Information about your dealings with Stonewall [Extraneous material removed]

The request was successful.

Dear Department for Education,
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please provide any information that you hold answering to any of the following descriptions:

1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Stonewall Diversity Champion” or to be included on Stonewall’s “Workplace Equality Index,” including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please redact personal details if necessary.

2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 from Stonewall in relation to either application or programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or 2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be entitled to withhold it).

4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind, if no further assessment was done).

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019; (ii) in 2020, whether or not as payment for goods or services.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme in the future, and if so which.

Yours faithfully,

U. Winfield

MINISTERS, Department for Education

1 Attachment

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. If you are
contacting us about coronavirus (COVID-19) you can find advice and
guidance on [1]GOV.UK. This includes [2]guidance for educational settings
in England. You can also contact our coronavirus helpline on 0800 046
8687. Lines are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm and weekends 10am to
4pm.

For emails and other written enquiries you will usually receive a reply
within 15 working days. You can find out how the department processes your
personal information by reading our [3]Privacy Notice.

 

 

[4]cid:image001.jpg@01D42E43.58989C30

 

References

Visible links
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https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
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https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
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ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear  U Winfield 

Thank you for your recent enquiry which was received on 8 February.

A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should
be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated
reference number 2021-0011344. 

 

Department for Education

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Tel: 0370 000 2288

Web: [1]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

 

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.education.gov.uk/
2. https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
3. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk

Dear Department for Education,
You have given no explanation at all for the delay.
But I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

U. Winfield

MINISTERS, Department for Education

1 Attachment

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. If you are
contacting us about coronavirus (COVID-19) you can find advice and
guidance on [1]GOV.UK. This includes [2]guidance for educational settings
in England. You can also contact our coronavirus helpline on 0800 046
8687. Lines are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm and weekends 10am to
4pm.

For emails and other written enquiries you will usually receive a reply
within 15 working days. You can find out how the department processes your
personal information by reading our [3]Privacy Notice.

 

 

[4]cid:image001.jpg@01D42E43.58989C30

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear U Winfield
 
Thank you for your email dated 08/02/2021 regarding Stonewall
 
You asked the following.
Dear Department for Education,

    This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Please provide any information that you hold answering to any of the
following descriptions:

1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Stonewall Diversity
Champion” or to be included on Stonewall’s “Workplace Equality Index,”
including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please
redact personal details if necessary.

2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 from Stonewall in relation to
either application or programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or
2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you
claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in
broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be
entitled to withhold it).

4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out
connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact
assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind,
if no further assessment was done).

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019;
(ii) in 2020, whether or not as payment for goods or services.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme
in the future, and if so which.

Yours faithfully,

U. Winfield
 
 
We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(“the Act”).  
 
 
 
We will respond as soon as possible and I would like to offer my apologies
for the delay. The Department takes very seriously its obligations under
the Act, including the requirement to respond within the statutory
deadline of 20 working days. I am afraid that we have not been able to
maintain this standard in this instance and I am very sorry for the
inconvenience which it may cause you. 
 
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number below in any future communications.
 
FOI 2021-0011344
 
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an
independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.
 
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2021-0011344. If
you need to respond to us, please visit:
[1]www.education.gov.uk/contactus, and quote your reference number.
Yours sincerely,
Kim Brown
[2]www.gov.uk/dfe

​​​​​​​

References

Visible links
1. http://www.education.gov.uk/contactus
2. http://www.gov.uk/dfe

Dear Department for Education,

I received an initial acknowledgement on 10th March in response to my FoI request dated 7th February.

Your response really is extremely late now! Can you please tell me when you will be able to answer my questions, if only in outline with answers such as "yes/no" and "£amount" ?

I look forward to hearing from you very soon. Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

U. Winfield

MINISTERS, Department for Education

1 Attachment

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. If you are
contacting us about coronavirus (COVID-19) you can find advice and
guidance on [1]GOV.UK. This includes [2]guidance for educational settings
in England. You can also contact our coronavirus helpline on 0800 046
8687. Lines are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 6pm and weekends 10am to
4pm.

For emails and other written enquiries you will usually receive a reply
within 15 working days. You can find out how the department processes your
personal information by reading our [3]Privacy Notice.

 

 

[4]cid:image001.jpg@01D42E43.58989C30

 

References

Visible links
1. https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
https://www.gov.uk/government/collection...
3. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati...

