You asked
Could you please supply me with the following information:
What were the total annual number of babies born in English hospitals with intersex traits over 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013?
If possible, can you also provide a breakdown giving numbers for each different type of gender disorder?
We said
ONS births data is based on birth registration data collected by Registrars. For births where the sex of a child is indeterminate or where there are intersex traits, the advice given by the General Register Office (GRO) is that the registration should be deferred until medical investigations have been completed. If this goes over the 42 days usually required to register a birth, the matter is reported to GRO in writing for monitoring of the case and to ensure that a registration is eventually secured. Therefore it is very rare that the sex of a child is recorded as indeterminate or intersex within birth registrations so no figures are published on this due to the small numbers.
The sex of a child is also collected by the health service as part of the birth notification. It may be possible that the NHS Digital Hospital Episode Statistics team could produce a bespoke extract, however it is likely that there would be a charge for this service. Further information on how to obtain this is available at the NHS Digital Data Access Request Service webpage here: http://content.digital.nhs.uk/dars
Other special extracts and tabulations of births data for England and Wales are available (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreement of costs, where appropriate). If you would like any further information, please contact the team directly at: vsob@ons.gov.uk