Adults will be able to choose their own legal gender under proposals to be considered by ministers.

A report from a committee of MPs is expected to recommend that over-18s should be able to change their gender simply by filling out an application form – making it far easier to do.

Currently those who wish to change their legal gender have to go through a laborious process to prove they fit a range of criteria, including providing psychiatric evidence and swathes of paperwork, which is then assessed by a panel led by a judge.

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Transgender men and women are set to be given the right to choose their legal gender. Pictured, Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl, with Alicia Vikander

In Ireland, adults can already change their legal gender by filling out a form following a change to the law last year.

The rights of transgender people were thrust into the limelight after former Olympian and reality star Caitlyn Jenner, (pictured) formerly known as Bruce Jenner announced to the world that she was transgender

Ministers here are hailing that move as a ‘model that could just be copied out’. Almost 35,000 people have so far signed a petition urging Parliament to follow Ireland’s lead. Malta, Argentina and Denmark also allow people to declare gender.

The Commons women and equalities committee has been looking into discrimination against transgender people and how well existing laws operate.

Under their proposals, to be published this month, somebody wanting to change their legal gender would no longer have to prove they have been diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria’. The plans would also scrap the current requirement to prove – with photographs, utility bills and other paperwork – that they have been living as the opposite gender for two years.

Adults will also no longer feel pressure to have drastic surgery to reassign their gender in order to gain a gender recognition certificate, the document that confirms their new gender has been legally accepted and allows them to get a new birth certificate.

Conservative MP Maria Miller, who chairs the committee, said the old definitions of gender should be scrapped and that ‘male’ and ‘female’ tick-boxes on job applications should be removed unless essential. She said: ‘As a society and a government we should be looking at ways of trying to strip back talking about gender, and only do that when it’s absolutely necessary. We need to understand that gender stereotyping can be as damaging for men as it can be for women.

‘For individuals who have decided to transition but haven’t necessarily got the right documentation, it can cause problems.

TRANSGENDER WOMAN DESCRIBES HELL OF BEING SENT TO MALE PRISON Jessica Hughes, of Gwynedd, North Wales, revealed the torment of being treated as a man and being sent to a male prison when she identified as female. The 23-year-old transgender woman spent six months inside a men's prison after biting a woman in a drunken brawl. She has lifted the lid on her experience and claims she was on the receiving end of lewd sexual comments and one man even grabbed her by the neck and shoved her against a wall in her cell at Altcourse prison in Liverpool. Jessica was sentenced in December last year for biting a woman during a drunken brawl and believes transgender inmates should be better managed after several deaths in in prison She thought she was going to be raped during her sentence - and claims the abuse only stopped when she started flirting with the inmates. Jessica, who also revealed how her fellow inmates would shout 'get your t***s out' at her, said transgender inmates should be better managed after several deaths in prison. Jessica, who was born a boy, was diagnosed with gender dysphoria aged 13 and diagnosed as bi-polar aged 17. Advertisement

‘Why do we need gender on our driving licence? Why do we have to have it on our passport if it doesn’t really add identification? It’s not relevant. Australia has decided to degender their passports.’

A review of the jailing of transgender people in the UK was triggered last year after a transgender woman, Vicky Thompson, was found dead in an all-male jail after she failed to get a certificate recognising her as female.

Children who want to switch their birth gender can be given hormones to stop them developing sexual characteristics. However, they cannot legally change their gender until they are 18.