Request

‘Dear NHS Business Services Authority,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Please provide any information that you hold answering to any of the following descriptions:

1. Any application you made (or intend to make) in 2021 or 2022 to be a "Stonewall Diversity Champion" or to be included on Stonewall's "Workplace Equality Index," including any attachments or appendices to those applications. Please redact personal details if necessary.

2. Any feedback you received in 2021, or to date, from Stonewall in relation to either application or programme.

3. Any other communication you have received from Stonewall in 2021 or 2022 unless privileged or otherwise exempt from disclosure (but if you claim privilege or exemption in relation to any material, please say in broad terms what the material is and the basis on which you claim to be entitled to withhold it).

4. Full details of any equality impact assessment you carried out connected with any of these applications (including any equality impact assessment carried out prior to an earlier application of the same kind, if no further assessment was done).

5. Details of the total amount of money you paid to Stonewall (i) in 2021; (ii) in 2022, whether or not as payment for goods or services.

6. Whether you intend to continue your membership of any Stonewall scheme in the future, and if so which.’

Response

In your questions you ask for information relating to applications to be a Stonewall Diversity Champion or to be included in Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index.

Please note that becoming a Stonewall Diversity Champion (SDC) does not require an application, therefore this information is not held.

The NHSBSA has previously submitted an application in 2021 to be included in the Workplace Equality Index (WEI).Our response below is regarding this WEI 2021 application.

Question 1

WEI Application

An application to be included in the Workplace Equality Index is completed on Stonewall’s online portal, where the information is hosted. Therefore, this information is not held by the NHSBSA.

Attachments

The information you requested is being withheld as it falls under the following exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act:

Section 40 – Personal Information

Please be aware that I have decided not to release personal data and special category personal data relating to NHSBSA staff as this information falls under the exemption in section 40 subsections 2 and 3 (a) of the Freedom of Information Act. This is because it would breach the first data protection principle as:

a) it is not fair to disclose NHSBSA staff special category personal details to the world and is likely to cause damage or distress. b) these details are not of sufficient interest to the public to warrant an intrusion into the privacy of NHSBSA staff.

Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/40

Section 43 – Commercial Interests

The remainder of the requested information is commercially sensitive information about Stonewall’s assessment of NHSBSA’s progress against the LGBTQ agenda. The exemption under FOI section 43(2) is engaged because disclosure would likely damage Stonewall’s commercial interests as the information could give other organisations entering the WEI a competitive advantage.

In applying this exemption, NHSBSA has had to balance the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosure.

The below web link sets out the exemption in full. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/43 Please see the below factors in favour of maintaining the exemption, and in favour disclosure of the information.

Factors for Disclosure • public interest in disclosure of information concerning NHSBSA’s progress against LGBTQ and inclusivity Factors for withholding • Disclosure would weaken Stonewall’s ability to participate competitively in any future commercial activity as organisations would be less willing to engage with its services if detailed submission and feedback information were shown to be subject to disclosure and so would lead to a loss of income for Stonewall. • Disclosure of this information would prejudice Stonewall’s commercial interests, by disclosing sensitive information would likely be used by other organisations making a WEI submission to gain a competitive advantage and undermine confidence in the WEI

Question 2

Feedback supplied by Stonewall was received in confidence under the terms of the Stonewall data protection and privacy policy. The NHSBSA agreed to abide by this when submitting the WEI application. This information is being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section 41(1) ‘Information provided in confidence’ of the Freedom of Information Act.

Please click the below web link to see the exemption in full.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/41

Question 3 and 4

The information requested in these questions is not held. This is because no equality impact assessment was conducted specific to our WEI submission as this was not required as part of the application.

Question 5

For the financial year 2021/22 (To date) the total paid is £3,654. This includes:

Stonewall Champion Membership London workplace Conference LGBTQ+ and disabilities workshop Network Group Masterclass

Question 6

Yes – Diversity Champions

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-23344