Environment Agency: pay gap 2024
Updated 25 March 2025
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Foreword
The Environment Agency exists to make the environment better, and help society adapt to environmental challenges by improving and protecting the quality of our air, land, and water as well as the communities we serve. We work together with local, national, and global partners. We strive to make the right decisions today, for the people, wildlife, and environment of tomorrow.
Through our People Strategy we aim to place equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) at the heart of all we do. We are committed to becoming a genuinely inclusive organisation which reflects the diversity of the communities we serve.
Our colleagues have told us what they love about working here:
- the ability to transform places and people’s lives
- the stability of our employment
- our sense of purpose and connection at work
- our aspiration to be a life enhancing organisation where our people can feel confident bringing their best self to work
Our equality, diversity and inclusion strategy aligns with the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Roadmap 2024 to 2026. This includes our ambition to eliminate all our pay gaps. We are accountable and open to challenge and scrutiny. Our reporting goes beyond just gender equality as required by legislation. We also report our ethnicity, disability, faith and belief and sexual orientation pay gaps.
In 2024, the mean gender pay gap has increased very slightly from -0.3% in 2023 to -0.4% in 2024 in favour of women. This is very good compared to other organisations. There has been no change in the disability pay gap, which remains at 1.3%. The 2024 faith and belief pay gap is -2.7%, favouring those who declared a faith or belief. The ethnicity pay gap has increased from 3.9% in 2023 to 5.1% in 2024 and the sexual orientation pay gap increased from 7.6% in 2023 to 8.5% in 2024.
Whilst our pay gaps are generally lower than other organisations of similar sizes which is good, that gives us no cause for complacency. We are disappointed by the increase in some of our pay gaps, particularly for ethnicity and sexual orientation. We will continue to try to better understand what drives this increase. As part of our wider commitment to fairness and equity for all our staff, we are working to:
- understand and address reasons for the pay gaps
- actively close them and introducing an extra challenge point to ensure inclusive outcomes of bonuses
An integral part of this is our People Strategy, which was published in August of 2024 and strengthens our commitment to embedding EDI into how we work, our employee lifecycle and our corporate decision making.
Alan Lovell – Chair
Philip Duffy – Chief Executive
Introduction
The Environment Agency employed 13,375 people as of 31 March 2024. In addition to our statutory obligation to report on gender, the Environment Agency also publishes pay gaps on:
- disability
- ethnicity
- faith and belief
- sexual orientation
You can read more information about our workforce diversity in our equality statement.
Understanding the key definitions of a pay gap
A pay gap is the difference between the average pay of one group of people compared to another in the organisation. A pay gap is different to equal pay, which is about the difference in the actual earnings between groups doing equal work or work of equal value.
This report measures full pay relevant employee pay gaps and does not include employees on reduced or nil pay. For example, employees on parental leave or sick leave receiving half pay are excluded from the analysis. Throughout this report, references to employees includes full-pay relevant employees only.
13,079 full pay relevant employees were included in this report; this includes part-time employees on full pay, as the report relates to hourly pay and not contracted hours.
To help you understand this report, here are some definitions relating to pay gap.
Ordinary hourly rate
The ordinary hourly rate includes:
- basic pay
- allowances
- shift premium pay
It does not include:
- employees on maternity leave, long term sick leave, or other types of reduced pay
- overtime
The calculation for the ordinary hourly rate uses contractual weekly hours. This compares employees’ hourly pay, regardless of whether they work full-time or part-time.
This pay gap report includes information on the:
- mean and median ordinary pay gaps
- mean and median bonus gaps
- proportion of employees who received bonuses
- hourly pay quartiles of employees for each of the diversity characteristics
Mean and median hourly pay gaps
The mean or average pay gap is the difference between the mean hourly rate of full-pay relevant employees from a select characteristic (for example, women) and that of full-pay relevant employees who do not have that characteristic (for example, men). This would be the opposite group across the whole organisation, and does not consider grade, department, or type of role.
The median is the middle value if all hourly pay values were ordered from lowest to highest. The median, (or middle point) pay gap is the difference between the median hourly rate of pay of full-pay relevant employees (for example, women) and that of full-pay relevant employees (for example, men). This would be the opposite group across the whole organisation and does not consider grade or department.
