FOI202500024S Post-UKSC alignment
Published 19 September 2025
© Crown copyright 2025
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1.1 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST REF: FOI2025/00024S
Thank you for your email of 26th August 2025 asking for information under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. You asked,
“Please provide information held from 1 January 2020 to the date of your response:
1) Legal compliance & policy updates
a) Legal advice/briefings/guidance (internal/external) on applying the Equality Act definition of sex across HR, training, EIAs and facilities (privilege log if s.42 applies).
b) Copies of policy updates/EIAs/risk registers or board/executive papers addressing post-UKSC alignment.
2) Training & workplace standards
a) Training materials and staff communications on sex vs gender identity, including any compelled speech/pronoun expectations and the legal basis used.
b) Records of complaints/grievance themes (aggregate only) relating to belief discrimination or safeguarding of single-sex facilities.
3) EDI procurement & spend
a) Itemised spend with EDI/advocacy vendors (e.g., Stonewall) since 2020—supplier, amount, date, purpose; copies of contract titles/SoWs.
b) Procurement criteria, scoring and conflict-of-interest declarations; post-implementation reviews of benefits/outcomes.
4) Facilities & safeguarding
a) Risk assessments and decisions on single-sex facilities vs gender-neutral provision; equality/legal rationale.
b) Any incident reviews where facilities/training policies created safeguarding or dignity concerns
5) Data standards
a) HR/people data standards distinguishing sex (in law) vs gender identity; records of changes post-UKSC rulings.
6) Governance & accountability
a) Guidance on Nolan Principles/neutrality; internal audits or compliance checks.
b) Names/roles of senior decision-makers who approved or refused actions in 1–5 (not junior staff).”
Following our clarification sent to you on 26th August 2025, you confirmed the following:
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“Post-UKSC alignment – refers to your organisation’s actions, reviews, and updates following the binding UK Supreme Court rulings For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers [2022] UKSC 31 and [2024] UKSC 12, which confirmed “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 means biological sex.
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HR/people data standards – means any documented standards, schemas, field definitions, or guidance used for staff data collection and reporting (sex vs gender identity).
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PIT reasoning – means the public interest test reasoning required by FOIA s.2(2)(b) when applying qualified exemptions.
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Routine admin – refers to diary invites, email auto-acks, routine cover notes, or blank templates that add no substantive content.”
I am writing to confirm that we have now completed the search for the information which you requested.
I can confirm that FCDO Services does hold information relevant to your request, as set out below.
1a) Extract of communication from the FCDO Services Director of People to staff on 1st May 2025:
“Regarding the UK Supreme Court ruling on how “sex” is interpreted in the Equality Act 2010.
This ruling provides legal clarity that ‘sex’ means biological sex for the purposes of the Equality Act. Across the Civil Service, including FCDO Services, we are carefully reviewing policies and workplace facilities to ensure compliance while maintaining our duty of care to all staff.
During this period of review, I want to reassure you that FCDO Services remains firmly committed to being an inclusive workplace where everyone feels respected and valued. We will share updates on our policy reviews as they become available, particularly after the EHRC publishes its Code of Practice following their upcoming consultation.
Protections against discrimination and harassment for trans colleagues remain in place under the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. This is an important point as we navigate these changes together.”
1b) No information held.
2a) It is mandatory that all staff use a branded email signature template which includes the option to add their preferred pronoun.
There are no records held for specific training on sex vs. gender identity. However, the employee mandatory diversity and inclusion training has been focused on the broad requirements of the Equality Act. We have provided a table in 3a. detailing the training provided and associated spend data. Additionally, all staff have access to the ‘Civil Service Expectations course’ on the Civil Service Learning portal. This includes an introduction to the Civil Service code and values; the legislation around diversity and inclusion; the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy; why diversity and inclusion matters and what it means to us as a Civil Servants.
2b) No information held.
