Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether Ministers approved the renaming the “Cross-Government Women’s Network” as the “Cross-Government Gender Network”; whether a public sector equality duty assessment was undertaken on the change; and how much diversity network time is now allocated to the Cross-Government Gender Network.

The Cross Government Gender Network is a Civil Service wide forum made up of staff networks working towards advancing gender equality and parity in the Civil Service and across arms-length bodies. The change in name from the Cross-Government Women’s Network took place in 2020, under the previous administration. It does not represent any change in Government policy or activity and a public sector equality duty (PSED) assessment was not undertaken by the previous administration.

There are currently no centrally set time allocation limits for cross Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion networks.