Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total pay bill was for (a) male and (b) female employees in his Department in 2015-16; and what the per capita spend from that pay bill for each man and woman was in that year.

The total pay bill for (a) male and (b) female employees in my Department in 2015-16 and the per capita spend from that pay bill for each man and woman in that year is shown in the table below:

In October 2015, the Prime Minister announced that new gender pay gap reporting measures being introduced across the private and voluntary sector from April 2017 would be extended to also apply across the public sector. We are actively working to ensure the gender pay gap data we report in future fully mirrors these new requirements.

The new gender pay gap reporting measures being introduced across the public, private and voluntary sectors from April 2017 will require departments to publish a number of new forms of data, aside from the mean and median gender pay gap which they currently report.

The Civil Service has a comprehensive plan to become the most inclusive employer in the UK. This is called the Talent Action Plan and was refreshed in March 2016. The plan commits the Civil Service to a number of actions with the aim of removing barriers faced by underrepresented groups, including women, from succeeding. The plan sets out the ambition under key themes which includes recruitment and selection, talent and progression, inclusive culture and social mobility.

As part of the Talent Action Plan the commitments we are taking forward include a critical talent review. We have already introduced shared parental leave across the Civil Service and a new online job share portal to help people identify job share opportunities across the organisation. We have also reviewed our approach to maternity leave and returning to work.