Referrals to Tavistock and Portman clinics (FOI)

​​​​Request

A

Please advise how many people from Jersey have been referred to the Tavistock and Portman NHS clinic for the purposes of gender “confusion” and or related issues? Please break down into each year from 2013 to date, age when first referred, and gender when first referred.

B

How many people in Jersey have registered to change their gender since birth, giving numbers from 2013, whether Male to Female or Female to Male, and the age on which registration took place.

Response

A

Prior to 2019, referral information is not available from a central record and Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

Annual figures for 2019 to 2023, and for 2024 to date, are shown in the table below. These include individuals referred to Tavistock and Portman’s Gender Identity Service (GIS), and those seen in the joint-working clinics that are delivered by the Tavistock and Portman GIS and Health and Community Services. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied in respect of the request for details of age and gender at referral, as it is considered that this is personally identifiable information.

B

The information requested is absolutely exempt information under Article 29(a) of the FOI Law because its disclosure is prohibited under an enactment as explained below and therefore it is not possible to provide any information in response to this part of the request.

Article 18 of the Gender Recognition (Jersey) Law prohibits the disclosure of protected information except in the circumstances allowed by 18(4) or where the Minister has made an Order under 18(6). Please see  the link below: 

Gender Recognition (Jersey) Law 2010 (jerseylaw.je)​

Article 18(4) states:

(4)     However it is not an offence under this Article to disclose protected information relating to an applicant if –

(a)     the information does not enable the applicant to be identified;

(b)     the applicant has agreed to the disclosure of the information;

(c)     the information is protected information by virtue of paragraph (2)(b) and the person by whom 

         the disclosure is made does not know or believe that a gender recognition certificate has been 

          issued;

(d)     the disclosure is in accordance with an order of a court or tribunal;

(e)     the disclosure is for the purpose of instituting, or otherwise for the purposes of, proceedings 

         before a court or tribunal;

(f)      the disclosure is for the purpose of preventing or investigating crime;

(g)     the disclosure is made to the Superintendent Registrar or the Judicial Greffier for the purposes    

         described in the Schedule;

(h)     the disclosure is made for the purposes of the social security system or a pension scheme;

(i)      the disclosure is in accordance with provision made by an Order under paragraph (6); or

(j)      the disclosure is in accordance with any provision of, or made by virtue of, an enactment other    

         than this Article.

The only circumstance in which this information could be provided is if 18(4)(a) applied and the information disclosed did not enable any applicant to be identified.

In Jersey, there are a very small number of registrations and accordingly, it is not possible to disclose information in response to this request without a risk of enabling the identification of applicants. The Article 18 prohibition therefore applies.

Articles applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

​Article 25 - Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.

3)      In determining for the purposes of this Article whether the lawfulness principle in Article 8(1)(a) of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 would be contravened by the disclosure of information, paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 2 to that Law (legitimate interests) is to be read as if sub-paragraph (b) (which disapplies the provision where the controller is a public authority) were omitted.

Article 29 - Other prohibitions or restrictions

Information is absolutely exempt information if the disclosure of the information by the scheduled public authority holding it –

(a) is prohibited by or under an enactment;

(b) is incompatible with a European Union or an international obligation that applies to Jersey; or

(c) would constitute or be punishable as a contempt of court.