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear U Winfield
 
Thank you for your email dated 08/02/2021 regarding Stonewall
 
You asked the following.
 Dear Department for Education,

    This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).
Please provide any information that you hold answering to any of the
following descriptions:

1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Stonewall Diversity
Champion” or to be included on Stonewall’s “Workplace Equality Index,”
including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please
redact personal details if necessary.

2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 from Stonewall in relation to
either application or programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or
2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you
claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in
broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be
entitled to withhold it).

4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out
connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact
assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind,
if no further assessment was done).

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019;
(ii) in 2020, whether or not as payment for goods or services.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme
in the future, and if so which.

Yours faithfully,

U. Winfield
 
 
 
We are dealing with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(“the Act”).  
 
 
 
We will respond as soon as possible and I would like to offer my apologies
for the delay. The Department takes very seriously its obligations under
the Act, including the requirement to respond within the statutory
deadline of 20 working days. I am afraid that we have not been able to
maintain this standard in this instance and I am very sorry for the
inconvenience which it may cause you. 
 
If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number below in any future communications.
 
FOI 2021-0011344
 
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter. Your complaint will be considered by an
independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2021-0011344. If
you need to respond to us, please visit:
[1]www.education.gov.uk/contactus, and quote your reference number.

Yours sincerely,

Kim Brown
[2]www.gov.uk/dfe

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.education.gov.uk/contactus
2. http://www.gov.uk/dfe

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Stonewall FOI documents and emails for release 1.1.zip

    14.2M Download

Dear U Winfield,

Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 8
February 2021. You requested:

Dear Department for Education,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please
provide any information that you hold answering to any of the following
descriptions:

1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Stonewall Diversity
Champion” or to be included on Stonewall’s “Workplace Equality Index,”
including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please
redact personal details if necessary.

2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 from Stonewall in relation to
either application or programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or
2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you
claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in
broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be
entitled to withhold it).

4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out
connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact
assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind,
if no further assessment was done).

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019;
(ii) in 2020, whether or not as payment for goods or services.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme
in the future, and if so which.

 

I would like to offer my apologies for the delay in responding to you. The
Department takes very seriously its obligations under the Act, including
the requirement to respond within the statutory deadline of 20 working
days. I am afraid that we have not been able to maintain this standard in
this instance and I am very sorry for the inconvenience which it may cause
you.
 
 I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Information relating to your request is set out below.
 

 1. Any application you made in 2019 or 2020 to be a “Stonewall Diversity
Champion” or to be included on Stonewall’s “Workplace Equality Index,”
including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please
redact personal details if necessary.
 2. Any feedback you received in 2019 or 2020 from Stonewall in relation
to either application or programme.

To answer your first and second question. The Department took part in the
Stonewall Workplace Equality Index in 2019, however it did not take part
in 2020.

Information which we hold includes:
 

* 2019 submission templates
* 2019 client feedback report
* 2019 supporting attachments to the submission templates

 
The 2019 submission templates and client feedback report are being
withheld because the following exemptions applies to this information:
 
Section 40(2) Personal information
 
The information in question includes 3^rd party personal data.  Personal
data is that which relates to a living individual who can be identified
from that data, or from that data and other information, which is likely
to be in, or to come into, the possession of the requester.  Disclosure of
this information would be considered unfair under Data Protection Act /
General Data Protection Regulation 2018. By that, we mean the likely
expectations of the data subject that his or her information would not be
disclosed to others and the effect which disclosure would have on the data
subject.  Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption and is not subject to the
public interest test
 
Section 41 Information provided in confidence
 
The client feedback reports received from Stonewall were provided in
confidence, and are covered by Stonewall’s privacy statement and the Terms
of Conditions of membership.
 
The exemption at section 41 of the Act provides that information is exempt
where it is obtained by the public authority from any other person, and
where its disclosure would give rise to an actionable breach of
confidence. It is our view that this information contains the quality of
confidence, and that it was provided to us in circumstances where there
was an explicit or implied obligation of confidence. The section 41
exemption is therefore engaged. 
 
While the exemption at section 41 is an absolute exemption, and does not
require consideration of the public interest test, its application is
subject to public interest considerations which apply to the law of
confidence. In making these considerations we have determined that
disclosure may undermine the principle of confidentiality, by inhibiting
 the sharing of confidential information
 
Section 43(2) Commercial interests
 
This exemption provides for information to be exempt from disclosure where
disclosure under this Act would, or would be likely to, prejudice the
commercial interests of any person. The Department considers that
disclosure of any of the information would be likely to prejudice
Stonewall’s commercial interests, specifically the questions asked by
Stonewall in the submission templates.
 
Section 43 is a qualified exemption so we have had to balance the public
interest in withholding the information against the public interest in
disclosing the information.
 