3a) Itemised spend with EDI/advocacy vendors:
| Financial Year | Training/membership | Cost (excluding VAT)* |
|---|---|---|
| 2021/2022 | Business in The Community (Race and Wellbeing) | £7,600 |
| Employers for Carers (Shared membership) | £1,000 | |
| Women’s Engineering Society | £2,500 | |
| Stonewall | Withheld s21 exemption, see below** | |
| 2022/2023 | Inclusive Employers | £4,500 |
| Women’s Engineering Society | £3,000 | |
| Employers for Carers (Shared membership) | £1,250 | |
| Nelson Training Limited Dignity (Respect) at Work | £75,564.50 | |
| 2023/2024 | Inclusive Employers | £4,950 |
| Women’s Engineering Society | £3,600 | |
| 2024/2025 | Inclusive Employers | £5,520 |
| Women’s Engineering Society | £4,000 | |
| 2025/2026 | Women’s Engineering Society | £4,500 |
| ACAS Neurodiversity Awareness | £1,340 | |
| Mindgym Respect Me | £7,800 | |
| In all years in scope of the FOI, we access the Business Disability Forum via the FCDO’s membership. |
*Itemised spend data above does not include training/membership where there was no associated cost to FCDO Services.
**Annual membership has also been paid to Stonewall in the financial year 2021/22. This information is exempt under section 21 of the FOIA, as we are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you. Details of the value of the membership can be found here: FOI release: FCDO Services Stonewall membership - GOV.UK
3b)
Procurement criteria: open competitive below threshold tender - the Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT).
Scoring: 60/40
Conflict-of-interest declarations: Not completed for this low value procurement.
Post-implementation reviews of benefits/outcomes: Not benefits tracked by procurement.
4a) We are a tenant on a FCDO site. Decisions on single sex facilities vs gender neutral provision would be made by the FCDO.
4b) No information held.
5a) From 1st January 2020 to July 2022 our central HR system recorded ‘gender’. From July 2022 to present day, our current central HR system contains a non-mandatory ‘gender’ field with options including Female/Male/Non-Binary/Other or Prefer to self-describe/Prefer not to say. Additionally, a non-mandatory question was added “Is your gender identity the same as you were assigned at birth?”.
FCDO Services does not report on gender identity. When analysis is undertaken for reports such as the Gender Pay Gap Report, we use the gender field. There have not been any changes post UKSC ruling.
6a) FCDO Services staff follow the Civil Service Code statutory guidance which is the basis of our core values: integrity. honesty, objectivity and impartiality.
6b) The information you have requested, i.e. names of staff, is personal data relating to third parties, the disclosure of which would contravene one of the data protection principles. In such circumstances sections 40(2) and 40 (3A)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act apply. In this case, our view is that disclosure would breach the data protection principle that personal data should be processed lawfully, fairly and transparently. It is the fairness aspect of this principle, which, in our view, would be breached by disclosure. In such circumstances, s.40 confers an absolute exemption on disclosure. There is, therefore, no public interest test to apply.
Once an FOI request is answered, it is considered to be in the public domain. To promote transparency, FCDO Services may now publish the response and any material released on GOV.UK in the FOI releases section. All personal information in the letter will be removed before publishing.
Where copies of information have been supplied to you they will continue to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You are free to use it for your own purposes, including any non-commercial research you are doing and for the purposes of news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the permission of the copyright holder. Most documents supplied by the FCDO will have been produced by government officials and will be protected by Crown Copyright. To re-use Crown Copyright documents please consult the Open Government Licence v3 on the National Archives website.
Information you receive which is not subject to Crown Copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non-Crown Copyright) information.
If you would like to request a review of our decision, you should write to the Data Protection Officer (DPO), Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) Team, FCDO Services, Hanslope Park, Milton Keynes, England, MK19 7BH (e-mail: FCDOServices.DataProtectionOfficer@fcdo.gov.uk). Please note you have 40 working days to do so from the date of this letter. Please quote the reference number above in any future communications.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the complaints procedure provided by the FCDO. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, or online at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/