Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government plans to take to address the gender pay gap in the public sector.

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 came into force on 31 March 2017 and requires specified employers in the public sector to publish their gender pay gap data by 30 March 2018. These regulations work alongside those regulations that apply to employers in the private and voluntary sectors, ensuring that large employers from all sectors will need to publish their data on an annual basis.

The Department for Education was the first Government Department to publish its gender pay gap. The Department is committed to reducing its pay gap and has introduced a range of initiatives to support women in the workplace. More broadly, recently published data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the gender pay gap across the Civil Service has fallen from 13.6% in 2016 to 12.7% in 2017.

We are talking to employers in the public sector to encourage early reporting and to take action to close any gender pay differences identified.