Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what assessment she has made of the implications of the analysis by the Office for National Statistics of time use data, published on 10 November 2016, on the Government's work to tackle the gender pay gap; and if she will make a statement.

I have considered the analysis undertaken by the Office for National Statistics. The report demonstrates that women carry out an overall average of 60% more unpaid work than men. On average men do 16 hours per week of such unpaid work, which includes adult care and child care, laundry and cleaning, to the 26 hours of unpaid work done by women per week.

This has relevance to our efforts to close the gender pay gap as this may be one of the factors that affects the number of hours that women work which in turn affects the gender pay gap. I am pleased to confirm that the draft regulations, requiring large employers to publish details of their gender pay gap, were laid in the house on Tuesday.