Transparency data

BEIS: gender pay gap report, 2020 (HTML)

Published 15 December 2020

Foreword from the Permanent Secretary

This report sets out our gender pay gap and what we are doing to close it. Diversity and inclusion are critical values for us. They make us a better Department - a better employer, that makes better and more innovative decisions, and can better protect the economic prosperity of the UK. Addressing the gender pay gap, in particular by ensuring greater representation of women at senior levels, is a very important part of this journey.

Over the past few years, we have taken concerted action to tackle the gender pay gap within the department and this has helped reduce the gender pay gap significantly from the point the department was created. However, this year’s figures show a small increase from 2019. I am proud of how BEIS colleagues have worked to support each other with kindness, compassion, and flexibility during the unprecedented year we have had, and see the results in that context.

Looking ahead, we are committed to ensuring the progress we have made since 2017 does not reverse. This year we launched our refreshed Diversity and Inclusion Strategy. This focuses not only on who we are (which is often what we see directly reflected in “the stats”), but also how we behave and how we ensure all our people feel valued and supported. We introduced new measures this year, including the use of software which enables us to produce job adverts that attract more diverse candidates and avoid gendered language, independent panel member training to tackle unconscious bias and promote diverse thought, and the use of specialist recruitment channels to promote our flexible working opportunities and inclusive working culture. In 2021 we will monitor the impact of these steps and ensure that these measures are delivering the results we expect.

Our pay gap is caused by women being more represented at lower grades, and less represented at higher grades. I am pleased that women make up 47% of our Senior Civil Service, but we know that there is still more to do. Data will play a key role in our approach, particularly in terms of recruitment and talent data analysis, to help us improve our gender balance in our talent pipeline. We know that what happens at the team level is vital in ensuring that everyone in BEIS has what they need to make diversity and inclusion work, so we will measure and regularly review representation of women in different parts of the organisation and support teams with local action plans. We will also offer support and development opportunities for women through sponsorship and mentoring, and we will work closely with our Women Empowered Network, ensuring that they are involved in influencing the department’s decision-making.

I am committed to ensuring that BEIS continues to support women to achieve their potential so that we can capitalise on our diverse talent and represent the communities we serve. This will support our vision of building a stronger, greener future for the UK, and continuing to make BEIS a great place to work.

Sarah Munby, Permanent Secretary

Introduction

The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has prepared this report as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish their gender pay gap on an annual basis.

In 2017, the government introduced world-leading legislation that made it statutory for organisations with 250 or more employees to report annually on their gender pay gap. Government departments are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 which came into force on 31 March 2017.

These regulations underpin the Public Sector Equality Duty and require relevant organisations to publish their gender pay gap by 30 March annually. This includes the mean and median gender pay gaps; the mean and median gender bonus gaps; the proportion of men and women who received bonuses; and the proportions of men and women employees in each pay quartile.

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate there may be several issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs, or work of equal value.

It is unlawful to pay people unequally because they are a man or a woman. BEIS supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. The Civil Service, including BEIS, wants to create a diverse and representative workplace, supporting an inclusive, flexible, modern, and connected Civil Service. Encouraging openness, challenge, innovation, and excellence, in everything we do.

This report fulfils the department’s reporting requirements, analyses the figures in more detail and sets out what we are doing to close the gender pay gap in the organisation.

2020 headline figures

This is the fourth year BEIS have published gender pay gap figures. For context, we have therefore included the figures from previous years (2017, 2018 and 2019) in our analysis (the full data is set out in annexes A and B). Please note when comparing to previous years, this is the second year we have presented the data to a decimal point to bring us in line with other government departments.

The headline 2020 gender pay gap figures (for BEIS including executive agencies) show a mean gender pay gap of 10.2% and a median gender pay gap of 10.7%.

