Government plans to let people “self-identify” as the opposite sex will put female prisoners at risk, campaigners have warned, after it was revealed that a huge proportion of transgender inmates are sex offenders.

A report by feminist charity Fair Play for Women found “at least 41 per cent” of transgender inmates housed in jails across England and Wales are sex offenders — compared to 17 per cent of the population as a whole — and that a further handful are held in maximum-security category A prisons.

According to Ministry of Justice figures, there are 70 transgender inmates in English and Welsh jails, but officials refused to answer freedom of information requests on the number of sex offenders amongst them, alleging that there is no “business or legal case” for recording the data.

“Fair Play for Women strongly disagrees,” said the group in a new report, which argues the information is necessary to assess risks to female prisoners posed by government plans to allow men to “change sex” without even having to see a doctor.

https://twitter.com/fairplaywomen/status/932780238425264128

Looking at publicly available inspection reports from 118 jails, Fair Play for Women found there were 113 males who identify as the opposite sex, 46 of whom are housed in eight men’s prisons in England and Wales reserved specifically for sex offenders.

So far, 13 transgender inmates have been transferred to women’s jails, including double rapist Jessica Winfield, who was convicted under the prisoner’s former name, Martin Ponting.

As Breitbart London previously reported in September, Winfield — who is in the process of having a taxpayer-funded £10,000 sex change while in jail — reportedly had to be segregated after making sexual advances on female inmates.

Another of the transgender prisoners was moved to Britain’s only category A jail for women, while a further nine are being housed in men’s maximum security prisons — which house criminals whose escape would pose major dangers to the public.

One of the report’s author’s, Dr. Nicola Williams, warned there could be serious repercussions for female prisoners as a result of the government’s wholehearted embrace of policies demanded by LGBT activists.

Sentence Cut for Paedophile Who Claimed ‘Transgender Crisis’ Led Him to Download Child Porn https://t.co/4RBZxnOpVx — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 28, 2017

She told The Sunday Times: “Trans-identifying males will become eligible for transfer to women’s prisons, representing a serious risk to the safety and privacy and dignity of women in prisons.

“There is a conflict here between transgender right and the right of other people such as women. What is shocking is that we are rushing into this [self-declaration] without evidence of its impacts.”

The problem has also been “quietly worrying professionals”, according to the newspaper, which cited previously unpublicised evidence presented to the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee which said some offenders want sex changes in order to “seek better access to females and young children through presenting in an apparently female way”.

And British Association of Gender Identity Specialists chief James Barrett said that a “highly concerned prison governor” had been given a “plethora of prison intelligence” that one dangerous offender had wanted to change sex “to make subsequent sexual offending very much easier”.