Brit Town Halls grilling families with intrusive 'sex lives' questionnaires

London, July 18 (ANI): Millions of families in Britain are being routinely grilled by town halls with intrusive 'diversity' questionnaires asking about their private lives, including sexual orientation, disabilities, religion ethnicity and employment.

Questionnaires are often sent out unsolicited after someone contacts the council with a complaint or for advice.

Questions include whether householders are bisexual, gay, lesbian or straight, whether they have a long-term illness or disability and how this affects them, and their ethnicity. Other sections gather information on employment status and age, the Daily Mail reports.

They are despatched by councils under a requirement to 'promote and ensure' diversity under the Equality Act 2010, which was brought in by the last Labour government and consolidated numerous legislation including the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Yet there is considerable confusion over whether the gathering of such information is a legal requirement.

Some councils believe it is, yet others said they did not send out the forms.

The paper contacted 30 local authorities and had responses from 14.

Out of which, 12 said they used the forms to gather information on residents, including Labour-run Luton borough council, Tory-led Southend council and Tower Hamlets council in London, which has an independent elected mayor.

Helen Eales, leader of the Tory-run council, admitted the forms were 'intrusive' and served 'no practical use whatsoever'.

"The rules state we have to demonstrate that we are being fair to everyone. But I fail to see how knowing that a transsexual called us about their wheelie bin would help us in any way," she said. (ANI)

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