Men charged or convicted of rape or attempted rape will no long be allowed to "self-declare" their sex, Police Scotland has said.

The screeching u-turn from force comes just weeks after they told MSPs that allowing men who commit sex crimes to be recorded as women fostered "a strong sense of belonging".

The policy — first reported by the Herald on Sunday earlier this month — sparked outrage and led to questions in Parliament.

(Image: NQ)

In a letter to Holyrood’s Criminal Justice Committee, the service told MSPs that any “man who commits rape or serious sexual assaults will be recorded as a male”.

They went on to say that there is no instance or record on its systems of a male having been arrested and charged with rape whose gender has been recorded as female.

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The issue was raised at First Minister’s Questions by Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton.

She referred to the case of Isla Bryson, who was last year jailed for eight years for raping two women.

Bryson, who was previously known as Adam Graham, was arrested and recorded as male but was allowed to be processed in court as a woman.

Ms Hamilton said self-identification “opens the door to a grotesque situation where a male rapist can demand to be called a woman and further traumatise his victim.”

John Swinney these were "operational matters for Police Scotland."

However, in their letter, the force said there was an “absence of direction” from both the Scottish and UK governments.

They said they had to determine its policy and practice “in a way that achieves a legal and appropriate balance of rights and duties”.

Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs told the committee: “Police Scotland recognises that gender self-identification is a sensitive area of public policy.

“The Scottish and UK Parliaments have not yet set out a clear position around the legal status of the concept of gender recognition in a way that reconciles with the Equality Act 2010.

“The absence of direction has left Police Scotland and other public bodies to determine policy and practice in a way that achieves a legal and appropriate balance of rights and duties.

“Police Scotland’s procedures on the identification and recording of sex and gender is evidence-led, aligns to legislative and operational requirements and is in keeping with our values of policing with integrity, fairness and respect, and upholding human rights.”

The senior officer also said the force obtains DNA samples from individuals accused of serious sexual assaults which would determine the person’s biological sex.

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Speaking to Sky News, Chief Constable Jo Farrell said any individual suspected of rape sex would be treated as a man.

She said: “An individual [who] comes into custody, and if the sex of that person is pertinent to the investigation they will be treated, in the scenario of a rape, we will investigate that as a man.”

She added: “You can only commit that crime as a man.”

The policy analyst group, Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM) — whose petition to parliament ultimately prompted the letter from Police Scotland — described it as a “major U-turn”.

Dr Luch Hunter Blackburn said: “We welcome that Police Scotland has at last recognised that allowing sex offenders to self-identify their sex is indefensible.

“It is, however, an extraordinary act of institutional gaslighting to pretend that this is not a significant policy change from their position over almost five years. Over that period, Police Scotland has persistently and vigorously defended the use of self-ID for recording the sex of all offenders, including sex offenders, as being in line with its ‘values’.”

Dr Blackburn added: “We have always maintained that only a small number of rapes being misclassified as having been committed by women would skew data on female offending.

“The policy is also deeply offensive to victims.”

Dr Hunter Blackburn also said the fact that there was no record on police systems of a male having been arrested and charged with rape whose gender has been recorded as female, missed the point as the force’s policy “would have permitted this.

She pointed out that there had been a “number of near-misses” including double rapist Isla Bryson/Adam Graham.

The academic asked for urgent reassurance that “this major change has been written clearly into operational policies and communicated right across the service.”

“We also need clarification about what sort of offenders Police Scotland still believes do not need their sex to be accurately recorded, and why,” Dr Hunter Blackburn added.