Gender Pay Gap	2017	2018	2019	2020
Mean gender pay gap	12%	11%	10.1%	10.2%
Median gender pay gap	15%	14%	10.2%	10.7%

For core BEIS, so excluding executive agencies, the headline 2020 gender pay gap figures show a mean gender pay gap of 5.9%, and the median gender pay gap of 13.5%.

Gender Pay Gap	2017	2018	2019	2020
Mean gender pay gap	9%	5%	5.5%	5.9%
Median gender pay gap	15%	13%	12.7%	13.5%

Disappointingly the gap has marginally widened within BEIS for 2020 due to changes in the composition of the Department’s workforce. Comparing the gender make-up of the department in 2019 to 2020, we can see an increase in women at AO and EO grades, whereas the proportion of women in grades HEO and above has decreased.

The figures show that of those employed across BEIS, 51% of men are at Grade 7 or above, compared to 45% of women. As the gender pay gap calculations look at the total workforce, the departmental pay gap in BEIS can be attributed to an uneven split of men and women by grade – with more men occupying higher grades.

The data - BEIS and the executive agencies

The gender pay gap regulations require BEIS to include its 5 executive agencies in the published figures as they are not separate legal entities. The data published on GOV.UK therefore includes:

• core BEIS
• Companies House
• The Insolvency Service
• Intellectual Property Office
• Met Office
• UK Space Agency.

This year, the data collection and publication process for the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ASCES) is being aligned to accommodate GEO regulations and methodology for gender pay gap reporting.

This report provides our gender pay gap, using the Government Equalities Office methodology, on the snapshot date of 31 March 2020. For bonuses, we used the period of 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, which was the 12 months preceding the snapshot date.

Gender pay gap

The gender pay gap for BEIS (including executive agencies) for 2020 is:

Mean pay gap of 10.2%

Median pay gap of 10.7%

Bonus pay

The gender bonus gap for BEIS (including executive agencies) for 2020 is:

Mean bonus gap of 12.9%

Median bonus gap of 15.8%

These figures have fluctuated over the last four reporting years but are in line with previous years.

Proportion of men and women who received a bonus

Male	87.5%
Female	86.2%

There has been a year on year increase since first reporting in 2017.

As demonstrated by the table below, the pay gap seems to be driven by an uneven gender split by grade. There are more men in higher grades and more women in lower grades.

2020 Gender make up of the Department (BEIS and executive agencies)

Grade	Number of men (% of men who work in this grade)	Number of women (% of women who work in this grade)	% of grade that are men	% of grade that are women
AA/AO	472 (8.5%)	895 (17.4%)	34.5%	65.5%
EO	625(11.2%)	812 (15.8%)	43.5%	56.5%
HEO/SEO/FS	2527(45.3%)	2038 (39.7%)	55.4%	44.6%
G6/7	1782(31.9%)	1245 (24.2%)	58.9%	41.1%
SCS	177(3.2%)	138(2.7%)	56.2%	43.8%
Total	5582(52.1%)	5129 (47.9%)	52.1%	47.9%

The data - core BEIS

Gender pay gap

The gender pay gap for core BEIS (excluding the executive agencies) is:

Mean pay gap of 5.9%

Median pay gap of 13.5%

As in previous years, the pay gap seems to be driven by an uneven gender split by grade, with more women occupying roles in lower grades, and more men occupying roles in higher grades (see table below). The differences have widened in 2020, leading to a widening of the gender pay gap.

2020 Gender make-up of the department (core BEIS)

Grade	Number of men (% of men who work in this grade)	Number of women (% of women who work in this grade)	% of grade that are men	% of grade that are women
AA/AO	39 (1.7%)	54 (2.6%)	41.9%	58.1%
EO	161 (7.2%)	238 (11.6%)	40.4%	59.6%
HEO/SEO/FS	901 (40.2%)	836 (40.9%)	51.9%	48.1%
G6/7	1008 (44.9%)	807 (39.5%)	55.5%	44.5%
SCS	134 (6%)	110 (5.4%)	54.9%	45.1%
Total	2243 (52.3%)	2045 (47.7%)	52.3%	47.7%

Organisational context

BEIS is committed to developing and embedding a truly inclusive culture where Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) are a core part of all decision making, policy creation and delivery, and the Department’s working environment. This will help us to deliver policies for UK businesses with an understanding of and focus on real-world outcomes which create an economy for everyone.

