Taxpayers foot the bill as government spends nearly £3million on controversial research into problems of… pregnant men
- UK Research and Innovation quango is financed by the Department for Business
- Leeds University project ‘Pregnant Men’ given £668,228 of taxpayer cash
- Critics say the funds are being wasted on woke programmes
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.
A total of 13 such schemes, some lasting up to four years, have been uncovered in analysis by The Mail on Sunday.
They are funded by the UK Research and Innovation quango, which is financed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to support academic investigations.
CAN YOU CONCEIVE IT? Model poses as pregnant man
But critics say money is being wasted on woke programmes.
Projects being financed by the taxpayer, which often have jargon-filled names, include:
- 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.
The projects date from 2007 but some of them have continued to run over recent years.
The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng visits the department’s control room in September this year
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 said the process for winning funding was 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.’
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