Ministers in the United Kingdom are weighing options for closing a "major loophole" that allows their nationals to alter their gender identification on passports and driving licenses.
The UK presently allows its citizens to get a new passport if they change their name, gender, or appearance if they have plastic surgery, for example.
The arrangement does not need a requirement for people to present a gender recognition certificate (GRC) if they want to change the sex recorded on official government documents.
Freedom of information requests show that between 2018 and 2022, HM Passport Office approved more than 3,000 requests for people to change their "sex marker".
However, a report by The Telegraph disclosed that Equalities Minister, Kemi Badenoch, wanted to close the loophole but needed the backing of other departments.
The report revealed that she had brought up the case during Suella Braverman's time as Home Secretary and still pursuing it with James Cleverly, her successor.
Campaigners said the loophole creates "self-ID by the back door" and leads to a danger that single-sex spaces for women and girls could be compromised, because passports and driving licences are commonly used for identification in normal life.
A government source said: "This is a major loophole that is made more problematic by the fact that passports and driving licences are frequently used as the evidence when applying for a gender recognition certificate."
The FOI submitted by campaigner Payton McIntosh revealed that in 2022, there were 259 requests for people to change their sex from male to female, and 269 female to male.
Between 2018 and 2022, some 3,188 requests to change the sex marker were approved.
It is not known how many of these had a GRC - which normally requires a person to have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria and for them to have been living in their affirmed gender for at least two years.
However, only around 6,000 certificates had been issued by the end of 2021 since their introduction in the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Tory MP Miriam Cates raised the issue in the Commons last month. She asked Badenoch to do more to "stop this self-ID by the back door".
"Sex matters, in life and in law, and it is right that the UK has its own rigorous processes for gaining GRCs, but these safeguards do not apply to the process of changing sex markers on passports and driving licences, which are far more commonly used for identification in real life," she said.
Ms Badenoch replied that it was an example of how the law needs updating.
"The reason that we have this is not that the government supported self-ID but that before the same sex marriage law came into being we wanted people to be able to change their legal documents so that they could get married," she said. "Now that we have a law that has fixed that, we should look again at some of the measures we put in place earlier."
A petition calling on the government to stop official documents listing a person's acquired gender as their sex has acquired has reached 12,500 signatures.
The government responded that while they are "committed to protecting the rights of transgender people", they wanted to ensure that "these rights are appropriately balanced with the rights of others".
The response went on to say: "Systems are in place to support transgender people in obtaining a passport or driving licence in their acquired gender, without the need for a gender recognition certificate.
"Passports and driving licences are often part of the evidence provided by transgender people to the gender recognition panel to obtain a GRC.
"The government is committed to maintaining the safeguards that allow organisations to provide single-sex services. It is important that the principle of being able to operate spaces reserved for women and girls is maintained, in line with the Equality Act.
"We are absolutely committed to championing the rights of women and girls."
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