Note that a positive pay gap means that the pay gap is in favour of those who do not have that diversity characteristic. A negative pay gap means that the pay gap is in favour of those who do have a specific diversity characteristic.
Mean and median bonus gaps
Bonuses refer to one-off payments to reward performance that is paid as either:
- part of the annual pay award as a proportion of basic pay or
- throughout the year as cash or gift vouchers
In the Environment Agency this includes local recognition awards and unconsolidated pay awards.
It is important to note some bonus payments such as end of year performance awards are pro-rated for part time workers which can influence bonus pay gaps.
The mean (or average) bonus value is found by adding all bonus values together and dividing the total by how many people were paid.
The median bonus value is the middle value if all bonuses were ordered from smallest to largest.
Pay quartiles
Pay quartiles are obtained by ordering all relevant full-pay employee hourly pay from the highest to the lowest value and dividing the list into 4 equal groups. The 4 equal groups are referred to in this report as quartiles and contain an equal number of relevant full-pay employees.
The quartiles are:
- upper quartile (highest pay)
- upper middle quartile
- lower middle quartile
- lower quartile (lowest pay)
This provides an indication of where people from each diversity characteristic are placed in the organisation.
Gender pay gap
Definition of Gender within the Gender Pay Gap report
Whilst it is understood that the term ‘gender’ can be inclusive of multiple gender identities, the term ‘gender pay gap’ derives from legislation and reflects the difference in average earnings between women and men.
Gender pay gap reporting is a statutory requirement. We use the format set out in gender pay gap reporting guidance for employers. This indicates that employers should take information as to gender from payroll or HR records. The gender pay gap report is therefore based on the information we hold on our payroll or HR system records.
Representation of men and women in the Environment Agency
As of 31 March 2024, women represented 45.8% of the Environment Agency’s workforce, totalling 6,129 people.
Table 1: percentage representation of women and men working in the Environment Agency (March 2024)
| Gender | Proportion of workforce |
|---|---|
| Women | 46% |
| Men | 54% |
Ordinary gender pay gap
The Environment Agency mean gender pay gap has increased by 0.1 percentage points to -0.4% in favour of women. The Environment Agency mean gender pay gap is significantly lower than the Civil Service Pay Gap (7.4%).
Whilst the Environment Agency gender pay gap is low in comparison to other organisations and the national average hourly pay gap, it is recognised that more work needs to be done to achieve better gender equality both:
- across the organisation
- within specific job families where imbalance in gender representation can lead to gender pay gaps
Table 2: comparison of the mean and median gender pay gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1.4% | -0.8% |
| 2021 | 1.4% | -0.9% |
| 2022 | 0.1% | 0% |
| 2023 | -0.3% | 0% |
| 2024 | -0.4% | 0% |
In order to achieve gender parity in all quartiles the representation of women should be 45.8% to reflect the total Environment Agency organisational representation rate. Across the pay quartiles women are underrepresented in the lowest, upper middle and highest quartiles. The representation of women has increased in the upper (highest) quartile from 42.6% in 2023 to 44.0% in 2024. The highest representation of men is in the lowest pay quartile (60.1%).
Representation of women within the higher grades in the organisation is increasing and women now make up 47.8% of higher grades.
Table 3: comparison of how women were represented across each quartile in 2020 to 2024
| Quartiles | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 38.1% | 35.5% | 39.2% | 39.6% | 39.9% |
| Lower-middle quartile | 45.7% | 26.4% | 47.9% | 48.5% | 52.4% |
| Upper-middle quartile | 46.6% | 36% | 44.9% | 47.9% | 44.6% |
| Upper quartile | 37.7% | 44.8% | 41.2% | 42.6% | 44.0% |
Bonus gender pay gap
There was a decrease in bonus payments for male staff receiving bonuses from 83.2% in 2023 to 80.4% in 2024. There was a slight increase in female staff receiving bonuses from 80.5% in 2023 to 81% in 2024.
