Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 22 November to Question 76548, he plans to respond to Question 76548 on Ministry of Defence: Stonewall, tabled by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham.

You will recall that I responded to your Question 76548 of 17 November 2021 on 22 November 2021 to advise that it would take time to collate the information required for a detailed breakdown and, in response to your further Question 84298 of 30 November, I reiterated that position. I am now able to respond substantively to your Question.

As you will know from my answer of 1 November 2021 to Question 61052, no donations are made to Stonewall. However, the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the three Services, and the MOD Police, are all members of Stonewall's 'Diversity Champions programme' for which membership costs an annual fee. In addition, a number of courses and professional development sessions are purchased on an ad-hoc basis, primarily by the LGBT+ networks.

I can confirm that all MOD Memberships are reviewed regularly, to ensure that they deliver value for money and continue to meet our Diversity and Inclusion ambitions and strategic direction, as set out in the Defence Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, A Force for Inclusion.

Information held by the MOD is provided in the table below. You will wish to note that further investigation of expenditure means that in many cases the estimated figures provided in answer to Question 61052 have now been revised upwards.

Notes:

1. The Royal Navy has no payments recorded to Stonewall prior to financial year 2017-18
2. MOD Centre Diversity and Inclusion has no payments recorded to Stonewall prior to financial year 2017-18