Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many equal pay reviews there have been in her Department since 2010; what the dates were of those reviews; and whether her Department plans to undertake an equal pay review in 2019.

DWP is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and which promote equality of opportunity. As an employer, we are also committed to equality and valuing diversity within our workforce. Our goal is to ensure that these commitments are embedded in our day to day working practices with all our customers, colleagues and partners.

The Department is legally required to consider the impact of our policies and processes on people who share a protected characteristic, and to document our findings in order that we can provide evidence on this if challenged. The Equality Act does not specify a prescribed Equality Analysis process, however, since 2010 we have completed department wide Equal Pay Audits for 2011, 2014 and 2016. These were completed in 2012, 2016 and 2018 retrospectively. A further review is scheduled for 2019.