The mean bonus pay gap (5.1%) has decreased by 3.6 percentage points since 2023. In the Environment Agency, bonus payments are pro-rated for part time workers. Larger proportions of women (27.6%) work part time in comparison to men (6.6%) which could be contributing to the remaining mean bonus pay gap. There is no difference between the median bonus pay gap value for men and women.
Table 4: comparison of the percentage of male and female employees who received a bonus in 2020 to 2024
| Year | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 85.7% | 85.2% |
| 2021 | 89.4% | 90.6% |
| 2022 | 90.6% | 89.3%$ |
| 2023 | 83.2% | 80.5% |
| 2024 | 80.4% | 81% |
Table 5: comparison of the mean and median gender bonus gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 6.2% | 0.7% |
| 2021 | 5.6% | 0% |
| 2022 | 7.9% | 0% |
| 2023 | 8.7% | 0% |
| 2024 | 5.1% | 0% |
Disability pay gap
As of 31 March 2024, 90% of Environment Agency employees had made a disability declaration with 15.2% of our workforce (2,035 people), declaring they had a disability or a long-term health condition. Of those who have made a declaration as to whether they have a disability or not, across Defra group, disability representation is 17.3% and in the wider Civil Service disability representation is 14.0%.
Table 6: percentage representation of disability declarations (March 2024)
| Disability declaration | Proportion of workforce |
|---|---|
| Yes | 15.2% |
| No | 74.8% |
| Would prefer not to say | 4.8% |
| Not declared | 5.2% |
Ordinary disability pay gap
The Environment Agency 2024 mean disability pay gap is the same as in 2023 at 1.3%. The median disability gap remains consistent from 2022 at 0%.
Across the pay quartiles, representation of disabled staff has increased in the lowest quartile, from 13.9% in 2023 to 15.5% in 2024 and in the third quartile from 15.3% in 2023 to 15.5% in 2024. There has also been a 0.4 percentage point increase in disabled representation in the fourth (highest) quartile from 14.6% in 2023 to 15.0% in 2024.
Table 7: comparison of the mean and median disability pay gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1.5% | 0.4% |
| 2021 | 2% | 1.3% |
| 2022 | 2.6% | 0% |
| 2023 | 1.3% | 0% |
| 2024 | 1.3% | 0% |
Table 8: comparison of how people with disabilities were represented across each quartile in 2020 to 2024
| Quartiles | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 13.9% | 17.3% | 14.9% | 13.9% | 15.5% |
| Lower-middle | 14.8% | 15.6% | 16.6% | 16.7% | 14.9% |
| Upper-middle | 15.9% | 14.6% | 15.7% | 15.3% | 15.5% |
| Upper quartile | 14.2% | 11.9% | 13.9% | 14.6% | 15.0% |
Bonus disability pay gap
In 2024, 86.0% of staff with a disability received bonuses and 81.6% of staff without a disability received bonuses. The mean disability bonus pay gap is -4.7% in favour of those who have declared a disability, this has increased from the previous year by 1.6 percentage points. There is no difference between the median bonus for people who have declared a disability and those who have not declared a disability.
Table 9: comparison of the percentage of disabled, non-disabled and those who did not declare, who received a bonus in 2020 to 2024
| Group | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disabled | 89.5% | 91.4% | 91.9% | 87.1% | 86.0% |
| Non-disabled | 86% | 90.6% | 91.9% | 82.5% | 81.6% |
| Not known | 75.3% | 81.9% | 78.6% | 69.9% | 65.4% |
Table 10: comparison of the mean and median disability bonus gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2.9% | 0% |
| 2021 | 4.8% | 0% |
| 2022 | 2.1% | 0% |
| 2023 | -3.1% | 0% |
| 2024 | -4.7% | 0% |
Ethnicity Pay Gap
As of 31 March 2024, 95.4% of Environment Agency employees made an ethnicity declaration. 6.1% of the workforce, (817 people), declared being from a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic background.
Table 11: percentage representation of ethnicity declarations (March 2024)
| Ethnicity declaration | Proportion of workforce |
|---|---|
| BAME | 6.1% |
| White | 89.3% |
| Would prefer not to say | 2.5% |
| Not declared | 2.1% |
The proportion of employees from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds in the Environment Agency has slightly increased year on year since 2016, with an increase of 0.8 percentage points between 2023 and 2024. Of those who have made an ethnicity declaration across Defra Group, ethnic minority representation is 8.3%, whilst representation within the wider Civil Service stands at 15.0%.
