Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had discussions with the Cabinet Secretary on the contents of a response to the correspondence sent by the Civil Service Sex Equality and Equity Network in October 2023 on Civil Service impartiality.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place between Cabinet ministers and officials is not normally shared publicly. However, as mentioned in the Minister’s speech at the Institute for Government on 23 January 2024, the Cabinet Office will be introducing new impartiality guidance which will support Civil Servants to remain objective and impartial when engaging in diversity and inclusion work.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) part-time and (b) full-time paid positions the a:gender staff network has; and what the cost to the public purse is of that network.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The costs (covering the period 2022-23) were £82,000. A decision has been made since then that no further funding will be provided.
Some of the information requested is being withheld because disclosure of that information would contravene one of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Specifically, we consider that disclosure of the information would contravene principle A under article 5(1)(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which requires that personal data should be processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently.
We have found that on balance the legitimate interest and necessity in disclosure are overridden by the reasonable expectations of privacy of the individual[s] concerned.
In this case, the numbers concerned are 5 individuals or fewer. We cannot provide details in such cases as the individuals concerned could be identifiable. This is standard statistical reporting.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of deaths in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022 were (i) male and (ii) female.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon Gentlemen’s Parliamentary Question of 27 March is attached.