Sexual offenders continue to be over-represented amongst prisoners identifying as trans

On 30th November 2023, the Ministry of Justice released the HMPPS Offender Equalities Annual Report 2022 - 2023. This document, that is published annually, reports on prisoners with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. The data show that:

• There are 269 prisoners asserting a transgender identity who do not have a GRC. This is a 17% increase on the figure of 230 in 2022.

• The large majority of these are male & this is where the biggest increase can be seen: there are 225 male prisoners who ID as transgender (2022 = 187) compared to 44 female prisoners (2022 = 43).

• The number of GRC holders is reported separately: there are 13 prisoners who have been issued with a GRC (2022 = 11). In 2022 all of these were male prisoners and we are confident that the very large majority in 2023 are also male.

Data on numbers of prisoners identifying as transgender serving a sentence for a sexual offence are now available:

• There are 100 prisoners who ID as trans, and who do NOT have a GRC, where principal offence is sexual offence.

• Between 95 and 99 of these are male: this means that between 42% & 44% of male prisoners who ID as trans are sexual offenders. This is a slight reduction on 2022 rates of 49%, but still far in excess of rate of sexual offending for men in prison at 18%.

• Between 1 and 5 are female: this means that between 2% and 11% of female prisoners who ID as trans are sexual offenders.

• These figures EXCLUDE prisoners with a GRC: we know that this cohort includes sexual offenders.

• Our thanks go to Kenny MacAskill MP for obtaining these data:

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2023-12-01/4853…