Equality and diversity

Find out how the Forestry Commission meets legal obligations, promoting equality and diversity in the workforce and ensuring that forests are accessible.

Our continued success, as an employer and a provider of first-class services to the public, depends on our track record on equality, diversity and inclusion. This is why we are proud to work alongside external partners to ensure we can embed best practice.

We strive to ensure that every member of our workforce feels included so that we can benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience that our diverse staff can share. We know that decisions are better and mistakes are less when a diverse group of people work together. We champion that within our organisation.

Our forests only work for our visitors if they are accessible. We continually work with our visitors, our volunteers, staff and groups to ensure that we deliver the very best service to as wide a community as possible. We actively work with hard-to-reach groups and seek to understand what prevents them from taking advantage of our beautiful forests. Our journey is ongoing, but we’re proud of how far we have come.

The Forestry Commission is a public body with responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.

The Act requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:

  • eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010
  • advance equality of opportunity between people from different groups
  • foster good relations between people from different groups

Our annual monitoring reports and our equality objectives show how we fulfil, and intend to fulfil, our legal obligations. Read the latest Annual Equality Monitoring Report (2023 to 2024).

Previous year’s figures are also available:

Gender pay gap reporting

The Act also requires us to publish an annual gender pay gap report. Therefore, we have published our Forestry Commission gender pay gap report 2022-2023.

This report sets out our headline gender pay figures, the reasons why we have a gender pay gap and what we are doing to address it moving forwards.

The previous year’s figures are also available:

If you would like any further information please email diversity@forestryengland.uk.

Strategy and objectives

Equality Impact Assessment and consultation

An Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) is a way of understanding the impact of changes that may affect our workforce or members of the public.

By completing EIAs we can ensure we:

  • are able to deliver a first class service that meets the needs of our customers
  • are aware of and understand the communities we serve
  • encourage new customers from diverse backgrounds to use our services
  • meet the aims of the General Duties of the Equality Act 2010

We know it’s important to talk to people who do, or might, use our services to deliver the best and most inclusive services that we can.

Our equality impact assessment guidance – Equality and Diversity (Equality Impact Assessment) OGB 44 (PDF, 562 KB, 23 pages).

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