Ordinary pay gap (Ethnicity)
The Environment Agency mean ethnicity pay gap has increased by 1.2 percentage points from 3.9% in 2023 to 5.1% in 2024. The median pay gap has increased by 5.5 percentage points from 7.8% in 2023 to 13.3% in 2024.
Across all quartiles, representation of staff from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds has increased. Most notably Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic representation in the first (lowest) quartile has increased by 0.9 percentage points from 5.7% in 2023 to 6.6% in 2024 and in the second quartile representation has increased by 1.3 percentage points from 5.6% in 2023 to 6.9% in 2024. Employees from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds are still underrepresented in the fourth (highest) quartile (4.6%), which represents the top 25% of earners in the Environment Agency.
Table 12: comparison of the mean and median ethnicity pay gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 4.1% | 11.3% |
| 2021 | 5.1% | 16.7% |
| 2022 | 4% | 10.3% |
| 2023 | 3.9% | 7.8% |
| 2024 | 5.1% | 13.3% |
Table 13: comparison of how BAME employees were represented across each quartile in 2020 to 2024
| Quartiles | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 4.8% | 3.4% | 5.1% | 5.7% | 6.6% |
| Lower-middle | 4.7% | 2.4% | 5% | 5.6% | 6.9% |
| Upper-middle | 4.3% | 6% | 4.3% | 5.3% | 6.2% |
| Upper quartile | 3.60% | 6.1% | 3.9% | 4.3% | 4.6% |
Bonus pay gap (ethnicity)
In 2024, 66.0% of staff from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds received bonuses and 82.7% of White staff received bonuses. The mean ethnicity bonus gap has widened by 9.4 percentage points from 18.1% in 2023 to 27.5% in 2024. There is no difference in the median bonus gap value for ethnic minority and white employees.
Table 14: comparison of the percentage of BAME, white and those who did not declare, who received a bonus in 2020 to 2024
| Ethnicity | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAME | 78.1% | 87.5% | 85.9% | 66.8% | 66.0% |
| White | 85.6% | 90% | 90.2% | 82.7% | 82.7% |
| Not known | 91.9% | 91.5% | 92.4% | 86.8% | 60.8% |
Table 15: comparison of the mean and median ethnicity bonus gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 3.5% | 0% |
| 2021 | 6.4% | 0% |
| 2022 | 7.7% | 0% |
| 2023 | 18.1% | 0% |
| 2024 | 27.5% | 0.0% |
Faith and belief pay gap
As of 31 March 2024, 83% of Environment Agency employees made a Faith and Belief declaration compared to 77% of people in Defra Group. The Equality Act (2010) defines ‘belief’ to include any religious or philosophical belief and includes a lack of a particular belief.
36.1% of EA employees (4,829 people), stated they follow a faith or belief. In comparison 46.8% of employees stated they did not follow a faith or belief. The largest faith and belief group in the Environment Agency was Christian (29.8%) followed by other faiths in varying proportions making up the remainder of people who declared a faith or belief.
Table 16: percentage representation of faith and belief declarations (March 2024)
| Faith and belief declaration | Proportion of workforce |
| Faith or belief | 36.1% |
| No faith or belief | 46.8% |
| Would prefer not to say | 10.9% |
| Not declared | 6.2% |
Ordinary pay gap (faith and belief)
The Environment Agency faith and belief mean pay gap has increased by 0.2 percentage points from -2.5% in 2023 to -2.7% in 2024 in favour of employees who declared they have a faith or belief. The median faith and belief pay gap is 0% which means there is no difference in the median pay gap between employees who have declared a faith or belief and those who have declared that they do not have a faith or belief.
The highest percentage of employees who declared a faith and belief (39.7%) are in the fourth (upper) quartile. The highest number of employees who declared that they did not have a faith and belief (49.6%) are in the second (lower middle) quartile.
