53000 people have responded to the GRA consultation so far - still time for more!

[Forgotthebins]

As shared by the Women and Equalities Office on Twitter: twitter.com/WomenEqualities/status/1053326798577197056
Of course we have no idea about the balance of responses but a huge well done to all of you who have been sharing info and getting the message out to make sure that women's voices have been heard. For anyone on here about to write in time for the extended deadline of noon on Monday 22nd, I thoroughly recommend Lost Lesbian's blog of her answers - wish I'd had them to hand when I did mine!

lesbianlost.home.blog/

Also I notice that the Government's "Women and Equalities Office" say that they are responsible for gender and LGBT equalities - a much more narrow remit than I had ever understood it to be before! I wonder where sex and all the other protected characteristics (race, disability etc) should go for protection.

I wonder what proportion of them are pissed off mumsnetters.

Just done it. I hope as many of us as possible do it. It is really important. I am a pissed off mumsnetter.

I actually thought it would be more than that. Imagine if the press had been on this since the start.

Me too, wannadance
They'll dismiss the response as unrepresentative and ignore the fact that it was all, basically, hushed up.

There will be many many more when they do the Women's Consultation.

Because that will surely be next.

Anything else is undemocratic.

Well our favourite Dr ran out of hot air it seems and did the seven minute stonewall version. I spent two hours over two weekends, carefully reading the advice from FPFW and WPUK and putting it into my own words with added personal opinion. I couldn't face going through it again with DH. But I'm now going to whip off a 7 minute reply via the stonewall link, answering the exact opposite of their suggestion as a last minute submission from DH. Thanks for the tip Adey.

I have just completed the stonewall version and ignored their suggestions.

Husband's submission in. Thanks Stonewall and Adey. Took a bit longer than seven minutes, needing to justify my answers. I reckon you can only do it in seven minutes by ticking the Yes/no boxes only and not writing any supporting information.

But it's a quick and easy option for anyone wanting to put in a last minute submission on behalf of someone near and dear to them. 

I'd be wary of using the Stonewall response form. It looks as though they have access to your data if you use it, so they will know who you are and what your views are. There's a tick box for Stonewall to keep you informed about their campaigns, and a link to their privacy policy.

Also, does it go directly to the government when you click submit? Or is there a possibility for them not to forward your response if they disagree?

I haven't looked into this, just a quick look at their response form on their website, but I'd be inclined to be cautious.

I’ve responded, as have friends I’ve asked. I expressed my specific concerns around safeguarding for young people with autism, who are a particularly vulnerable group.

I’m sure I saw a fair play for women tweet where they said how many had used their one click form but I can’t find it. Can anyone help?

The Fair Play one is almost at 83000 views it says on their website, hopefully that means a lot of people! fairplayforwomen.com/email/

Also, does it go directly to the government when you click submit? Or is there a possibility for them not to forward your response if they disagree?

I would think, anyone who fills out their version and does not go along with their suggestions, it just won't be forwarded. Best to do it directly, or the FPFW version I think.

I’m sure I saw a fair play for women tweet where they said how many had used their one click form but I can’t find it. Can anyone help?

I thought I saw them say - about a week ago - that there had been 7,000 one-click submissions via their site. But I also can't find it now.

Does anyone know how or where responses can be read?

You can’t read all the responses they aren’t published. People do attempted FOIs on these things (ie give me all the responses) but it’s very rare to succeed. They will publish a government response. Once they’ve processed all 83000+!

Oh! They asked if they could use my name and I said yes.

Im just off the phone to a friend and I said '.... yeah, well my last line was "I can't believe we're even having this conversation"

BTW 53,000 responses is a huge number for a public consultation!

It can't be dismissed as "unrepresentative", by the government, by the TRAs or by women's groups

Been out today leafleting and shoving extras through letterboxes on the way home. One last push!

👏👏👏👏💪

Love that Liverpool Resisters

Langcleg just shy of 20,000

53,000 seems massive. It'll be a headache processing it all!

I've just got 2 people to fill it in today and I did it last week 💪

If they do it like the Home Education/out of school setting education consultation, they won't read the responses; they'll have a data company basically compile a list of most-used keywords. But I'm not sure if it will be done that way as they may not have expected to get so many responses.

i suspect that the DofE is right now trying to piggyback on an existing contract with a data analyst company to outsource the handling of the responses