Home Office, BMA, and Department for Health publish false data thanks to “misleading and statistically indefensible” LGB+ category
1 September 2026: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has not learned from the catastrophic mistakes that marred the 2021 Census by failing to meet basic statistical standards over its ‘LGB+’ category.
LGB Alliance and The Lesbian Project – two of the “Lesbian Intervenors” in the historic 2025 Supreme Court case – have revealed that the new category has led to a rash of false official statistics about the UK’s LGB and transgender populations. The Lesbian Intervenors have now written to the ONS warning that the “statistically indefensible” category casts doubt on the accuracy of the 2031 Census.
The ONS introduced the term LGB+ in 2021 to denote people with a “minority sexual orientation”. However, the category is causing chaos and confusion in Whitehall and beyond. This includes the false claim that 3.2% of UK adults are “LGBT+”. Although this figure refers only to sexuality, organisations including the Department for Health and Social Care, the British Medical Association, and numerous local authorities have erroneously interpreted it to include people who identify as transgender, leading to false claims published in official publications and websites.
“This is a disaster in the making, made worse by the fact the ONS has obviously failed to learn from its mistakes,” said Kate Barker, CEO of LGB Alliance. “After the 2021 debacle over sex and gender, the ONS should be focused on rebuilding trust in official statistics. Instead, it is further undermining its reputation through schoolboy category errors.
“It should have been obvious that ‘LGB+’ risked being conflated with the more familiar ‘LGBT+’ term. Given the widely-publicised failures in 2021, it’s astonishing the ONS continues to make such indefensible statistical mistakes. It casts doubt on the veracity and accuracy of the whole 2031 Census,” Barker continued.
The introduction of LGB+ is the third “category controversy” to engulf the ONS in recent years. In its guidance accompanying the 2021 Census, the ONS allowed people to report their sex according to their self-identified gender. This was successfully challenged in the High Court by campaign group Fair Play for Women. In 2025 the government-commissioned Sullivan Review found that “gender” had increasingly replaced “sex” in official data collection, resulting in a spate of serious consequences including missed cancer referrals and the overlooking of criminal convictions.
“For years, LGB people have warned about how the ‘+’ allows anyone to attach themselves to the category,” said Julie Bindel, co-director of The Lesbian Project. “This has done real damage. It prevents us from defining ourselves as a group and organising in our interests. We cannot even use official data to count ourselves, let alone understand the challenges LGB people face today.
“There is no other category in official statistics whose membership is left open to the user’s imagination.If the ONS wants to regain LGB people’s trust, it should scrap the misleading and statistically indefensible LGB+ and replace it with a clearly-defined category that everyone understands.”
– ends –
Note to editors
For press passes, briefings, or for further information on the LGB Alliance conference, please contact the press office:
Robert Jessel
LGB Alliance press officer
E: press@lgballiance.org.uk
M: +44 (0)7512 844963
About LGB Alliance
LGB Alliance was founded to advance the interests of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals, and stand up for our right to live as same-sex attracted people without discrimination or disadvantage. We ensure that the voices of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are heard in all public and political discussions affecting our lives.
We are committed to engaging with others respectfully; to discuss, propose, and oppose ideas. We do not attack individuals, and we believe that disagreement does not equal hate. We do not condone, endorse, or encourage any abusive or discriminatory behaviour towards any group or individual.
Registered Charity Number 1194148
@ALLIANCELGB
About The Lesbian Project
The Lesbian Project is a non-partisan, non-profit organisation dedicated to highlighting and championing the experiences, insights and sensibilities of lesbians in all their diversity
Founded by Julie Bindel and Kathleen Stock, The Lesbian Project gives voice and influence to women whose stories are too often overlooked. The Lesbian Project works to build a knowledge base about lesbian lives, promote sensible and evidence-based policy, and contribute to building lesbian community in the UK and internationally.
