Documentation relating to the 2019 England RFU transgender policy creation

Department for Culture, Media and Sport did not have the information requested.

Dear Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport,

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the information detailed below.

England RFU released a transgender player policy on 20th May 2019. Could you provide me with copies of all information, including but not limited to correspondence, notes of telephone calls and emails held by DCMS related to the creation of this policy, and the evidence published in support of the policy, including any information held relating to :-

• Discussions or planned discussions with Rugby RFU about the 2019 policy

• Consultations with players and groups, promoting the encouragement and support of a) female players and b) transgender players in sport.

• Consultations with medical professionals, scientists, etc, regarding the impact of allowing a) transgender women to take part in women’s competitions and b) transgender men to take part in men’s competitions. Reference to studies considered as part of the consultations should be detailed, along with any other evidence considered as part of the decision-making process.

• Any assessment carried out of the implications of the 2019 transgender policy for gender-affected sporting activities as defined in s195 of the Equality Act 2010 and the consideration given to potentially excluding transgender women from the women’s competitions and transgender men from the men’s competitions on the grounds of both fair competition and the safety of competitors. This may include, but is not limited to, impact/risk assessments, the possibility of members self-excluding or not entering the sport as a result of the perceived risks associated with mixed-sex contact training and games as well as mixed-sex use of shared changing areas and facilities.

• All relevant documentation regarding the process of communicating the 2019 transgender policy to all employees, rugby-playing member clubs and volunteers working within rugby.

If you consider that DCMS are not responsible for all, or some, aspects of my request, can you please advise which public authority responsible for sport in England would be able to provide this information.

Yours faithfully,

M Kelly

FOI Mailbox, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Thank you for your email which is now being dealt with by the Freedom of
Information Team at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. 
You will receive a response to your information request within 20 working
days of receipt.
  

--

Freedom of Information Team

Ministerial Support Team

4th Floor, 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ

[1][email address] | 020 7211 6111

[2]@dcms   [3]/dcmsgovuk | [4]www.gov.uk/dcms

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://twitter.com/DCMS
3. https://www.facebook.com/dcmsgovuk
4. http://www.gov.uk/dcms

FOI Team, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

1 Attachment

Our Ref: FOI2020/22233

Please see the attached letter from the Department for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport.

Kind regards,

Ministerial Support Team

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Dear Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport,

I submitted a request to you on 18th Oct, requesting information relating to the May 2019 policy decision regarding transgender women playing in women's rugby team.

While I acknowledge your confirmation that you hold no information, I am led to believe that this is a copy and pasted response. All email addresses within your response are replaced with [email address], including the Sport England and UK Sport accounts you suggest I contact. Sport England and Uk Sport are public bodies that presumably work closely with DCMS, so I'd appreciate a functioning email contact account, please.

Can I ask DCMS to populate the two email addresses they have supplied for Sport England and UK Sport, please, as the [email address] email addresses they have supplied are of no use to me at all. If DCMA is not prepared to supply email addresses then I would suggest they alter their template response. I've also noted that in the very bottom paragraph, relating to complaints and comments, the template directs complainants to [email address], which makes me think DCMS don't take complaints and comments very seriously at all.

I would suggest that the Freedom of Information Team for DCMS might wish to proof read the responses they send in reply to FOIs to ensure that they answer the FOIs complete without appearing to brush off the person asking the questions by copying and pasting standard responses with no information. I expect a far more professional response to my request from a ministerial department of my government. Spelling the name correctly of the FOI applicant might also improve the impression given.

Yours faithfully,

M Kelly

FOI Mailbox, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Thank you for your email which is now being dealt with by the Freedom of
Information Team at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. 
You will receive a response to your information request within 20 working
days of receipt.
  

--

Freedom of Information Team

Ministerial Support Team

4th Floor, 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ

[1][email address] | 020 7211 6111

[2]@dcms   [3]/dcmsgovuk | [4]www.gov.uk/dcms

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://twitter.com/DCMS
3. https://www.facebook.com/dcmsgovuk
4. http://www.gov.uk/dcms

FOI Mailbox, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Dear M Kelly,
As per our response to your other, linked, Freedom of Information request.
Whilst I can see that, if you view the response as a HMTL, the What Do
They Know (WDTK) website has replaced the email addresses with
[email address], if you download the document as a PDF, this includes all
email addresses within the response. That the WDTK website does this is a
matter for them and you can find more information about this on their
website: [1]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/offi....
For additional information, detail on how to make a Freedom of Information
Request at Sport England is found
here: [2]https://www.sportengland.org/corporate-i....
Information on how to make a Freedom of Information request at UK sport is
found here: [3]https://www.uksport.gov.uk/freedom-of-in....
If you would like to make a complaint about the handling of your request,
or request an internal review, you can do so at the details provided on
the PDF document, which to make clear, is the email address you have used
to make this request ([4][email address]).    
Do let us know if you have any further issues.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
DCMS 

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