Mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting for public sector employers

19 August 2016

The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has published a consultation which seeks views on introducing mandatory gender pay gap reporting for large public sector employers in England.

Mandatory gender pay gap reporting for larger private and voluntary sector organisations in England, Scotland and Wales is already being introduced and subject to the approval of Parliament, the regulations will come into force on 1 October 2016, although employers will not be expected to publish the required information until 18 months after commencement and then annually thereafter.

The government are now delivering their commitment to extend the same mandatory reporting regime for large public sector employers during 2016-17. This consultation sets out the current context for public sector organisations in England and what changes are intended.

Geographical extent – this consultation applies to public sector organisations in England with 250 employees or more. The GEO are also consulting the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Ministers in the Devolved Administrations, in line with the requirements in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the public sector equality duty).

The consultation does not seek detailed comments on each individual measure as the government wish to work as closely as possible to the model that has already been developed for the private and voluntary sectors. Comments are asked for on the overall approach and whether there are particular issues which affect public sector employers.

The GEO has published an online survey which will run until 30 Sep 2016.