Mick Hartley

Here we go again:

The Environment Agency has stripped the words mother and father from its staff policies in an attempt to ensure they are “non-gendered”.

Bosses at the quango showed off their inclusive credentials when applying for a scheme for top UK employers run by the LGBT lobby group Stonewall.

In the application, seen by The Times, it said it had swapped mother and father with “primary carer” in its maternity, paternity and shared parental leave policies, making them gender-neutral.

For access to its buildings, it said that workers could request “more than one passcard … in order to be able to express different identities on different days”.

The Environment Agency also confirmed that it questioned potential suppliers and contractors about their policies on “homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying and harassment”.

All of its directors had completed “unconscious bias training” and attended refreshers on a regular basis, the application stated.

The Environment Agency applied for the Stonewall annual top 100 employers list in 2020 and 2022, a freedom of information request revealed.

The lobby group’s list enables employers across the public and private sector to show how progressive and inclusive their workplace is.

Our rivers and lakes are full of sewage pumped in by the greedy and useless water companies, but never mind: as long as they have sound policies on “homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying and harassment” we can rest assured the Environment Agency will be happy.