Thank you for your email which is receiving our attention. We will get
back to you with a response as soon as we can.

If your email is a request for information, it will be handled under the
Freedom of Information Act and we will aim to provide you with a response
as soon as possible, but at least within the 20 working days specified in
the Act.

Dear Miss Battersby

I am writing further to your email of 5 February 2021, in which you made a
request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

Section 1(3) FOIA allows public authorities to seek clarification where it
is necessary to allow them to identify the information requested.

Please could you clarify what type of information you require in relation
to question 3? You have asked for all communications from Stonewall, but
have not specified a subject – essentially, you have requested documents
rather than information. We would be grateful if you could specify the
subject matter in which you are interested if at all possible, to help us
to find what it is you need.

Yours sincerely

Aimee Gasston   |   Freedom of Information Officer
T: +44 20 7851 5046

Aimee Gasston   |   Data Protection Manager
M: +44 7552 863 512   T: +44 20 7851 5046

[1]The Crown Estate

1 St James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH
[2]thecrownestate.co.uk
[3]LinkedIn   [4]Twitter   [5]Instagram

[6][email address]

LEGAL DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT NOTICE
The information in this message, including any attachments, is intended
solely for the use of the person to whom it is addressed. It may be
confidential and subject to legal professional privilege and it should not
be disclosed to or used by anyone else. If you receive this message in
error please let the sender know straight away. The Crown Estate's head
office is at 1 St James's Market London SW1Y 4AH.

We cannot accept liability resulting from email transmission.

From: Miss Rachel C Battersby
<[7][FOI #724755 email]>
Sent: Friday, February 5, 2021 10:47 PM
To: Enquiries <[8][email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Information about your dealings
with Stonewall #DontSubmitToStonewall

Dear The Crown Estate,

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,

Miss Rachel C Battersby

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[9][FOI #724755 email]

Is [10][The Crown Estate request email] the wrong address for Freedom of
Information requests to The Crown Estate? If so, please contact us using
this form:

[11]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/change_re...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

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For more detailed guidance on safely disclosing information, read the
latest advice from the ICO:

[13]https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/ico-...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will
be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web
manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

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Thank you for your email. I am out of the office until Monday 1 March 2021
will come back to you as soon as possible.

Aimee Gasston   |   Data Protection Manager
M: +44 7552 863 512   T: +44 20 7851 5046

[1]The Crown Estate

1 St James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH
[2]thecrownestate.co.uk
[3]LinkedIn   [4]Twitter   [5]Instagram

[6][email address]

LEGAL DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT NOTICE
The information in this message, including any attachments, is intended
solely for the use of the person to whom it is addressed. It may be
confidential and subject to legal professional privilege and it should not
be disclosed to or used by anyone else. If you receive this message in
error please let the sender know straight away. The Crown Estate's head
office is at 1 St James's Market London SW1Y 4AH.

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6. mailto:[email address]

Dear Miss Battersby

Your information request (1281)

I am writing further to your information request of 5 February 2021 which
asked for communications between The Crown Estate and Stonewall. We are
considering your request in line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA).

We had hoped to be able to respond to you by 5 March 2021. However,
Section 10(3) FOIA enables an authority to extend the 20 working day limit
up to a 'reasonable' time in any case where it requires more time to
determine whether or not the balance of the public interest lies in
maintaining an exemption. In this case, the exemption we are considering
relates to commercial interests - the exemption at s43(2) FOIA. We plan to
issue you with a further response by 6 April 2021.

I hope that this initial response is helpful in explaining where we are in
the process. However, if you are not satisfied with the way we are
handling your information request, you may appeal our decision which will
then be investigated through an internal review. If you are not content
with the outcome of that, you have the right to refer any complaint
directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO, contact details
are available at: [1]www.ico.org.ukhttp://www.ico.org.uk). The ICO will
usually expect you to have first exhausted our own complaints procedure
before raising any concerns with them.

Yours sincerely

[2]The Crown Estate

1 St James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH
[3]thecrownestate.co.uk
[4]LinkedIn   [5]Twitter   [6]Instagram

[7][email address]

LEGAL DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT NOTICE
The information in this message, including any attachments, is intended
solely for the use of the person to whom it is addressed. It may be
confidential and subject to legal professional privilege and it should not
be disclosed to or used by anyone else. If you receive this message in
error please let the sender know straight away. The Crown Estate's head
office is at 1 St James's Market London SW1Y 4AH.

We cannot accept liability resulting from email transmission.