This will also help us to develop and retain a diverse and talented workforce, improving overall outcomes by maximising diversity, which will be reflected in the thoughts and actions of those working in BEIS. Our ambition is to become a role model for business and the Civil Service; taking individual and collective action to ensure effective outcomes for everyone in the UK and make BEIS a great place to work.

Closing the gender pay gap

Our processes: recruiting, retaining, and developing a diverse workforce

At BEIS, we abide by the recruitment principles of fair and open competition with candidate’s selection based on merit and with accountability to the Civil Service Commission. To ensure fairness we use the following methods:

• mandatory mixed gender sifts and interview panels
• blind sifting: where all identifiable characteristics are removed
• use of specialist recruitment channels, such as VERCIDA, to advertise jobs at all levels and encourage a diverse pool of applicants. In 2020 we have posted 130 job adverts with 47 applicants applying from this website
• a subscription with Working Mums, a jobs board that advertises part time and flexible working for parents, with a focus on mothers; our subscription includes a profile page about BEIS and positive advertisement of our flexible working policies. In 2019-2020 we have advertised 83 jobs, with 392 applications from the website
• a profile established on the Civil Service careers website that was checked for gender neutral tones and representation
• continued use of success profiles in our recruitment processes, which is based on a flexible framework to assess candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods. Moving away from a purely competency-based system of assessment, success profiles aim to increase the opportunity of finding the right person for the job, driving up performance and improving diversity and inclusion. We have trained numerous staff at BEIS to use success profiles effectively in the recruitment process to deliver these aims
• holding focus groups and workshops investigating how we can embed D&I strategies throughout out recruitment processes
• advertise all jobs as available for flexible working, full-time, job share or part time unless this is a very strong business case not to
• we have acquired a contract with Textio; an augmented advert writing tool that helps people write inclusive job adverts. Textio suggests changes to get a more qualified and diverse candidate pool with a focus on increasing gender-neutral language in adverts. Textio scores adverts out of 100 and we are aiming for all our adverts to be at least 90 or above. As of April 2020, we have 561 users and have had 1,287 job ads written and edited on textio
• we have rolled out Independent panel member training to increase understanding and awareness of the role of the independent panel members at interviews. This involves understanding unconscious bias and promoting diverse thought and opinion to ensure inclusion is embedded at the interview stage
• we work closely with the D&I team to ensure our processes and guidance are constantly reviewed and aligned with emerging policies such as the race action plan and other diversity projects

Performance management

The performance management policy and process emphasise the importance of quality conversations between staff and their managers with a focus on development. Diversity and inclusion remain a key priority for the Department and throughout 2019/20 we have monitored performance outcomes and the distribution of reward to ensure diversity considerations are accounted for. It has been just over 2 years since BEIS launched its performance management system in April 2018 and the feedback it has received has been positive.

Now that the system has been embedded, we are undertaking an internal review to ensure that benefits of our performance management approach are fully realised and we embed a culture of continuous policy improvement.

Our focus for 2020/21 will be:

• to analyse our data and feedback following the performance management review and produce a report and action plan based on the findings
• to continue work to improve diversity outcomes and tackle any disparities identified for individuals with protected characteristics

Flexible working

BEIS offers family friendly policies including flexible working, maternity, paternity and parental leave. We also offer job share, term-time and part time working, reduced hours and compressed hours opportunities.

Shared parental leave

The BEIS Shared parental leave policy provides parents with the opportunity to share the care of their baby/child in the first year following birth/adoption, while balancing their work and retaining their link to the labour market. Take up of Shared parental leave has been positive, with an increase in 2020.

