlining “the meaning of sex is no longer stable in administrative or major survey data. This instability is evident across key policy areas, including health and justice. This has led to a widespread loss of data on sex. In some cases, the loss of data on sex poses risks to individuals. This is particularly apparent within health and social care. These risks are especially high in the case of minors.”

“Their recommendations were clear. The word sex, meaning male or female, should be used in the collection of all data, and the word gender should be avoided as it has multiple meanings. This is something I have raised with each department in Stormont, who all replied they were waiting for the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) to outline a way ahead. To that end, I wrote to NISRA, and although they have replied, they have not given any guidance yet.

“In the meantime, justice agencies and health departments, as well as other organisations, are simply not collecting data on sex correctly, and this needs to change, particularly if ending violence against women and girls is going to be more than just a slogan.”