Dear Invest Northern Ireland,

Can you please provide evidence that shows:

(i) Invest NI has communicated with local businesses and business leaders, their responsibilities in relation to “Goods, facilities and services” as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, in order to ensure disability discrimination in relation to the wearing of face coverings is not occurring via mediums such as (but not limited to) point-of-sale messaging, posters at entrances - "No mask, No entry / No service", staff ignorance, social media posts, job advertising, tannoy announcements, in-store advertising. - where "reasonable Excuses" OR Exemptions are 𝐧𝐨𝐭 included in the messaging.

(ii) nibusinessinfo.co.uk has communicated with local businesses and business leaders, their responsibilities in relation to “Goods, facilities and services” as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, in order to ensure disability discrimination in relation to the wearing of face coverings, is not occurring via mediums such as (but not limited to) point-of-sale messaging, posters at entrances - "No mask, No entry / No service", staff ignorance, social media posts, job advertising, tannoy announcements, in-store advertising - where "reasonable Excuses" OR Exemptions are 𝐧𝐨𝐭 included in the messaging.

(iii) "Reasonable Excuse" awareness - communications with local businesses and business leaders that describes responsibilities in relation to the “Reasonable Excuse” provision within legislation that protects against disability discrimination - especially the need to ask for proof of exemption OR compelling customers and/or staff to label themselves exempt - recognising that within guidance and legislation there is 𝐧𝐨 such requirement:

"There is no need to get a letter from a doctor or the government to show that you do not need to wear a face covering." - https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/cor...

(iiii) Communication with local businesses and business leaders that requires businesses to treat exemption messaging with equal importance to face covering wearing messaging, to ensure disability discrimination is not occurring.

(iiiii) Communication from Northern Irelands Government bodies (not limited to - Department of Health, Executive Office, Public Health Agency) that reminds Invest NI of its responsibilities to communicate messaging that ensures equality for all members of society.

Yours faithfully,

Catherine Edgar

Dear Clodagh,

I understand, thank you for the acknowledgment.

Kind regards,

Catherine Edgar

Dear FOI Invest Northern Ireland,

Ref FOI 1252

Thank you for your response. Please advise how to get the below addressed.

Is it a matter of choice that Invest NI do 𝒏𝒐𝒕 address face covering wearing messaging and face covering “Reasonable Excuses” OR “Exemptions” messaging equally, which itself encourages discrimination?

“Invest NI does not hold any information in relation to the questions asked as this activity is outside of its roles and responsibilities.”

Invest NI website - nibusinessinfo.co.uk - promotes (on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive) the wearing of face covering messaging, yet is ignoring promoting the “Reasonable Excuses” or “Exemptions” messaging held within the same Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 legislation. Surely, that 𝒊𝒔 part of Invest NIs “roles and responsibilities” as Invest NI are not treating messaging equally, which isolates those of us unable to wear a face covering, creating the potential for disability discrimination which in the extreme, has led to "No mask, No entry" signs.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2020...

Treating face covering wearing promotion equally to “Reasonable Excuses” OR “Exemption” messaging addresses the potential for disability discrimination and should categorically discourage it. As it stands, Invest NI are 𝒏𝒐𝒕 balancing the scales in acknowledging discrimination that could arise (and that has arisen) out of its promotion of face covering wearing guidance and legislation through nibusinessinfo.co.uk. How does this promote equality and tolerance towards those of us unable to wear face coverings?

I accept there are links provided within the nibusinessinfo.co.uk website, that take a user to further information on NI Direct etc where face covering "Reasonable Excuses" OR "Exemption" messaging can be found, however, correct me if I am wrong, surely Invest NI operating through nibusinessinfo.co.uk 𝒉𝒂𝒔 a duty to promote equality in their information and messaging which means promoting face covering "Reasonable Excuses" OR "Exemptions" alongside face covering wearing (as do ALL businesses) especially considering nibusinessinfo.co.uk operates as:

- a free service offered by Invest Northern Ireland, is the 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 for business advice and 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 in Northern Ireland;
- is delivered by Invest Northern Ireland on 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Edgar

Dear Invest Northern Ireland,

Please ignore the above message and please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Invest Northern Ireland's handling of my FOI request 'Face Covering Discrimination in Businesses'.

Ref FOI 1252

Thank you for your response.