Shared Parental leave take up in BEIS (number of cases)
2017	25
2018	36
2019	31
2020	35

Learning, development and talent

Learning and development

The Department’s Women Empowered Network offers peer support and developmental opportunities to equip their members with the skills and knowledge they need to reach the levels to which they aspire, to improve the pipeline to all grades and to empower members to take learning and development into their own hands.

BEIS offers a range of cross-government talent and positive action schemes, including Crossing Thresholds, a 12-month career mentoring programme for women to develop their career in a structured and supportive environment. The programme is aimed at AO-G6 staff and is delivered through facilitated modules, mentoring sessions, and peer support groups. BEIS has supported Positive Action Pathways, a scheme for those in under-represented groups, including women. The one-year programme comprises development workshops, action learning sets, and on-the-job learning. PAP is at the time of writing under review and intake has paused.

All talent programmes are promoted through the Department’s diversity networks, including the BEIS Women Empowered Network’s, to encourage those from under-represented groups to apply. All talent programmes aim to overcome barriers and help women and others compete on equal footing for progression or other Civil Service talent schemes.

Our learning offer has adapted to the changes imposed by COVID-19 and we feel that has meant greater accessibility and increased opportunities for those with caring responsibilities. Many learning programmes are now broken into shorter, more frequent sessions; all are delivered virtually, some are recorded, and many are accompanied by online resources that can be used at any time. Altogether they give a flexibility that is of value to those for whom travelling into work for training that began early in the morning and finished late afternoon meant attendance was difficult.

Finally, our learning offer includes coaching, a hugely effective, motivational, and supportive intervention available through Civil Service Learning to every individual.

We also have a range of one-to-one opportunities, including:

• mentoring, matching of individuals with experts and role models
• reverse mentoring in which a person from an underrepresented group or background mentors a senior civil servant.
• we also have an opportunity for EOs-G7 in Pairing for Performance, which provides SCS with tailored, high-quality feedback from EOs-G7 on how our SCS act and present themselves

Diversity and inclusion

Our inclusive culture

BEIS aims to embed D&I into all our key decisions on policy, procedure, and process. BEIS’s vision is to capitalise on difference to solve some of the most important and complex policy challenges facing the country, business, and the environment. We believe diversity and inclusion are the right thing to do, and that they make us a more innovative and welcoming Department which is a better employer, makes better decisions, and can better protect the economic prosperity of the UK.

Earlier this year BEIS launched its new Diversity & Inclusion Strategy, which focuses on ensuring that we are diverse in our identity and thought, that we are inclusive of difference, and that we are capitalising on difference in our work. This will include making sure that our internal processes are as inclusive as possible, and that different parts of BEIS have the tools to make D&I work in the context of their areas. For example, we have already launched a Workplace Empathy Development Programme to help define inclusive behaviours in teams and foster a culture where it is safe to challenge.

We continue to utilise and monitor the initiatives introduced in 2019 to make our recruitment processes more inclusive. This includes Textio, a piece of software analysing job adverts, and continuing to build on our Diverse Panels initiative to ensure interviews are more inclusive and representative. We also have an SCS Sponsorship Scheme in place to support women, BAME and disabled G6/7 staff who aspire to become part of the Senior Civil Service.

We will continue to monitor progress and the impact of initiatives against our representation targets and data. Each Director General Group will also monitor progress against their own localised representation goals and action plans.

Working with our Diversity Networks

BEIS Diversity Networks also continue to play an important role in supporting our D&I activity across the Department. Since the Department’s formation, the networks have shared the desire to celebrate difference and to improve the working lives of our people. BEIS Diversity Networks are actively consulted about policies and processes within the department before they are introduced. We have an active Women Empowered Network which aims to empower, inspire, and connect women across the Department and partner agencies to achieve an inclusive and fair workplace culture.

