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.

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.