Crackdown on inappropriate civil service staff networks

[PineappleSunrise]

Looks like Sandie Peggie, the Darlington nurses, all the College of Policing issues and the upcoming tribunal at the Environment Agency have brought civil service staff networks to the attention of the Cabinet Office. They’ve announced a crack down :

”The rules also re-confirm that all networks must remain impartial at all times and must not attempt to influence government policy in any way - as already set out in the Civil Service Code.
Any employees who breach the Civil Service Code, including in relation to network activity, may be subject to disciplinary action.

Under the guidance, network activity may be suspended or ceased if networks do not comply with the new rules”

I imagine there are some pissed off activists getting back in their boxes tonight!

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/civil-service-staff-networks-to-only-meet-outside-working-hours-and-have-all-events-signed-off-by-senior-managers

Ooh interesting. I wonder if it will make a difference. At this stage, I’m not even sure I trust senior management to do the right thing.

oooh good luck with that! Lot of dismantling to do in that case...

Wish they’d have included explicit examples on the page, as we know who they mean but would love to see the boot stuck in…

Yes that was exactly my thought

Hurrah!

Very interesting. They briefed thr Telegraph first!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/23/uk-civil-servants-staff-network-meeting-rules?CMP=share_btn_url

It warned that, under the guidance, network activity may be suspended or ceased if networks do not comply with the new rules.However, the government was cautioned that its decision to brief the new rules to the Telegraph – including a Labour source saying it would stop “nonsense” events – risked the civil service once again feeling under attack.One civil service union source said: “Work to mend the relationship between civil servants and ministers, which deteriorated so badly under the last government, is undone when policy developments are briefed exclusively to media which have a long history of attacking the civil service.“It risks staff feeling under attack at a time when once again they are being asked to do more with less.”Others also warned the government that it must not lead to a lessening of its commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Some of the biggest civil service staff networks are the Race Forum and the LGBT+ network.

Interesting - but when I read the thread title my first thought was the gender critical SEEN network.

Well yes, it will have to be applied fairly to be impartial. I can accept that - SEEN only exists to push back on the overreach of some of the other networks.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses. SEEN was also my first thought. I guess the meetings will now be moved outside of working hours, which will suit me anyway as the nature of my work (and my workload) means I often cannot attend.

It surprised me honestly, when I joined the civil service, that such groups were allowed to meet during working hours. The SEEN meetings are fairly short and infrequent anyway, so it wasn’t too disruptive, but I was pleased when a colleague told me that this year, at least, people had to take time off to attend Pride events. The idea people would be doing that during paid working hours was so obviously unreasonable, though I think it has happened in the past. Maybe someone who has been with the civil service longer can confirm or refute this.

Long overdue for the principle of political impartiality to be enforced for civil servants. Presumably the SEEN networks will be invaluable in highlighting the activities of the toxic anti women / anti safeguarding civil servants who've been able to act with impunity up until now?

I'm in our SEEN network, and we mostly meet late afternoon, and I think most people will have got their hours in by that time in the day.

I had a colleague who was a regional rep for the LGBT+ networks, and it seemed to consume her entire life, to the point that she didn't do much of her day job and left others to pick up the slack. I'd imagine there will be howls of outrage from people like her.

There has been a huge issue with overreach by staff networks in the civil service, and they have been named in some employment tribunals. A gender critical man won his tribunal last year. I can't remember where he worked, Ministry of Defence maybe, but the LGBT staff network was the driving force behind his discrimination.

I especially like this bit "The guidance also provides further clarity for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) networks specifically. Including the need to promote all view points equally, and ensure their role - to promote equality and inclusion in the Civil Service for everyone - is not lost in pursuit of a particular issue".

I think it's aimed at the out of control diversity networks, not the SEEN network. Our SEEN network is more low key than the other ones, but does important work in the background. And everyone is generally respectful and don't slag off people for having different views to them.

*Edited for typos

This is very good:

The guidance also provides further clarity for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) networks specifically. Including the need to promote all view points equally, and ensure their role - to promote equality and inclusion in the Civil Service for everyone - is not lost in pursuit of a particular issue.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/civil-service-staff-networks-to-only-meet-outside-working-hours-and-have-all-events-signed-off-by-senior-managers

There has been a huge issue with overreach by staff networks in the civil service, and they have been named in some employment tribunals. A gender critical man won his tribunal last year. I can't remember where he worked, Ministry of Defence maybe, but the LGBT staff network was the driving force behind his discrimination.

