On April 15th I put in a FOI request for my ex-employer's policies on gender identity. The first reply contained this:
"Your request is asking for all guidance, procedures, and policies available to staff relating to
diversity, inclusion, and equality. Given the vast number of policies, guidance, and
procedures available to staff and that diversity and inclusion are at the heart of many of the
policies and procedures, to fulfil this request the agency would have to manually inspect
every appropriate policy, procedure, or guidance file, thus exceeding the cost limit outlined in
the FOIA. There are nine directorates within the agency, with several teams within each
directorate. Each of these teams have their own policies, procedures, and guidance as well
as the agency wide policy, procedures, and guidance.
If you were to make a new request for a narrower category of information, we may be able to
comply with the renewed request within the appropriate limit, however, we cannot guarantee..."
It's concerning that HR don't know what procedures they've got where (must be a nightmare for staff looking for guidance) and that it would take more than 3 working days to find and collate it. Anyway, eventually (3 modified requests later, on August 20th) they sent me their guidance/policy on gender, attached.
You may, of course, disagree with my opinion that this is a waste of public money.
