GIDS referrals by Referrer Type & Intersex Gender

Reference: 23-24396

Date response sent: 18/01/2024

Details of enquiry

1. how many children under 18 have been referred to the Gender Identity Development Service by someone other than themselves (e.g. schools, parents, etc.), from when referrals started until the time of this request, with the data split down into one year intervals, and;
2. how many of those were on the record as being intersex

Response sent

1. a)    How many children under 18 have been referred to the Gender Identity Development Service by someone other than themselves (e.g. schools, parents, etc.), from when referrals started until the time of this request, with the data split down into one year intervals,

We do not hold this data prior to 2001.

In the above table we have anonymised low numbers, ≤5 indicates where the numbers are five or below. It is the NHS Digital standard not to provide data where the numbers are smaller than five as it may be possible to identify individual people by triangulating data already in the public domain. For this reason and in accordance with Section 40(2) and Section 40(3a) and Section 41(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, we have declined to provide this information. The disclosure of personal data or easily identifiable data would be unfair, thus breaching GDPR Principle (a): Lawfulness, fairness and transparency. As this is an absolute exemption, we do not have to apply the Public Interest Test when applying this.

1. b) how many of those were on the record as being intersex

Please kindly note that the GIDS service is not a medical service, so any questions about intersex conditions should directed to the endocrine services at UCLH (University College Hospital London) or Leeds Teaching Hospital.

The Trust may record if a patient is of intersex gender within the freetext notes section in individual patient files. Since this information is not located within an automated data field, it cannot be identified and collated through an automated process. Our patient records are based on gender assigned at birth and the gender with which the patient now identifies along with the options to select whether unknown or not applicable.

To calculate how many GIDS referrals were recorded as intersex would therefore require a manual search of thousands of files. Searching a single patient file would take around 10 minutes, so the time taken to search over 19,000 files @10 minutes each would take approximately 3,166 hours.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for NHS organisations to refuse questions where the cost of processing (which includes determining whether the Trust holds the information, locating, and then extracting it) exceeds £450, or 18 hours of officer time.

The time required to process this question falls outside this limit, and so will be refused according to the provision in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Should you wish to narrow the scope of your request, the Trust will treat the submission as a new FOI request.

Please note that information provided under FOIA relates to information held by this Trust at the date on which the request was made.

I hope that you are satisfied with this response. If you are dissatisfied, you can ask us to carry out an internal review of our handling of your request. You can request a review by emailing us at FOI@tavi-port.nhs.uk. Your review will be carried out by a senior officer within the Trust who has not been involved in this response. If you remain dissatisfied following completion of our internal review, you have a right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) at https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/official-information-concerns-report/official-information-concern/ or visit https://ico.org.uk/global/privacy-notice/how-you-can-contact-us/