POLICE REBUKED FOR REFUSING TO SAY THAT WANTED ‘FEMALE’ IS ACTUALLY MALE – The independent Sullivan review said police forces should be ordered to record a person’s biological sex

A police force has refused to say if a wanted “female” is actually male. Surrey Police provoked a backlash from women’s rights campaigners on Tuesday after issuing a public appeal for help in tracing a “woman” named Skyla Stone, 49.

The force was rebuked for the decision by Lisa Townsend, its own police and crime commissioner, who said Stone was “a male, however they choose to identify”.

Stone was described by police as a “woman” with the pronouns “she” as officers appealed for help from the public after the suspect twice failed to appear in court.

“We are appealing for the public’s help in finding wanted woman Skyla Stone,” the appeal read. “She is described as a white, with brown hair and blue/green eyes and has links to Guildford.”

The force has since updated its appeal to refer to Stone as a “transgender woman” instead of as a “woman”. But it continues to use the pronoun “she”.

The case comes a day after the independent Sullivan review said police forces should be ordered to record a person’s biological sex rather than just a person’s self-declared gender identity.

Helen Joyce, the director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said: “This isn’t much better: lots of people don’t know that a ‘transgender woman’ is not a woman at all, but a man who merely identifies as a woman.