It was Porton Down

https://archive.ph/lh4sq

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/scientist-forced-out-over-gender-beliefs-wins-two-year-legal-battle-g3pz0w25h

I definitely read this as relating to the LGBTQ+ networks who made it impossible for anyone with GC beliefs to 'bring their whole self to work' as my bit of the CS likes to regularly trumpet.

I don't mind if this means SEEN has to be absorbed into the gender network (maybe they could rename it though please?) as part of providing a broader view.

I'm just hopeful that the rainbow tinted specs are off & we can all just get on with our work & go home.

Oh that's interesting. When I last worked in a large corporate environment, it was a career dail not to be involved in loads of networks. Will that change, do you think?

Can the Civil Service really legislate for who staff mix with outside of work?

If civil servants are being asked to do more with less, surely that's all the more reason to stop fannying about with non-essential and partisan activism.

Less time wasting the first ten minutes of every meeting listening to Lucy, Julie and Nicholas share their pronouns and holding events about inclusiveness delivered by Stonewall Corp, more time doing the bloody job you are paid to do.

No, but at least they're wasting their own time and the taxpayer isn't paying for it. It'll be interesting to see whether as many staff bother to attend the meetings on their own time.

The contact I’ve had with SEEN members in my bit has just been chats in our own time. We’re very uncomfortable with bringing any kind of personal politics into work and would rather we hadn’t been forced to.

Interestingly there was an advert for an LGBTQ+ local organiser including allowing time during work hours last week. I will have to have a read of the new advice to see if it complies.

It's being reported on CS Reddit that it's because of pro-Palestinian meetings where the members of the various religious-affiliated groups have been using work time to discuss how to change government policy / frustrate government policies.

Nothing to do with SEEN or LGBTQ type groups at all.

Good grief! That’s outrageous.

So the CSDHH network (Deaf network) will have to be out of hours? That’s a real blow as it was CS wide not each department and was an absolute mine of information.

Which highlights the issue. Once respected informative networks must now operate out of work time because political activists ignored the requirement to be politically neutral and rampaged through the civil service intimidating and bullying everyone who didn't share their niche beliefs. Alongside using their roles to undermine democratically elected politicians.

I'd like them gone from the NHS too
We go to work to do the work not to meet fellow queer people, or other groups, in work time
Yes fair treatment is needed but it's gone too far. I have worked with union stewards, was one myself for a few years but still did my work, and leading members of special interest groups who spend more time on the group/union work than they do working

I’m a civil servant, fairly recent one. I’ve been astonished by the number of times I’ve seen the Civil Service Code breached by D&I internal communications. It’s been toned down the last year or two, but I remember maybe 3 years ago an newsletter email that was sent out to staff in my department with a link to a guide on how to treat trans people. Part of that asserted we must acknowledge that trans women are women.
I think a couple of senior people objected behind the scenes, but as a more junior person you absolutely don’t feel able to challenge anything.
Senior management build in the requirement to get involved in D&I as part of the Talent review process. It’s been suggested to me I don’t do enough ( and actually I couldn’t get any sort of temporary promotion without this box ticked) but I won’t get involved with the Gender Networks as all they do is bang on about how menopause makes women batty and incapable of, or things like miscarriage discussions ( open to all genders..)
I don’t feel comfortable sharing personal medical stories at work.
I volunteer for the anti bullying network, which is ironic because bullying is rife.
There is definitely a set of accepted beliefs that overlay the culture at my work, with the assumption that we all hold the same beliefs.
Personally I think ALL of this stuff should be scrapped, and we should be focusing on making the country work properly and spending tax payers money appropriately. There’s an unbelievable amount of faffing about and senior managers don’t seem to really do anything other than go to meetings and issue patronising emails.
Honestly, I am beyond demoralised. It often feels like being in some kind of parallel universe/ cult.
There IS no real diversity- all the very senior leaders are middle aged white men, the pretty young women who parrot the party line get promoted quickly.
Then you have mid aged curmudgeons like me that actually do the work and are not considered ambitious or dynamic. I’ve run businesses and had quite a life, and yet my 26 year old line manager talks to me as though I’m a bit slow, simply because I’m more junior than she is. Ageism is rampant.
Phew, that was cathartic!
I’m on leave today, keep thinking what other jobs I can do but I have a mortgage to pay and need a secure job.

On The CS Reddit thread I saw there were digs about "the TERF network" as well as Christian and Muslim.