The Gender Recognition Panel
The Gender Recognition Panel is a branch of the Tribunal Service under the presidency of Judge Michael Harris. It is formed from an administrative team (Managed by Graham Cresswell) and a judicial panel (under the auspices of the Deputy President, Jeremy Bennett), made up of legal and medical members. More details about the organisation may be found on the Tribunals Service website.
The application for a Gender Recognition Certificate is a legal process. To grant a Certificate the panel has to be satisfied that an applicant complies with the provisions of the Gender Recognition Act and in particular the requirements set out in Sections 2 and 3.
The civil servants work directly with the applicants and do an excellent job in assisting applicants to put their information together in the most favourable way. However, they are not legally trained and their opinion, however well informed, has no legal import. It is a matter for the judicial panel to make the final decision.
The judicial members of the panel are independent members of the Tribunal judiciary. Applications are dealt with on the basis of the papers you submit although in exceptional circumstances an oral hearing can take place.
Address: GRP, PO Box 9300, Leicester, LE1 8DJ
Although the GRP is based in Leicester the judicial panels meet in London. The civil servants in Leicester send the judiciary a batch of (typically) sixteen applications for consideration in one session. Panels can be convened one or more times each month; the dates of recent and planned meetings in 2008 can be found here. Note the civil servants are not party to the cogitations of the panel and have no influence and little more insight (apart from familiarity with the process) into the outcome than you.
If the panel views your application as completely acceptable they will issue a “decision” and the relevant certificate (interim or full) will be sent out that day from the Leicester office. If a full certificate is issued this office will, unless you have advised them you wish to do this yourself, inform HMRC, and arrange for a new birth certificate be issued by the General Register.
The Panel has to be satisfied that a registered medical practitioner practising in the field of gender dysphoria has provided a report confirming a diagnosis and giving details of how that was made. The Gender Recognition Act (2004) does not define this term. It is separately defined in the Interpretation Act (1978) by reference to section 55 of the Medical Act (1983). This requires the practitioner to be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). This can include doctors trained or practising abroad but registered in the United Kingdom. This can be a real problem for people born in the UK but based overseas. A complete explanation of the principles and rules is given by the President can be found here.
The panel also needs to be satisfied that the applicant has lived in their correct gender throughout the period of 2 years prior to the date of the application and intends to continue doing so until death. It is a matter for the panel to decide whether the medical evidence satisfies that test.
The judiciary are not entitled to make phone calls to applicants or their medical advisers about evidential matters. Any concerns are issued as written directions, which are sent out to the applicant by the administrative team the day after the Panel has met. These directions are intended to explain what deficiencies were identified in the application and if any additional evidence is required.
The GRP is attempting to assure that no applicant has to wait for more than 14 weeks (reduced from 20 weeks) for a hearing; the number presently waiting can be seen in the size of the the queue. However, if the panel is not satified that the application meets the legal criteria and written directions are issued the application will be placed back in the queue when, and only when, the required information is provided; no special treatment is normally granted to such re-applications. At the moment nearly 50% of the applications are referred for further information and the delay can be quite substantial. To save yourself time, frustration and money study the advice on this website carefully for the type and quantity of documentation needed to satify the legal requirements.
The GRP is definitely minded to grant applications, wherever legally possible, which is why directions are given rather than making final decisions which might not be in favour of the applicant. So despite the high rate of requests for further information very few applications actually fail outright; there have only been three thus far in 2008.
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