What exactly IS happening with that inquiry into the rise in girls accessing GIDs? It's a secret, apparently.

Good to hear rogdmum

Surely those accepting awards, hospitality and funding from the likes of Stonewall etc should be declaring a conflict of interest as they are being influenced by them in their work?

That is an excellent point. There is something profoundly undemocratic about the way in which inquiries are conducted in secret when their results will inform policy. Why is there such a troubling lack of transparency?

I received a lovely letter from Baroness Nicholson. I don’t want to post it here as it was personal to our situation, but I think it is safe to say that she is very concerned with what is happening and she is not alone with these concerns.

Does anyone have an update on this? Has Bn Nicholson communicated anything further? Thanks!

Make a complaint to the Information Commissioner if you are unhappy with an internal review of an FOI request. And even that isn't the last port of call. You can appeal a decision of the Commissioner to a Tribunal if you disagree with it.

I saw that earlier and thanked the Baroness on Twitter for taking an interest .

*captured even

Has Penny Mordaunt been caputured by the ideology now?

twitter.com/notomisogyny/status/1215726689524887552?s=21

I tried to FOI this and was also knocked back, and then requested an internal review that turned me down again!

Did you take it to the Information Commissioner? That's what I had to do in the end following my series of FOI requests to the Welsh Government about their lack of Equality Impact Assessments.

The ICO will take an independent look at your request and decide whether the information should be released.

MrsSnippy would writing to Baroness Nicholson with our concerns be helpful?

I tried to FOI this and was also knocked back, and then requested an internal review that turned me down again!

For any parents in this thread (I'm one too) we have a support group at www.bayswatersupport.org.uk and a twitter @BayswaterSG.

I agree Tilder, those comments were way to the right of the Daily Mail.

Much as I agree with the need for the inquiry (and am sceptical that it will be unbiased and published), I made the mistake of reading the comments. I feel slightly unclean.

Apparently 'transgenderism' (is that even a word) is the fault of the left and women. The comment on gay marriage was particularly abhorrent.

I am going to write to my (new) MP asking her to find out what is happening (my DD is one of those affected). Can I suggest others do too?

The Equalities Office said that the parameters of the research had not yet been confirmed, but would be made public “in due course”.
From an article in the Independent 2018.

These various agencies have been getting pretty dodgy with their transparency obligations recently, haven't they?

This is reminiscent of Edward Lord’s crooked survey where the City of London threw out 50pc of responses. Who advised them to do this? A one man band consultancy who won the survey contract via tender. The consultancy is run by a fellow Freemason. They had never done any such work before - nothing in surveys or statistical analysis or evidenced based policy making or anything. Their only credentials were a membership of the International Association of Survey Statisticians - a membership you can get online for free in five minutes with nothing more than a name and address.

This is corruption in plain sight.

Why would the terms of the tender hurt anyone's commercial interests?

I'm fairly convinced that in many cases if they don't want to disclose something, they will give some spurious reason for non disclosure in the hope that the person making the request will just give up. It doesn't look as though that's going to happen here though if MrsSnippyPants is right about a review having been requested.

Why would the terms of the tender hurt anyone's commercial interests? How can you put something out for tender without making it public? Has it just been allocated to cronies? Has James Caspian been given a chance to bid for it? Who is responsible for making this decision?

The Equalities Office say that they have withheld the information because they "have determined that the balance of public interest is in favour of withholding the information requested under Section 43(2) of the FOIA’."

Section 43(2) is about "Prejudice to commercial interests."

In order to apply section 43(2), the public authority must satisfy itself that disclosure of the information would, or would be likely to, prejudice or harm the commercial interests of any person (this can include the public authority holding it). This is known as the prejudice test.

ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1178/commercial-interests-section-43-foia-guidance.pdf

If thousands of young female people suddenly got any other condition there would be a public enquiry.

Any. Other. Condition.

Indeed BadgertheBodger.
It is secrecy and deals being done behind closed doors that has got us into this appalling state. It defies belief that the government don't get this (until you look at the profiles of some of the major players as evidenced above).
The comments under the article suggest that many people are finally getting this.

God it’s beyond a joke isn’t it. 1000s of girls deciding they’d rather not be girls, resignations all over the place and an ongoing court case from a former member of staff relating to their methods. I cannot think of any comparable situation which wouldn’t be dealt with as a matter of extreme urgency given the involvement of children. And yet, even the terms of the tender need to remain secret.

Surely if everything was entirely above board it would be routine to have the terms of the tender available on request as a bare minimum? How could it possibly be “not in the public interest” to disclose that?

They know. They all fucking know how wrong this is. They’ll be hoping it blows over. Fuck. That.