Hi everyone

We have been asked to confirm whether an employee needs to provide us with a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to confirm their acquired gender if it is different to their registered gender at birth.

For our own staff records I don't believe we would need to see a GRC or updated birth certificate in order to do this, but I checked with HMRC to confirm their requirements. HMRC confirmed that as an employer we would need to see a GRC in order to update the employees gender, as this has an impact on NI contributions and state pension.

My interpretation therefore is that - as an employer, we can update gender on our staff records even if the acquired gender does not match the registered gender (e.g. passport/birth cerificate). However when we submit gender information to to HMRC we cannot use the acquired gender unless the employee has provided a GRC.

Has anyone else dealt with a similar query - and if so it would be really useful to know what approach you have taken?

Many thanks

Rob