Table 17: comparison of the mean and median faith and belief pay gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | -2.5% | -4.7% |
| 2021 | -1.8% | -0.1% |
| 2022 | -2.2% | 0% |
| 2023 | -2.5% | 0% |
| 2024 | -2.7% | 0.0% |
Table 18: comparison of how people with a faith or belief were represented across each quartile in 2020 to 2024
| Quartile | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 38.6% | 44.4% | 38.8% | 35.9% | 34.9% |
| Lower-middle | 38.2% | 44.6% | 36.5% | 36.5% | 34.4% |
| Upper-middle | 38.9% | 37.7% | 38.2% | 35.9% | 35.7% |
| Upper quartile | 43.5% | 31.4% | 41.9% | 41.1% | 39.7% |
Bonus pay gap (faith and belief)
In 2024, 84.3% of staff who declared they had a faith or belief received bonuses and 79.5% of staff who have declared they have no faith or belief received bonuses.
The mean faith and belief bonus gap has widened from -6.8% in 2023 to -11.2% in 2024, an increase of 4.4 percentage points. There is no difference in the median faith and belief bonus gap between people who declare a faith and those who do not have a faith or belief.
Table 19: comparison of the percentage of employees who either declared a faith or belief, no faith or belief and those who did not declare a faith or a belief, who received a bonus
| Group | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Declared faith or belief | 87.8% | 91.4% | 92.1% | 84.8% | 84.3% |
| No faith or belief | 84.3% | 89.7% | 89.4% | 80.6% | 79.5% |
| Not known | 83.4% | 87.1% | 87.3% | 79.6% | 76.1% |
Table 20: comparison of the mean and median faith and belief bonus gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1.3% | 0.7% |
| 2021 | 0.7% | 0% |
| 2022 | -5.6% | 0% |
| 2023 | -6.8% | 0% |
| 2024 | -11.2% | 0.0% |
Sexual orientation pay gap
As of 31 March 2024, 85.2% of Environment Agency employees made a sexual orientation declaration. In comparison, 81.5% of people in Defra Group made a sexual orientation declaration.
Environment Agency staff are offered the following options for sexual orientation declarations: heterosexual, lesbian/gay, bisexual, or other sexual orientation. ‘LGBO’ refers to those employees who have selected one of the latter 3 options.
5.5% of Environment Agency employees declared being LGBO. Of those who have made a sexual orientation declaration in Defra group, 7.8% declared they were LGBO and in the wider Civil Service 6.1% declared they were LGBO.
Note the LGBO pay gap analysis does not include trans individuals. This is because gender reassignment is a separate protected characteristic in the Equality Act (2010).
The totals used to calculate this percentage figure includes those who’ve chosen ‘prefer not to say’ when asked to declare their sexual orientation and it also includes those who have not made a sexual orientation declaration.
Table 21: percentage representation of sexual orientation declarations (March 2024)
| Sexual orientation declaration | Proportion of workforce |
|---|---|
| Heterosexual | 79.7% |
| Lesbian, gay, bisexual or other sexual orientation | 5.5% |
| Would prefer not to say | 8.7% |
| Not declared | 6.1% |
Ordinary pay gap (sexual orientation)
The Environment Agency LGBO pay gap is 8.5%, which is an increase of 0.9 percentage points from 2023. The median pay gap remains unchanged at 20.7%. The percentage of LGBO employees has increased in all quartiles (1.9 percentage points increase in lowest quartile, 0.1 percentage points increase in the lower middle quartile, 1.2 percentage points in the upper middle quartile and 0.4 percentage points in the upper quartile).
Table 22: comparison of the mean and median sexual orientation pay gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 7.7% | 18.3% |
| 2021 | 7.1% | 20.9% |
| 2022 | 6.6% | 18.2% |
| 2023 | 7.6% | 20.7% |
| 2024 | 8.5% | 20.7% |
Table 23: comparison of how LGBO employees were represented across each quartile in 2020 to 2024
| Quartile | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower quartile | 4.2% | 1.9% | 4.1% | 5.1% | 7.0% |
| Lower-middle | 3.6% | 2.3% | 4.3% | 6% | 5.9% |
| Upper-middle | 3.5% | 4% | 3.8% | 4.1% | 5.3% |
| Upper quartile | 2.1% | 5.6% | 2.6% | 3.2% | 3.6% |
Bonus pay gap (sexual orientation)
In 2024, there was an increase in bonus payments for LGBO employees with 70.1% receiving bonuses. There was a 1.1 percentage point decrease in the percentage of bonus payments for heterosexual employees, with 82.6% receiving bonuses, compared to 83.7% in 2023.
