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Information held by Jobcentre about gender reassignment does not infringe Article 8
New Court of Appeal decision finds that systems and policies in place for storing and accessing gender recognition data do not infringe Article 8 rights.
Claimant objected to information about her gender reassignment being able to be seen by jobcentre staff. Since the case was heard in the High Court all references to the Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) have been masked to front line users although they will be able to see that the sex has changed and can therefore probably infer it. However, DWP argued that information has to remain on the system to ensure that pension is paid correctly (paid according to the gender on the GRC from the date of that certificate) and also to avoid fraud - there have been cases of people trying to use the former identity of people who have undergone gender reassignment. This was considered reasonable justification for processes.
[ Edited: 9 Feb 2016 at 03:40 pm by Daphne ]Permission granted to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court - https://www.supremecourt.uk/docs/permission-to-appeal-2016-0708.pdf (page 7)
R (on the application of C) (Appellant) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Respondent) due to be heard in Supreme Court over 10 and 11 July - https://www.supremecourt.uk/docs/trinity-term-2017.pdf
Judgment due next Wednesday 1 November - https://twitter.com/rightsnet/lists/rightsnet