Date: 17 November 2021
Disclosure:
1. Does the Bank of England have any employee policies in respect of transgender employees - such as a transgender policy, transitioning at work policy or other policies relating to transgender people in the workplace? If so, please provide a copy of each policy.
For clarity, I will refer to these collectively as 'transgender policies' in further questions.
2. Did the Bank of England consult with its employee networks when formulating transgender policies? Specifically did you consult:
i) The Women in the Bank (WIB) network
ii) The LGBT+ and Allies network
iii) Any religion-based network - e.g. Muslim network, Jewish network, Christian network
iv) Any other employee networks
If any of the above networks were consulted about transgender policies, please provide a copy of any written representations made by them, or the minutes of any meetings where they were consulted on this topic.
The Bank of England (the ‘Bank’) has two policies to support transgender employees - Transitioning at Work Policy and Trans Equality Policy.
The Bank’s People and Culture Directorate worked with the Bank’s LGBT+ and Allies Network on drafting these policies. Prior to being finalised, the policies were shared with the Bank’s Women in the Bank Network who were supportive.
3. Did any external organisations or individuals provide advice, guidance or other input to transgender policies? If so, please provide names of those organisations or individuals, and detail how much they were paid by the Bank of England if they were remunerated for this.
As part of our Stonewall Diversity Champion membership (£3,000 for the year to 28 April 2022), we were able to seek advice from Stonewall on our transgender policies at no additional charge. While the Bank consults with various stakeholders and advisors, it acts independently regarding decisions on its People and Culture policies.
4. When formulating transgender policies, did the Bank of England consider the potential impact of those policies on:
i) Female staff who have been sexually abused
ii) Staff whose faith or culture would prohibit them sharing toilet and changing facilities with people of the opposite sex
iii) Staff of either sex who prefer to use single sex toilets and changing facilities
Please provide a copy of any impact assessment, minutes of discussion, or other document which sets out consideration of these potential impacts.
The Bank worked with its employee networks as explained above to produce the policies.