Hey Emmy,

The standard is super stupid. I don't think DIA will have any policies on this - although they might. What counts as "some degree of permanent physical change" is completely determined by Family Court judges - so basically you make an application and then hope the Judge will agree with you. So far, the only two things the Court has accepted are complete gender reassignment surgery or really long term (like 30 years +) hormone replacement therapy. I was talking to a lawyer friend of mine and she thinks that to the extent that anyone ever changes their birth certificate, it's the last thing people do - as like a box ticking exercise - when they're old. I suspect probably no one in prison has had their birth certificate changed, making the law change for prisoners completely redundant.

Cheers - that's exactly what I think too. This request is mostly to confirm from DIA that their criteria really are that arbitrary. I have another request in with them atm regarding the number of accepted versus declined declarations. It's a pretty crude measure but will still hopefully shed some light... Thanks!