Letter to Chief Constable Gavin Stephens Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council

26th February 2025 

Chief Constable Gavin Stephens Chair, National Police Chiefs’ Council 

As a national organisation working for women’s sex-based rights, we are writing to express our considerable anger and distress at the news that the National Police Chiefs’ Council is reviving the discredited guidance allowing male staff identifying as women to perform intimate searches on women. The fact that this would bring all police forces into line with the recently-declared policy of British Transport Police increases the fury among women concerned about women’s rights. 

The danger that some men present to women has been made all too clear by recent cases involving male police officers. The recent situation concerning Sergeant Lino Di Maria, and the anger of the Metropolitan Police chief, Sir Mark Rowley, at his inability to remove his vetting owing to the fact that he had not been convicted of a criminal offence, demonstrates the importance of taking great care in recruitment and management of police officers. 

It is also now known that of those trans-identified men in prison, a much higher proportion has been convicted of sexual offences than among the non-trans-identified male prison population. 17% of the male prison population are sex offenders; 62% of trans-identified male prisoners have at least one conviction for sexual offences. 

The new draft guidance for intimate searches proposes to permit those trans-identified men with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), giving them a ‘legal gender’ of ‘female’, to search females. The quotation from the NPCC cited in the press, concerning “the officer’s sex as established by a gender recognition certificate [GRC]”, indicates an inability to understand the meaning of ‘sex’, a biological fact, and conflating it with the legally-used term ‘gender’. 

To obtain a GRC it is necessary only to get a ‘diagnosis’ of ‘gender dysphoria’ and pay £5. There is no requirement to have undertaken surgery or to take testosterone-suppressing or cross-sex hormonal medication. There is no reason to believe that those male police officers with a GRC are less likely to be a danger to women than other male people.

At a time when reducing violence of all sorts perpetrated against women and girls – as government policy and in your own ‘Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls – Framework for Delivery’ – it is extraordinary that the NPCC has permitted this dangerous policy to be revived. By having as an adviser the trans-activist barrister Robin Moira White, it would appear that the NPCC review of the policy has been hi-jacked by the ideology to which he subscribes. It shows absolutely no thought or concern for the enormous number of women who have experienced some form of sexual assault (including many of our own team) and for whom a search by a male, however he identifies, will be retraumatising. 

From a young age, girls and women learn to be wary of any situation where they are potentially vulnerable to men. This is not because they believe every man to be a danger, but because there is no way of knowing or predicting which ones may be a threat. If this proposed guidance is adopted, women’s trust in the police will be even further reduced. 

We therefore urge you to immediately make clear that this proposed guidance will not be adopted, as it will undermine any good work done towards the reduction of violence against women and girls, and all efforts to gain the trust of women in their dealings with police forces up and down the country. 

Yours faithfully, 

Lisa-Marie Taylor 

FiLiA CEO