The mean LGBO bonus pay gap (23.9%) has widened from the previous year by 3.1 percentage points. There is no difference in the median bonus value for staff who are LGBO and staff who are heterosexual.
Table 24: comparison of the percentage of employees who either declared to be LGBO, heterosexual or employees who did not declare their sexual orientation, who received a bonus
| Sexual orientation | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heterosexual | 86.3% | 90.9% | 91.1% | 83.7% | 82.6% |
| Lesbian, gay, or bisexual | 78.7% | 85.6% | 82.4% | 68.5% | 70.1% |
| Not known | 82.4% | 85.7% | 86.2% | 77.3% | 74.2% |
Table 25: comparison of the mean and median sexual orientation bonus gap for 2020 to 2024
| Year | Mean | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | -2.5% | -3.7% |
| 2021 | -4.2% | -7% |
| 2022 | 10.4% | 0% |
| 2023 | 20.8% | 0% |
| 2024 | 23.9% | 0% |
Taking actions to close pay gaps
The Environment Agency is committed to creating an inclusive culture where all employees can be themselves and thrive in the workplace. The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) team, our staff diversity networks and people groups are working collaboratively to embed EDI as part of our organisational DNA.
In 2024 we created a new corporate People Strategy which fully embeds out our ambition to have a diverse and inclusive workforce, that fully reflects the communities we serve. The Environment Agency continues to work to become an attractive employer for all, removing barriers to recruitment and progression for under-represented groups.
The People Strategy is supported by our Environment Agency equality, diversity and inclusion strategy for 2022 to 2025, which incorporates existing and planned actions that will deliver intersectional benefits, alongside targeted action for individual protected characteristics.
Delivery is supported by our diversity networks, which offer staff peer support, networking opportunities and provide employee voice to raise awareness of wider organisational issues.
In 2024, we have made progress against the EDI strategy objectives and will continue to drive progress to decrease our pay gaps.
Objective 1: Build and develop an inclusive and respectful culture that allows everyone to be their best selves at work. Promote organisational inclusion, tackle bullying, harassment, and discrimination.
- The Big Conversation on Race promoted a more inclusive culture, ensuring that all staff have ongoing EDI confidence and encouraging wider conversations on EDI and intersectionality. Lessons learned from the Big Conversation are being embedded into refreshed EDI training that is being developed.
- The Environment Agency have achieved disability confident status (level 2) and are working towards becoming a disability confident leader (level 3).
- The Environment Agency has 25 diversity networks which are sponsored by senior leaders and regulated by terms of reference. Key network roles have protected time for network responsibilities as part of their contribution to fostering an inclusive organisational culture.
- Our focussed EDI communications and engagement ensures that all employees have better visibility on the challenges faced by different groups, such as those with a disability, LGBT+ or ethnic minorities and highlights actions that we can all support to improve inclusivity, reduce bias and drive organisational culture change.
Objective 2: increase the diversity of our workforce. Recruit inclusively and equitably to enable a more diverse workforce reflective of the communities we serve.
- The Environment Agency have continued our commitment to having inclusive recruitment processes:
- Grade 7 roles and above must have a diverse shortlisting and interview panel
- The inclusive recruitment volunteer service, recruiting manager drop-in sessions and guidance support the adoption of inclusive recruitment practices from attraction, recruiting, onboarding and throughout the employee lifecycle.
- Continued focus on improving business intelligence related to diversity, including improving the diversity data declaration rate. By utilising data from employee declarations and the 2021 census, we can articulate how well we reflect the communities we serve. Our new EDI Dashboard will provide an overview of EDI workforce data allowing visualisation of trends and provides evidence of change to Executive Managers.
