The Home Office is continuing its push toward compulsory pronouns for Civil Servants. In a new email sent today to all customer services staff – including in Asylum and Protection, UK Visas and Immigration, and the HM Passport Office – civil servants are once again being told to add their preferred pronouns to their email signatures as an “important step towards inclusivity in the workplace“. Along with a helpful guide on how to do it…

Back in April, the Free Speech Union wrote to Home Office Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft to express concerns that the department was compelling staff in Visa, Status and Information Services to also add mandatory pronouns to their email signatures. They claimed it was a violation of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the right to free speech (Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights). At the time a Home Office press officer contacted Guido to deny – in the face of evidence – the pronoun push was a mandatory instruction, merely a recommendation. This renewed agitation suggests it wasn’t the voluntary exercise they claimed…