Edit 'Gender or sex' pattern to avoid discouraging services to ask their users for equality information

[calvin-lau-sig7]

What

A user has reported confusion within their department about the meaning of this sentence in the Gender or sex pattern:

You should only ask users about gender or sex if you genuinely cannot provide your service without this information.

This sentence has been taken to guidance against using the Equality information pattern to collect information about gender or sex using Equality information – GOV.UK Design System.

They've provided suggested text to resolve the issue:

You should only use this design pattern to ask users about gender or sex if you genuinely cannot provide your service without this information. You should collect information about gender or sex (and other protected characteristics) to comply with the Equality Act using the separate Equality information – GOV.UK Design System pattern.

Why

We want to be clear about what service teams can do to meet their Public sector equality duty, and how they can do it

Who needs to work on this

Content designer

Who needs to review

Team

Done when

• Edit drafted base on suggested text
• Added to pull request
• Reviewed by team members
• Published