Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many warning notes the Equality and Human Rights Commission sent regarding failure to report gender pay gaps in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020, (e) 2021, (f) 2022 and (g) 2023.

In 2017/18, warning notices regarding failure to report were sent by the Government Equalities Office (GEO), on behalf of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), to 1456 organisations. EHRC also sent warning notices to 100 organisations that they suspected had published inaccurate data.

In 2018/19, the EHRC sent 328 warning notices (300 from the private sector and 28 from the public sector) and sent warning notices to 100 organisations that they suspected had published inaccurate data.

On 24 March 2020, the Government and the Commission announced that enforcement of the Gender Pay Gap Regulations was suspended due to the impact of Covid-19. Therefore no warning notices were issued during the 2019/20 reporting year.

In 2020/21, the EHRC sent 1,369 warning notices (1139 from the private sector and 230 from the public sector).

In 2021/22, the EHRC sent 613 warning notices (547 from the private sector and 66 from the public sector).

In 2022/23, the EHRC sent 732 warning notices (652 from the private sector and 80 from the public sector).

The EHRC has issued no section 21 unlawful act notices to private or voluntary sector employers.

I also provide a link to the Commission’s general enforcement procedure for context: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/2021/legal-work-our-litigation-and-enforcement-policy-2019-2022.pdf