Diversity work (2022)
Request
- [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide details of any work undertaken by any LGBT groups/staff members leading on this (committees on diversity for example, or leads of diversity) at the organisation in relation creating/changing/researching policies, training, guidance on issues of sexuality, gender, and transgender concerns
- [From 1 January 2022 to date] In addition could you please provide the any email correspondence from January 1 (ideally) up to date to and from any heads of department, and any head of diversity and inclusion (or equivalent departmentally or overall) in relation to this work. For example, an email proposing a change, or risk assessment of changes, minutes of meetings in relation to these issues. Please narrow the scope of document searches as appropriate to keep this within the statutory limit, for example by simply limiting documents to the head of the diversity and inclusion or equivalent
- [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide any email correspondence held by heads of each department and leaders/leaders of any groups in (1) (those tasked with diversity a the organisation). Including any of the search terms “Stonewall”, “Mermaids”, “transgender” “Trans”, “cisgender”, “heteronormative” “pronouns” “woke”
- [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide details of any work undertaken by any race-related groups/staff members leading on this (committees on diversity for example, or leads of diversity) at the organisation in relation creating/changing/researching policies, training, guidance on issues of race, diversity, inclusion
- [From 1 January 2022 to date] In addition could you please provide the any email correspondence from January 1 (ideally) up to date to and from any heads of department, and any head of diversity and inclusion (or equivalent departmentally or overall) in relation to the work in (4). For example, an email proposing or signing off a change, or risk assessment of changes, minutes of meetings in relation to these issues. Please narrow the scope of document searches as appropriate to keep this within the statutory limit, for example by simply limiting documents to the head of the diversity and inclusion or equivalent
- [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide any email correspondence held by heads of each department and leaders/leaders of any groups in (4) (those tasked with diversity a the organisation). Including any of the search terms “Black Lives Matter (BLM)”, “decolonisation”, “white supremacy/supremacism”, “white privilege” “institutional racism”, “imperialism” “colonialism” “British Empire” “whiteness” “blackness”
Response
In the first instance it may help you to know that several Workplace Equality Networks (WENs) operate among House of Commons staff and may undertake work of the kind you are requesting. However, they are informal groups operating separately from the House of Commons, meaning that we do not have access to the information they hold. While information created or stored as part of the work of WENs might pass through the parliamentary network, it is not held for our own purposes, because WENs are separate, independent organisations from the House. This means that, for the purposes of the FOIA, we do not hold this information. Basic information about WENs and a general description of the work they do can be found on the WEN pages of the parliamentary website.
1) [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide details of any work undertaken by any LGBT groups/staff members leading on this (committees on diversity for example, or leads of diversity) at the organisation in relation creating/changing/researching policies, training, guidance on issues of sexuality, gender, and transgender concerns
This information is held by the House of Commons. The following work has been undertaken falling within the scope of this part of your request:
• Voluntary transgender inclusion training
• An ‘inclusion nudge’ email, recognising Pride and suggesting the use of pronouns
2) [From 1 January 2022 to date] In addition could you please provide the any email correspondence from January 1 (ideally) up to date to and from any heads of department, and any head of diversity and inclusion (or equivalent departmentally or overall) in relation to this work. For example, an email proposing a change, or risk assessment of changes, minutes of meetings in relation to these issues. Please narrow the scope of document searches as appropriate to keep this within the statutory limit, for example by simply limiting documents to the head of the diversity and inclusion or equivalent
This information is held by the House of Commons. The email correspondence falling within the scope of this part of your request is attached. [The House holds 8 emails relevant to this request of the Heat Map Risk Register. If you would like to access this information, please email FOICOMMONS@parliament.uk]
We have redacted some personal data from the emails, including names, contact details and job titles. Disclosure of this information to the public generally, in our view, would not be consistent with the data protection principle found in Article 5.1(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). This information is therefore exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 40(2) of the FOIA. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
3) [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide any email correspondence held by heads of each department and leaders/leaders of any groups in (1) (those tasked with diversity a the organisation). Including any of the search terms “Stonewall”, “Mermaids”, “transgender” “Trans”, “cisgender”, “heteronormative” “pronouns” “woke”
In this part of your request, you have also asked for emails which include the search term ‘pronouns’. A large number of people of the parliamentary community, including Members, Members staff and staff of the House of Commons, include their pronouns in their email signatures.
This would therefore represent a large number of emails in any given member of staff’s Outlook folders. For example, in one member of staff’s Outlook folders, 1,000 out of the 1,994 emails they held included the word ‘pronouns’. It would take a given member of staff approximately two hours to extract these emails and save them elsewhere and the scope of your request covers 17 members of staff. Therefore, it would take approximately 34 hours to complete the task of locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
Section 12 of the FOIA only requires the House of Commons to comply with a request which would not exceed the appropriate limit of £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 24 working hours in determining whether the House holds the information, and locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
As your request exceeds this limit, it is refused. However, if you were to make a new request for a narrower category of information, it may be that we could comply with that request within the appropriate limit, although I cannot guarantee that this will be the case. For example, you could refine your request to be about a narrower set of search terms. It may help you to refer to the team organograms available on the parliamentary website.
4) [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide details of any work undertaken by any race-related groups/staff members leading on this (committees on diversity for example, or leads of diversity) at the organisation in relation creating/changing/researching policies, training, guidance on issues of race, diversity, inclusion
This information is held by the House of Commons. The following work has been undertaken falling within the scope of your request:
• Creation of an inclusion analysis, which is a refreshed version of our equality analysis process
• Inclusive recruitment review
5) [From 1 January 2022 to date] In addition could you please provide the any email correspondence from January 1 (ideally) up to date to and from any heads of department, and any head of diversity and inclusion (or equivalent departmentally or overall) in relation to the work in (4). For example, an email proposing or signing off a change, or risk assessment of changes, minutes of meetings in relation to these issues. Please narrow the scope of document searches as appropriate to keep this within the statutory limit, for example by simply limiting documents to the head of the diversity and inclusion or equivalent
This information is held by the House of Commons. The email correspondence falling within the scope of this part of your request is attached.
Again, we have redacted some personal data from the emails, including names, contact details and job titles, for the same reasons as described above. This information is exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 40(2) of the FOIA. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
6) [From 1 January 2022 to date] Could you please provide any email correspondence held by heads of each department and leaders/leaders of any groups in (4) (those tasked with diversity a the organisation). Including any of the search terms “Black Lives Matter (BLM)”, “decolonisation”, “white supremacy/supremacism”, “white privilege” “institutional racism”, “imperialism” “colonialism” “British Empire” “whiteness” “blackness”
This information is held by the House of Commons. We hold one email falling within the scope of this part of your request, and it is attached.
Again, we have redacted some personal data from the emails, including names, contact details and job titles, for the same reasons as described above. This information is exempt from disclosure in accordance with section 40(2) of the FOIA. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
Lastly, it may help you to know that more information about diversity and inclusion at the House of Commons, including a copy of our latest Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, is available on our website.