Whistleblowers inside Whitehall have told a Telegraph investigation that the Civil Service recognises over 100 genders.

A source speaking on condition of anonymity said: "My colleagues and I were informed by HR that there are over 100 recognised gender identities in the Civil Service as staff are permitted to self identify their gender without any medical input and regardless of biological sex.

"This came as quite a surprise to me as I'd always thought there was only two biological sex."

One civil servant said they were asked not to use terms like "mother", "father", and "ladies and gentleman" in documents and emails, the newspaper reports.

Other words to be avoided included "crazy" and "schizophrenic", which should be replaced by "absurd" and "erratic" to avoid causing offence to people with mental health issues.

One official told The Telegraph that they were made to spend five per cent of their corporate objective time participating in a "non-binary" network.

As part of this, they were expected to join a "gender non-conforming book club" and celebrate "Non-Binary Awareness Week".

"I was hired to do trade policy and yet the taxpayer pays me to waste 20 per cent of my corporate work time on this crap," they said. 

According to the newspaper, civil servants have been asked to use "gender neutral" pronouns in their communications, and to state their preferred pronouns before joining Zoom meetings, all in the name of creating a more "inclusive and supportive" workplace.

Insiders claim that civil service HR guidelines state that civil servants "have the right to ... a flexible [gender] expression that differs from day to day". 

HR guidelines from the Department of Health and Social Care reportedly warn of disciplinary action if staff deliberately "misgender" their colleagues. 

One workshop within the department is reported to have taught civil servants about "managing micro-incivilities in the workplace".