The Government has spent more than £3 million on controversial transgender research including projects charting the experience of pregnant men and the fate of trans people in Lebanon.
The Mail on Sunday has found 13 of these schemes. Some can last up to 4 years.
These grants are provided by UK Research and Innovation, which is funded by Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Is it possible to have it? Photographer poses with a pregnant woman
Critics say that money is being spent on woke programs.
The taxpayer funds many projects, often with jargon-filled names.
- A four-year-project run by Leeds University entitled Pregnant Men: An International Exploration Of Trans Male Experiences And Practices Of Reproduction, which was given £668,224 of taxpayers’ money;
- An £80,000 Exeter University study entitled Transgender Citizenship In Lebanon and subtitled Navigating Socio-Legal And Medical Constructions Of Gender In Lebanon’s Judicial Order And Healthcare System’;
- A King’s College London project called Reforming Legal Gender Identity: A Socio-Legal Evaluation, which has been handed £579,000 of Government cash over four years to look into issues such as birth certificates allowing more than two gender options or letting people to choose their own legal gender;
- Transgender Romantic Relationships at Nottingham University, given about £80,000.
Although the projects are older than 2007, some have been running over time.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Secretary of State, visited the department’s control rooms in September.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers expect money to go towards groundbreaking projects and innovative technologies, but not to be wasted on righteous research.
‘The current system rightly scrutinises projects throughout the application process, but lacks effective measures to judge value for money on those that have already been funded.’
UK Research and Innovation claimed that funding is highly competitive.
A spokesman added: ‘The decision to fund these research projects on transgender questions and issues was made via a rigorous peer-review process based on excellence by relevant independent experts from academia and business.’