Dear Ms Stewart,

Thank you for your information request, which will be dealt with under the
terms of the Freedom of Information Act.  We aim to reply as soon as
possible within twenty working days. 

Regards,

Alison Smith | Information Rights Manager

Intellectual Property Office | Concept House | Cardiff Road | Newport |
South Wales | NP10 8QQ

Tel: +44 (0)1633 814587 | Email: [1][Intellectual Property Office request email]

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[3]Twitter_logo_black_square  [4]Facebook-fLogo-black  [5]www.gov.uk/ipo

IPO | Making life better through IP

[6]IPO secondary logo email

Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office

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Dear Ms Stewart,

Thank you for your email of 6 February 2021, asking for information about the Intellectual Property Office's (IPO's) dealings with Stonewall.

We do hold information within the scope of your request, I regret that we need more time to consider your request.

I wish to advise you that the following exemption applies to the information that you have requested:

Section 43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act, which relates to prejudice to commercial interests.

By virtue of section 10(3), where public authorities have to consider the balance of the public interest in relation to a request, they do not have to comply with the request until such time as is reasonable in the circumstances. The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has not yet reached a decision on the balance of the public interest. Due to the need to consider, in all the circumstances of the case, where the balance of the public interest lies in relation to the information that you have requested, the IPO has not been able to respond to your request in full within 20 working days.

I hope to let you have a response by 6 April 2021.

If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months and should be addressed to me at [Intellectual Property Office request email] . If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Regards,

Alison Smith | Information Rights Manager
Intellectual Property Office | Concept House | Cardiff Road | Newport | South Wales | NP10 8QQ
Tel: +44 (0)1633 814587 | Email: [Intellectual Property Office request email]

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Dear Ms Stewart,

You may have gathered by now that the IPO has been unable to meet the extended deadline of 6 April. I am sorry to report that we are still not in a position to provide you with a definitive response to your request. We need a further 20 days to do so and therefore we would like to extend the deadline to 5 May. I'm sorry to have to do this and would like to assure you that we intend to respond as soon as we are able to give full consideration to the relevant documents we have been able to identify.

Regards,

Alison Smith | Information Rights Manager
Intellectual Property Office | Concept House | Cardiff Road | Newport | South Wales | NP10 8QQ
Tel: +44 (0)1633 814587 | Email: [Intellectual Property Office request email]

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Third email of five: attachments only.

Second email of five:  attachments only.

Dear Ms Stewart,

Please accept my apologies for the further delay in processing your
request.  The relevant information held by the IPO is attached to this and
four following emails. After detailed consideration of all the information
within the scope of your request, the only information we have withheld is
the personal information of IPO staff members and third parties.  These
details have been redacted to avoid the exemption under section 40(2) of
the Freedom of Information Act. 

You asked:

"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.”

The answers to your questions are as follows:

1.  An application to be included in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index
is attached, together with supporting evidence.  It was submitted in
September 2019. (No submission was sent in 2020.) 2.  Feedback to the
application is attached.  It was received in January 2020.

3.  Further attachments consist of emails received from Stonewall on
various events; newsletters and related topics, sent as attachments to
four further emails.

4.  No equality impact assessment document was identified.

5.  Please find a breakdown of the IPO’s payments in 2019/2020 and
2020/2021 to Stonewall attached to a following email.

6.  Information is not held because continued membership cannot be
confirmed at this time.

You are reminded that if you are dissatisfied with the handling of your
request, you have the right to ask for an internal review.  Internal
review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of
receipt of this response and you may ask for a review by emailing
[1][Intellectual Property Office request email]  .

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have
the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a
decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information
Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9
5AF.

Your sincerely,

Alison Smith | Information Rights Manager Intellectual Property Office |
Concept House | Cardiff Road | Newport | South Wales | NP10 8QQ

Tel: +44 (0)1633 814587 | Email: [2][Intellectual Property Office request email]

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Fourth email of five: attachments only.

Fifth email of five:  attachments only.