It seems it’s too much to ask government departments to get it right. There are 23 ministerial departments listed on gov.uk. At the time of writing (October 2020), 17 of them were advertising vacancies. Many use the same recruitment system, but several are different. All of them ask for the ‘gender’ of the applicant; not one asks for their sex. Some use the terms female and male, even though those the are the correct terms for sex, but others use man and women, presumably because someone thought those were gender terms and even though they are defined in the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the protected characteristic of sex. Others use the term ‘non-binary’ but provide no definition of it; some allow the applicant to ‘self-describe’ their ‘gender’. None mention the Equality Act 2010 to explain why they are gathering this information. None of them list the protected characteristics or inform the applicant of their rights under the Equality Act. Click on the department name or scroll down. Click on each screenshot to enlarge.
Cabinet Office Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Department for Education Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs Department for International Trade Department for Transport Department for Work & Pensions Department of Health & Social Care
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office HM Treasury Home Office Ministry of Defence Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government Ministry of Justice Northern Ireland Office UK Export Finance
The following departments were not advertising job vacancies at the time of compilation (October 2020):
Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing StreetAttorney General's OfficeOffice of the Advocate General for ScotlandOffice of the Leader of the House of CommonsOffice of the Leader of the House of LordsOffice of the Secretary of State for ScotlandOffice of the Secretary of State for Wales Swyddfa Ysgrifennydd Gwladol Cymru
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