We concluded that the public interest in maintaining the exemption and not
disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure in
this instance. I have set out below the particular factors which the
Department considered when deciding where the public interest lay:
 

* It is acknowledged that there is a general public interest in
disclosure because of the need for there to be open and transparent
government and that the sharing of information with the public should
be free and open. 

 
However,
 

* We believe that disclosing this information would place Stonewall at a
competitive disadvantage with other organisations in their sector. The
advice contained in the reports is consultancy based on their
expertise and if competitors had this it would impact on Stonewall’s
capacity to compete fairly with them.
* Having reports made public potentially damages the integrity of the
Workplace Equality Index where Stonewall guarantees non-disclosure of
information ie scores and feedback.
* Organisations may choose not to engage with Stonewall for fear of
disclosure of sensitive content.

 
The arguments for and against release have been considered and it is our
view that the balance of public interest falls in favour of the
maintenance of this exemption.
 
2019 supporting attachments to the submission templates
 
The enclosed attachments include a number of redactions to which we are
applying section 40(2) (personal data).
 
3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2019 or
2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you
claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in
broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be
entitled to withhold it).
 
The Department holds email communications received from Stonewall in 2019
and 2020.
 
Two of the emails are being withheld because the following exemption
applies to this information:
 
Section 36 Prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs
 
This exemption provides for information to be exempt from disclosure where
disclosure under this Act would be like to inhibit the free and frank
provision of advice and would otherwise prejudice, or would be likely
otherwise to prejudice, the effective conduct of public affairs.
 
Section 36 is a qualified exemption so we have had to balance the public
interest in withholding the information against the public interest in
disclosing the information.
 
We concluded that the public interest in maintaining the exemption and not
disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in disclosure in
this instance. I have set out below the particular factors which the
Department considered when deciding where the public interest lay:
 

* It is acknowledged that there is a general public interest in
disclosure because of the need for there to be open and transparent
government and that the sharing of information with the public should
be free and open. 

 
However,
 

* DfE considers that Stonewall provided expert, tailored advice in
confidence to DfE, with the expectation it would not be released into
the public domain based on the established, honest working dialogue
with DfE. Had Stonewall been aware that their advice was going to be
released into the public domain they may not have been so frank and so
releasing this information may lead to a breakdown of trust in the
working relationship DfE has developed with Stonewall. In doing so,
this could negatively impact DfE’s commitment to meeting its legal
obligations and supporting staff to the best of our abilities.

 
 
The arguments for and against release have been considered and it is our
view that the balance of public interest falls in favour of the
maintenance of this exemption.
 
All remaining emails received from Stonewall during the time specified are
enclosed. Please note that due to the size of the attachments, additional
correspondence will follow. These emails include a number of redactions to
which we are applying section 40(2) (personal data).
 
4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out
connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact
assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind,
if no further assessment was done).

No Equality Impact Assessment was carried out connected with these
applications.

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2019;
(ii) in 2020, whether or not as payment for goods or services.

The Department paid the following to Stonewall in 2019-2020:

 

Organisation Date paid Description Amount
DfE Membership and DfE
March 2019-August 2020 Workforce £6,309.05
Standards Testing Training &
Agency September-October 2020 Development £1,265.00
*Government Anti-HBT Bullying £48,693.33
Equalities Office April 2019 Programme
    Total £56,267.38

*The Government Equalities Office is no longer part of DfE and we have no
further detail about this payment.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme
in the future, and if so which.

The Department will review its membership of the Stonewall Diversity
Champions Programme on an annual basis.

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright.
You are free to use it for your own purposes, including for private study
and non-commercial research, and for any other purpose authorised by an
exception in current copyright law. Documents (except photographs) can be
also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of news
reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would
require the permission of the copyright holder.

If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Please
remember to quote the reference number above in any future communications.

FOI 2021-0011344

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should
make a complaint to the Department by writing to me within two calendar
months of the date of this letter.  Your complaint will be considered by
an independent review panel, who were not involved in the original
consideration of your request. 

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the
Department, you may then contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Yours sincerely,

Lesley Ingram
 [1]www.gov.uk/dfe
 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.gov.uk/dfe

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

1 Attachment

  • Attachment

    Stonewall FOI documents and emails for release 1.2.zip

    14.8M Download

Dear U Winfield,

As discussed in previous email, please find attached remaining emails in
response to FOI 2021-0011344.

Yours sincerely,

Lesley Ingram
 [1]www.gov.uk/dfe

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.gov.uk/dfe