Key information
Request reference number: MGLA150321-8371
Date of response:
Summary of request
You requested:
On Saturday 13th March 2021, the following was tweeted from the Mayor’s
official Twitter account:
"There's no good reason why 65% of people working in science and engineering should
be white men. Inequality costs people's futures & the economy billions. We’re working
on fixing it. So far we've helped 10,000 young Londoners learn these subjects so they
can follow their dreams."
Please can you detail all the steps, including the departments involved, which were taken
prior to the tweet being sent to check that the content of this tweet is in compliance with
the Equality Act 2010, including the Public Sector Equality Duty (the Equality Duty) as
created by that Act.
Please can you also provide copies of all internal correspondence (including emails)
which relate to the publishing of this tweet and to demonstrate the checks that were
made in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.
Our response is below:
Equality considerations are a key and extensive part of the policy making process at City Hall. Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy details how we address the inequalities, barriers and discrimination experienced by groups protected by the Equality Act 2010 and goes beyond these legal duties to address wider issues such as poverty and socio-economic inequality. Our programmes are continuously monitored against these objectives to ensure they do not unwittingly contribute to any unlawful discrimination or victimisation.
The statistic about how 65% of the STEM workforce are White men is taken from a recent
cross-parliamentary report. It shows that there is an over-representation of White men within the STEM sector when compared to the UK's general population.
The last census was in 2011. From this data we can calculate that White men made up 42.7% of the UK’s population. This would make 65% an over-representation of White men within the STEM sector when compared to the UK's general population. It suggests there are advantages for White men, and/or disadvantages for other ethnic groups and women, in terms of accessing employment in the STEM sector, and this is supported by a weight of research.
The Equality Act 2010 compels us to address such inequality and the Public Sector Equality Duty requires us to advance equality of opportunity.
On 11 March 2021 the Mayor’s Press Office issued a press release titled Mayor's science scheme inspiring 10,000 young Londoners on the occasion of the programme milestone of reaching 10,000 students. The Press team prepared the press release with the Education and Youth policy team. To promote the press release on social media, the Digital Communications team drafted posts which linked to its full text.
The wording was based on the press release and checked with the Press Office, considering the Equality strategy described above.
Standard sign off processes were followed. The post you enquired about was published on 13 March 2021 on the Mayor of London Twitter channel by a Digital Communications Officer.
We did not locate any correspondence (including emails) relating to the publishing of the post.
Our usual processes assume that signed off posts are published without further consultation, unless issues of technical nature arise.
If you have any further questions relating to this matter, please contact me, quoting the
reference MGLA150321-8371.