“Invest NI does not hold any information in relation to the questions asked as this activity is outside of its roles and responsibilities.”

Is it a matter of choice that Invest NI do 𝒏𝒐𝒕 address face covering wearing messaging and face covering “Reasonable Excuses” OR “Exemptions” messaging equally, which itself encourages discrimination?

Invest NI website - nibusinessinfo.co.uk - promotes (on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive) the wearing of face covering messaging, yet is ignoring promoting the “Reasonable Excuses” or “Exemptions” messaging held within the same Health Protection (Coronavirus, Wearing of Face Coverings) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 legislation. Surely, that 𝒊𝒔 part of Invest NIs “roles and responsibilities” as Invest NI are not treating messaging equally, which isolates those of us unable to wear a face covering, creating the potential for disability discrimination which in the extreme, has led to "No mask, No entry" signs.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2020...

Treating face covering wearing promotion equally to “Reasonable Excuses” OR “Exemption” messaging addresses the potential for disability discrimination and should categorically discourage it. As it stands, Invest NI are 𝒏𝒐𝒕 balancing the scales in acknowledging discrimination that could arise (and that has arisen) out of its promotion of face covering wearing guidance and legislation through nibusinessinfo.co.uk. How does this promote equality and tolerance towards those of us unable to wear face coverings?

I accept there are links provided within the nibusinessinfo.co.uk website, that take a user to further information on NI Direct etc where face covering "Reasonable Excuses" OR "Exemption" messaging can be found, however, correct me if I am wrong, surely Invest NI operating through nibusinessinfo.co.uk 𝒉𝒂𝒔 a duty to promote equality in their information and messaging which means promoting face covering "Reasonable Excuses" OR "Exemptions" alongside face covering wearing (as do ALL businesses) especially considering nibusinessinfo.co.uk operates as:

- a free service offered by Invest Northern Ireland, is the 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 for business advice and 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 in Northern Ireland;
- is delivered by Invest Northern Ireland on 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐟 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐈𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/f...

Yours faithfully,

Catherine Edgar

Dear FOI Invest Northern Ireland,

As an add on to the above request for internal review:

https://www.investni.com/about-us/equali...

"Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998
Invest NI complies with Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
This requires us to work in accordance with the principles of equality of opportunity between:

- Men and women generally
- 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁
- Persons with dependants and persons without
- Persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation."

Is promotion of equality outside Invest NI’s roles and responsibilities?

Yours sincerely,

Catherine Edgar

Dear Steve Chambers,

Thank you for completing an internal review.

I think I understand, but apologies just to clarify, as far as Covid-19 messaging goes:

(i) Invest NI have no control over 𝗮𝗻𝘆 Covid-19 content they use on their websites and no control over composition of messaging?

(ii) If that is the case, hypothetically, if Invest NI noticed the disparity between promotion of ‘wear a face covering’ messaging and exemption messaging, provided by the Department of Health, and wanted to acknowledge that it does encourage discrimination and actively tried to promote equality of messaging on its websites because it thought that was the right thing to do, would Invest NI have no power to do so and have to seek permission from the Department of Health because they control Covid-19 messaging?

Apologies, I am trying to understand why exemptions to wearing a face coverings are treated like they mean nothing when in reality, they mean everything to people like me.

Kind regards,

Catherine Edgar

Dear Clodagh,

Thank you for further clarifying, I do appreciate your effort.

Invest NI websites, do not only link to ‘government agencies who are Responsible', its websites also create content:

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content...
https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content...

At no point did I ask Invest NI to or suggest that Invest NI ‘challenge the expertise and authority’ of any agency. The soul that makes up Invest NI has its own moral conscience. However, as ‘do the right thing’ is at the heart of Invest NIs corporate responsibility strategy, as Invest NI also aim to ‘show mutual regard for all others’ and ‘We will treat our customers fairly’, I would have imagined that Invest NI would be striving to support equality of messaging via content created by Invest NI for its websites. Especially, considering inequality in face covering messaging and face covering discrimination in businesses has been brought to Invest NIs attention. Invest NI has an influence that is far reaching, I would have hoped it would recognise the importance of face covering exemption messaging and do so regardless of the ‘government agencies who are Responsible' whom Invest NI link to. My mistake.

No further clarification needed, again, thank you.

Kind regards,

Catherine