- Promoting paid apprenticeships, internships, and placements to attract people to the Environment Agency earlier in their career or as part of a career change. The Summer Development Internship Programme is a 3-month internship for graduates from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Objective 3: ensure equity of opportunity. Make performance, development, progression and pay more equitable across the Environment Agency.
- Through working with employee networks and updating our workplace adjustments policy, we have continued to encourage the use of employee passports. The professional specific incident visa, is a specialised employee passport, outlines reasonable adjustments for employees who participate in incident response.
- Continue to report on pay gaps (going beyond statutory gender reporting and extending existing groups) and taking evidence-based action to address the underlying causes.
- Environment Agency employees have access to workplace policies and processes to support workplace equity, including activity-based working, job sharing, part time working and the menstruation and menopause policy.
- Improving access to specialist roles, such as careers in the nuclear workforce for those from a lower socio-economic background who may not have a traditional higher education.
- As part of our inclusive culture, we consider the impact of policy and project change on our employees by protected characteristic, using Equality Impact Assessments.
- Development of capability for our leaders, managers, and team members to operate inclusively, respectfully and without bias, such as through our EDI training for all. The Environment Agency has worked with colleagues on the appointment of suppliers to the new leadership and EDI Learning and Development Framework contract. This will unlock future opportunities to use Learning and development interventions to further develop and embed EDI cultural change.
Objective 4: we deliver equitable environmental outcomes and inclusive services.
- Our dedicated social equity team continues to strengthen our commitment to an equitable society, including through our commitment to paying a real living wage for staff. On top of unlocking increased returns on our investments, approaching social value has been linked to wider business benefits that include increased staff retention, talent attraction, secure investors, brand reputation, and risk management. This supports our work on all aspects of reducing pay gaps.
- We have also refreshed eMission 2030, ensuring that our commitment to social equity is embedded throughout, supporting the organisation to consider social equity in all projects.
- We continue to develop social value case studies in capital projects, demonstrating multiple community benefits to contribute to a just and fair society.
- We have commissioned a Social Value flexible tool to support Environment Agency projects in planning and delivering social value and we have produced engagement and communications materials such as webinars, information sessions, articles and training to build knowledge and expertise.
- Continued progress on our Fair transition initiative, where we have recruited Fair Transition Champions from our BAME communities to share lived experience and develop the Environment Agency’s approach to a fair transition to climate change and net zero. They have been key stakeholders during the development of our eMission roadmap.
- Continued work with Defra and other ALBs to reduce the risk of Modern Slavery through our work and within our supply chains.
- Continued collaboration with the Supply Chain Sustainability School to increase awareness of social equity, EDI, social value and modern supply for external suppliers and Environment Agency staff. All new frameworks and contracts include clauses and sustainability statements, covering EDI and social equity requirements as a requisite for participation.
Future areas of focus
The Environment Agency will continue to champion increased equitable, diverse, and inclusive approaches and address inequalities faced by different groups. This will be achieved through:
- delivery of the Environment Agency equality, diversity and inclusion strategy 2022 to 2025
- integrating EDI work in all activities to deliver our People Strategy
- working with broader Defra group EDI boards
In addition to continuing with the actions outlined above, throughout 2024 to 2025, our EDI priorities to close our pay gaps will focus on:
- shaping inclusive leadership throughout the organisation - this will be achieved through both EDI training to make managers more aware of own biases and to improve knowledge of the legislation that underpins their actions, and through the improved use of data analysis in their daily role and leadership activities
- review of diversity data on end of year performance ratings, and how this may link to bonus pay gaps
- launching new talent programmes and career support initiatives for underrepresented groups
- improving participant and line manager experiences of career entry schemes, including the Summer Development Internship Programme
- improving the pay and reward offer through development and implementation of an improved reward strategy
- improving learning and development offer on EDI to the whole organisation
- continuing to improve our business intelligence/management information through the development of our diversity data dashboard, which is currently being piloted
- developing updated ‘Network Terms of Reference’ to ensure more effective collaboration across our diversity networks and the business
Declaration
We confirm that data reported by the Environment Agency 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.
Philip Duffy - Environment Agency Chief Executive