GENDER RECOGNITION

CERTIFICATE FEE REDUCED

LAST MONTH THE UK GOVERNMENT DELIVERED ON ITS PLEDGE TO REDUCE THE FEE OF APPLYING FOR A GENDER RECOGNITION CERTIFICATE (GRC).

In response to the consultation on the Gender Recognition Act, Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, committed to modernising the process of applying for a GRC, reducing the £140 fee and moving the process online, making it fairer and simpler.

Applicants will be only required to pay £5, ensuring the process is more affordable and remedying one of the key issues that was identified by transgender people in the GRA consultation and the National LGBT Survey.

Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, said: “As we build back better, we want transgender people to be free to live and to prosper in modern Britain.

“In the National LGBT Survey, 34% of transgender people told us that the cost of applying for a certificate was holding them back from doing so. “Today we have removed that barrier, and I am proud that we have made the process of getting a certificate fairer, simpler and much more affordable.”

As of December 2020, there have now been a total of 5,871 full GRCs granted since 2005, yet tentative estimates suggest there are an estimated 2-500,000 transgender people living in the UK. The Government hopes that modernising the process of applying will allow more transgender people to legally change their sex with a GRC should they wish to do so.

The fee reduction is announced today as secondary legislation, laid by the Ministry of Justice in April, comes into immediate effect. The Government’s Equality Hub are currently working at speed to move the application process online, with more details to be set out in due course.