Conclusion

Next steps

The Department will continue to assess progress on the initiatives in place and will:

• monitor and review the use of Textio in internal and external recruitment, conducting analysis on the impact on underrepresented groups
• monitor representation data against our internal targets on a quarterly basis
• understand the impact of the SCS sponsorship on women, BAME and disabled G6/7 staff who aspire to become part of the Senior Civil Service and continue to support D&I initiatives
• monitor outcomes of performance management and develop an action plan to address the outcomes of the policy review

Holding ourselves to account

Working alongside HR colleagues and the wider business we will continue to analyse salary, D&I, talent, and recruitment data, monitoring the progression and acknowledging any trends to help reduce the gender pay gap in BEIS.

Through D&I scorecards, each Director General Group has set local goals and actions, keeping themselves and their team accountable and focused on their personalised objectives whilst keeping in mind the wider D&I work happening in BEIS. These are reviewed on an annual basis, allowing groups to reflect, evaluate and adapt their goals, alongside the wider business.

The Department will act where possible to address the widening of the gap through pay policy and decisions. Analysis has shown that recent pay awards (below SCS) have not contributed to the widening of the gender pay gap, however we will continue to assess the impact of pay awards and other departmental pay actions (such as starting salaries) on the Gender Pay Gap.

We will consider in more detail the effect of specialist pay groupings on the gender pay gap, where a premium is paid for certain skill and challenge areas where recruitment is male dominated, ensuring we provide support for the recruitment and attraction of more diverse field of candidates.

At the top of the organisation, we will work towards a gender balance at the highest paid roles and take action to address any pay anomalies through the Senior Civil Service pay award.

We believe the above actions will help BEIS to reduce the gender pay gap.

Declaration

We confirm that data reported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is accurate and has been calculated according to the requirements and methodology set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.

Chief Operating Officer Corporate Services: Doug Watkins

BEIS Permanent Secretary: Sarah Munby

Annex A – BEIS group figures (including executive agencies)

Gender pay gap (in favour of men)

Pay gap / Bonus gap	2017	2018	2019	2020
Mean gender pay gap	12%	11%	10.1%	10.2%
Median gender pay gap	15%	14%	10.2%	10.7%
Mean bonus gender pay gap	12%	15%	12.7%	12.9%
Median bonus gender pay gap	15%	27%	17.9%	15.8%

The proportion of men and women employees paid a bonus

Employees	2017	2018	2019	2020
Men	80%	83%	83.4%	87.5%
Women	76%	84%	83.7%	86.2%

Proportion of men and women employees in each quartile BEIS group figures (including executive agencies)

Quartile	2017		2018		2019		2020
	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men
Lower quartile	60%	40%	47%	53%	60%	40%	61%	39%
Lower middle quartile	46%	54%	59%	41%	47%	53%	47%	53%
Upper middle quartile	40%	60%	37%	63%	39%	61%	41%	59%
Upper quartile	39%	61%	40%	60%	41%	59%	40%	60%

Annex B – core BEIS figures (excluding executive agencies)

Pay gap / Bonus gap	2017	2018	2019	2020
Mean gender pay gap	9%	5%	5.5%	5.9%
Median gender pay gap	15%	13%	12.7%	13.5%
Mean bonus gender pay gap	3%	1%	2.7%	6.5%
Median bonus gender pay gap	0%	-5%	-2.5%	7.7%

The proportion of men and women employees paid a bonus

Employees	2017	2018	2019	2020
Men	71%	73%	73.0%	86.7%
Women	71%	77%	73.8%	85.9%

Proportion of men and women employees in each quartile CORE BEIS figures (excluding executive agencies)

Quartile	2017		2018		2019		2020
	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men
Lower quartile	58%	42%	54%	46%	54%	46%	53%	47%
Lower middle quartile	48%	52%	43%	57%	47%	53%	50%	50%
Upper middle quartile	44%	56%	44%	56%	47%	53%	44%	56%
Upper quartile	42%	58%	45%	55%	43%	57%	43%	57%