I thought I'd start up a thread about this issue as it is wider than the problem I have been having with my pension company. (See Pension Companies thread.) They had their wires crossed and thought I was trying to have my legal gender changed when in fact I was asking them to change my title.

They had been sending me correspondence addressed to Ms Bujman after I'd had a go at them last year. When I decided I felt more comfortable being "Miss" and told them, they basically told me to bugger off and started addressing me as "Mr".

Google as I might I could find no reference to any legal restriction on the use of titles such as "Mr", "Mrs", "Miss" or "Ms". The GRP could shed no light, nor would the law society when I asked for a resource that would give me the precise legal status of these titles. Finally, I consulted with a law lecturer at my old college in Cambridge. She told me that they have "no binding legal status". This is not news to seasoned members of this forum.

To the Data Protection Act 1998, then. I'm still scratching the surface at the moment. It is a complicated piece of legislation and it is unlikely that any individual understands it in its entirety.

The Data Protection Act is founded on the Data Protection Principles:

1. Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and, in particular, shall not be processed unless-
- 1. at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met, and
- 2. in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is also met.
(these schedules are complicated, of course...)
2. Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes.
3. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.
4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.
5. Personal data processed for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.
6. Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act.
7. Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.
8. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory ensures an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

Let us consider principle 4:

4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

Taken in conjunction with one's right to take any of the four titles "Mr", "Mrs", "Miss" or "Ms" regardless of one's legal gender it is clear that there are no grounds for any organisation to refuse to store and present such a title on correspondence.

Any excuses offered are open to challenge.

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The Daily Turnout - King of the Throne Room

Perhaps I might have chosen my words a little more carefully. It is a discussion of a legal matter after all.

What does abrogate mean, please?

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The Daily Turnout - King of the Throne Room

i do see stella's point. when people think it is their option (ie no one's going to force them) then their prejudices come into play and they abuse that position of supposed power over you.

on all of my correspondances i go by the title 'mr'- but i know for a fact certain organisations would have been awkward had i not scared them with legal jargon.

for example, with my medical card thing, when they refused to correct my sex before showing them a GRC, they also said i would have to be titleless as their system didn't give anyone listed as ''female'' the option for 'mr'.

i was pissed off, but somewhat expected the sex marker thing, but telling me to be titleless for a year was just disrespectful in my opinion.

i then produced my deed poll, which i had added in the 'change of title'- which i had clearly signed that i had sworn to exclusively use the title 'mr' from the date forward.

it went something like this

''I further hereby declare that I entirely renounce, relinquish and abandon the use of my former title [former title] and assume, adopt and determine to take and use from the date hereof the title of [new title] in substitution for my former title [former title]''

this made them change their minds, and change their system to give me my correct title.

of course, it's not legally necessary, but i added it as i knew it would help me have ground to stand on if anyone gave me hassle in correcting it, as it made it look as legally binding as the name correction itself.

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forum moderator

One can assume any of the titles "Mr", etc., since there is no law preventing one from doing so. Others may indeed bestow such title as they see fit. If they insist on getting it wrong then they are merely betraying their bad manners.

Well done William for getting your protagonist to change their system. You could equally have used the Data Protection Act to force them to do this.

Many system designers, lacking experience, will assume that a combinations such as "Mr" / female will never arise and will implement a validation routine that rejects such "anomalies".

There is a further difficulty with post turning up with the wrong title. There is no Mr Bujman. It is quite possible that someone observing a letter so addressed would infer the presence of a husband. Such misinterpretation, were it to be conveyed to Revenue and Customs or any of a number of government agencies, might cause me some difficulty.

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The Daily Turnout - King of the Throne Room

For those of us who were living full time before the GRA was even a dot on the horizon, most were able to persuade companies, organizations and government bodies to change gender-specific courtesy titles without any sort of threats or coercion - perhaps one of the main reasons why take-up of the Gender Recognition Certificates has been so low.

Now knowledge of the Certificates is beginning to permeate the commercial world, we may expect it will become more and more common for record keepers to ask to see a Certificate before agreeing to a change of gender-specific courtesy title.

The age of discretion in the issuing of documents is coming to an end.

yeah, i was aware that i could use any title i wanted, but unfortunately most people assume that adopting a different title must have legal issues attached and so are cautious in cooperating (or downright refuse to cooperate altogether).

so even with the knowledge that i didn't need to put it in my deed poll i did it anyway because it scared them into thinking ''well, it must be illegal it call him miss and it must be now legal for him to use mr''- so it kind of put organisations minds at rest i'd imagine as no one really questioned ''is this legal?'' and those who were awkward were afraid to be because it was there- right beside where i had legalised my name.

maybe, as a backup to the data protection stuff you're researching, you could do a little stat dec, just for them, as i'm sure a legal document saying you've relinquished use of the title 'mr' would make them strongly reconsider their laidback attitude in checking out the law in the matter- and if they did bother, they'd find there is absolutely no problem in you using your rightful title anyway.

and yeah, stella, i think you're right about more companies demanding to see GRCs now than before, as they seem to see it as some sort of safeguard for them to filter out the people ''who might change their minds'' (in the words of my local medical card people..), which was why they decided to no longer correct sex markers without the certificate.

but, it certainly isn't in the law that ''they can't do X without one'' so if you are clever to throw the law in their face they'd find they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. especially with something like titles.

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forum moderator