From: Miss Rachel C Battersby <[FOI #724755 email]>
Sent: Friday, February 26, 2021 10:26 AM
To: Aimee Gasston <[email address]>
Subject: Re: FOI request - Information about your dealings with Stonewall
[1281]

Dear Aimee Gasston,

Part 3 of my request asks for “Any other communication you have received
from Stonewall in 2019 or 2020 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from
disclosure…”

That is a completely clear description of what I am seeking. I wish to see
every written communication that you have received from Stonewall in the
two years specified. If you have been deluged with communications from
Stonewall in that period, it is possible that that is a large class of
information, but the fact that it is large does not affect its clarity.

It is possible that the quantity of information in scope would provide
grounds for exemption under section 12 of the Act on the basis that the
cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit. If so, I direct
your attention to your section 16 duty to provide me with advice and
assistance. The specific assistance I would like you to provide me with to
help me to refine my request and make it possible for you to comply
without incurring excessive costs is a list of the custodians (by job
title; I do not need to know names) you believe to have been the
recipients of such communications.

That, of course, does not exhaust your duty to provide me with advice and
assistance: you should also turn your minds to any other ways in which you
can help me to refine my request so that it captures a representative
picture of your dealings with Stonewall without exceeding the appropriate
limit.

Yours sincerely,

Miss Rachel C Battersby

show quoted sections

To: Miss Rachel C Battersby <[FOI #724755 email]>

Dear Miss Battersby

Your information request (1281)

I am writing in response to your email of 5 February 2021, in which you
made a request for information. We have considered your request in line
with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please find answers to
your questions below.

As background, we are members of Stonewall and therefore pay an annual
subscription which provides The Crown Estate with a range of membership
benefits such as access to Stonewall events and advisory services.

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.

We do not hold any information in relation to this part of your request.

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

Again, we do not hold information in relation to this part of your
request.
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).

We have prepared a PDF document detailing communications from Stonewall to
The Crown Estate in 2019 and 2020. From this information, third party
personal data has been removed in line with section 40(2) FOIA, as
disclosure would breach at least one of the data protection principles. As
the document is quite large, rather than attaching it here, it will
instead be available to download using the Secure File Transfer Protocol
(SFTP) details included at the end of this email. It will be available to
download for a period of two weeks.

In addition, we have removed documents such as guidance and learning
materials provided to us by Stonewall in line with section 43(2) FOIA as
to make this information freely available in the public domain would
likely prejudice commercial interests. To make information comprising
paid-for membership benefits or other products freely available in the
public domain could prejudice the ability of Stonewall, a charity
dedicated to the promotion of social equality, to attract fees for similar
work from other clients. While there is a general public interest in
transparency, particularly in relation to important issues such as
diversity and inclusion, this should not be to the detriment of charities
trying to secure funds in a competitive market. Therefore we have
concluded that the public interest weighs in favour of non-disclosure.

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).

Again, we hold no information in relation to this part of your request.

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.

We paid Stonewall a total of £6553.67 (plus VAT) across this period -
£3,637 (plus VAT) in 2019, and £2,916.67 (plus VAT) in 2020. These costs
comprised membership fees, conference fees, and a speaker’s fee for a
presentation.

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

We do intend to continue our relationship with Stonewall in the future,
and to continue our Diversity Champions programme membership.

I hope that this information is helpful. However, if you are not
satisfied with the way we have handled your information request, you may
appeal our decision which will then be investigated through an internal
review. If you are not content with the outcome of that, you have the
right to refer any complaint directly to the ICO (contact details are
available at: [1]www.ico.org.uk). As you know, the ICO will usually expect
you to have first exhausted our own complaints procedure before raising
any concerns with them.

Yours sincerely

Aimee Gasston

Freedom of Information Officer

The Crown Estate

SFTP details

Web address: [2]https://sftp.thecrownestate.co.uk/

Username : FOI

Password: 46-52014Kl56

Aimee Gasston   |   Freedom of Information Officer
T: +44 20 7851 5046

[3]The Crown Estate

1 St James's Market, London, SW1Y 4AH
[4]thecrownestate.co.uk
[5]LinkedIn   [6]Twitter   [7]Instagram

[8][email address]

LEGAL DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT NOTICE
The information in this message, including any attachments, is intended
solely for the use of the person to whom it is addressed. It may be
confidential and subject to legal professional privilege and it should not
be disclosed to or used by anyone else. If you receive this message in
error please let the sender know straight away. The Crown Estate's head
office is at 1 St James's Market London SW1Y 4AH.

We cannot accept liability resulting from email transmission.

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