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Corporate Solutions
Corporate Solutions
Following Royal Assent on the 1st July 2004, The Gender Recognition Act came in to force on the 4th April 2005.
The Act makes it an offence for any person acting in an official capacity to disclose information relating to a trans person's application either to the Gender Recognition Panel, the court or to the Secretary of State. It also is an offence under the Act to disclose information relating to a successful application to the Gender Recognition Panel, as this would reveal information regarding the trans person's gender history. This type of information is defined in the Act as 'protected information'.
Gender Change falls within the definitions of sensitive personal data in the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). As such a breach of the Gender Recognition Act would incorporate a breech of the DPA.
Exemptions exist under the Gender Recognition Act which allow for disclosure of protected information. For example, disclosure is not be an offence if the trans person themself had given explicit consent or if the purpose of the disclosure was for the prevention or investigation of a crime. For a full list of all exemptions see Section 22 subsection 4 of the Act.
The Gender Recognition Act affects the financial services industry in relation to the processing of name changes of gender reassignment individuals. The current process could mean that a gender change is evident to anyone accessing that data. There is also a risk of a breach of the Act when information is passed to credit reference agencies. Currently credit reference agencies will create an alias link when lenders supply them with previous and current names either on account records or through searches. Name changes are also received through public data. Until the trans person has obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate from the Gender Recognition Board there is no legal breach in processing data. However action must be taken to amend records as soon as possible after the legal change of name.
Discussions are currently underway between the credit reference agencies and the relevant government departments in order to establish a mutually acceptable solution to the managing of gender reassignment individual's data, which allows for the maximum access to and use of data whilst remaining compliant.
There is an issue with public data sets in that this data cannot be amended to reflect the gender change. Work is currently been undertaken in this area to evaluate the changes required in order to show a complete credit history without disclosing the gender change.
On 07 November 2004 communication was received from the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) Gender Recognition Project. This confirmed that credit reference agencies have been provided with an exception to the offence of disclosure in section 22 of the Act. This means that if the trans gender individual has a County Court Judgment or Bankruptcy under their previous name, it will not be an offence under the Act to disclose this information to third parties. However, the exception Order includes the condition that a notice is placed on the files of those individuals affected which warns recipients of the protected information that it is an offence to disclose that information.
This decision by the DCA is significant in that it allows credit reference agencies to continue to supply important information to lenders relating to an individual's credit history. This also assists further in supporting responsible lending and fraud prevention.
Throughout the fourth quarter of 2004 Callcredit met with the other credit reference agencies and relevant government bodies to agree a process for handling enquiries from transgender individuals in relation to their change of name. An official process has now been drawn up with the latest agreed version being finalised early in 2005.
