The Gender Recognition (Disclosure of Information) (England) Order 2026

S.I. 2026/173 · Made 25 February 2026 · Extends to England and Wales

Not fully up to date. 1 change made by later legislation has not yet been written into this text, which is revised to 20 March 2026.

See the changes not yet applied

Provision	Change	Made by
Order	ceases to have effect	Gender Recognition (Disclosure of Information) 2026 art. 1(2)

GENDER RECOGNITION, ENGLAND

Made 25th February 2026

Laid before Parliament 26th February 2026

Coming into force 20th March 2026

The Secretary of State makes this Order in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 22(5) and (7) and 24(1) of the Gender Recognition Act 2004^f1.

Annotations to the whole text

Footnotes

f1: 2004 c. 7; section 22(2)(a) was amended by the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (c. 30), Schedule 5, paragraph 13, and the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (c. 33), section 250(5)(c).

1Citation, commencement, expiry, extent and application
2Disclosure for the purposes of the data linkage study
3Revocation and savings
Signature
Schedule Authorised persons
Explanatory note

1Citation, commencement, expiry, extent and applicationI1

(1)

This Order may be cited as the Gender Recognition (Disclosure of Information) (England) Order 2026 and shall come into force on 20th March 2026.

(2)

This Order ceases to have effect at the end of 20th March 2029.

(3)

This Order—

(a)

extends to England and Wales, and

(b)

applies in relation to England only.

2Disclosure for the purposes of the data linkage studyI1

(1)

It is not an offence under section 22(1) of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 for an authorised person to disclose protected information to another authorised person where the disclosure is—

(a)

made by and to an authorised person in England, and

(b)

for the purposes of facilitating, assisting with or undertaking the data linkage study.

(2)

In this article—

(a)

an “authorised person” is a person employed by or authorised in writing to act on behalf of a body listed in the Schedule;

(b)

“GIDS” means Gender Identity Development Service formerly operated by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust^f1;

(c)

“data linkage study” means the observational study, originally commissioned for the purposes of the independent review into gender identity services for children and young people^f2. The study links and analyses GIDS data, adult gender clinic data, and other nationally available healthcare data, in relation to any individual who was—

(i)

referred to the GIDS, and

(ii)

below the age of 18 at the time of their referral.

3Revocation and savingsI1

(1)

The Gender Recognition (Disclosure of Information) (England) Order 2022 (“the 2022 Order”)^f1 is revoked.

(2)

Despite the revocation in paragraph (1) the 2022 Order continues to have effect in relation to a person who disclosed information in accordance with that Order.

Signature

Wes Streeting

Secretary of State

Department of Health and Social Care

25th February 2026

Authorised personsI1

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital National Health Service Foundation Trust^f1

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear National Health Service Foundation Trust^f2

Devon Partnership National Health Service Trust^f3

GTD Healthcare Limited^f4

LGBT Foundation Ltd^f5

NHS England^f6

Leeds and York Partnership National Health Service Foundation Trust^f7

Leeds Teaching Hospitals National Health Service Trust^f8

Mersey Care National Health Service Foundation Trust^f9

Northamptonshire Healthcare National Health Service Foundation Trust^f10

Nottinghamshire Healthcare National Health Service Foundation Trust^f11

Sheffield Health Partnership University National Health Service Foundation Trust^f12

Tavistock and Portman National Health Service Foundation Trust^f13

University College London Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust^f14

The Department of Health and Social Care

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Section 22 of the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (“the Act”) provides that it is an offence for a person who has acquired protected information in an official capacity to disclose the information to any other person. This Order prescribes circumstances where disclosure of protected information will not amount to an offence under the Act.

Section 22(2) of the Act defines protected information as information relating to a person who has applied for a gender recognition certificate under the Act, and which concerns that application (or a subsequent application by them), or their gender prior to being granted a full gender recognition certificate. Section 22(4) sets out certain circumstances where disclosure of protected information does not constitute an offence.

This Order provides for an additional circumstance where the disclosure of protected information does not constitute an offence. Article 2(1) provides that this is where protected information is disclosed between authorised persons for the purposes of facilitating, assisting or undertaking research for the purposes of the data linkage study. To benefit from the exception, both the authorised person disclosing the information and the authorised person receiving it must be in England when the disclosure is made. Article 2(2) provides the definitions of authorised person, GIDS and the data linkage study.

Article 3 revokes the Gender Recognition (Disclosure of Information) (England) Order 2022.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

An Explanatory Memorandum for this instrument has been published alongside this Order at legislation.gov.uk.