Transparency data

HM Land Registry: gender pay gap report 2022

Updated 9 February 2024

Applies to England and Wales

Analysis of our 2022 gender pay gap data suggests the actions we have taken to reduce the pay gap continue to have a positive effect. Our mean gender pay gap reduced from 7.5% to 5.7% while our mean bonus pay gap reduced from 7.3% to 4.9%.

Our gender pay gap derives principally from the higher proportion of women in our administrative grades. While we pay women the same rate as men for doing the same job, their higher representation within these grades brings down the average pay for women compared with men.

As of 31 March 2022, 61% of HM Land Registry’s employees were women. Women make up 63% of our Administrative Assistant and Administrative Officer grades, and 66% of our largest grade, Executive Officer (EO).

There are more women than men in every pay quartile. While in previous years, there were more men than women in our upper pay quartile, this year for the first time more than 50% of that quartile are women. This builds on steady progress over the last 3 years to increase the number of women in senior roles.

There has been a slight increase in our median pay gap, from 0% to 1.7% following a drop from 13.7% in 2020. The slight increase this year shows the effect of recruitment and limited overall growth in the size of our workforce.

Our mean bonus pay gap reduced from 7.3% to 4.9%. Women are more highly rated through our performance appraisal scheme than men and more women than men received a performance bonus in 2021/22. However, the bonus pay gap exists because performance bonuses are pro-rated and more women work part-time than men.

We continue to compare favourably with the overall mean gender pay gap for the Civil Service (8.5% in 2022).

We also compare favourably with the mean bonus gender pay gap for the Civil Service (27.4% in 2022), and the median bonus gender pay gap (37.1% in 2022).

While our employment opportunities, working practices and inclusive culture continue to attract women into our workforce at all levels, a significant reduction in our gender pay gap will remain a challenge.

We recognise the opportunities that pay gap analysis and reporting provide to make sure our policies and practices are fair and equitable. We understand that change of this nature will take time to effect, and we reaffirm our commitment to minimising our gender pay gap through longer-term legacy actions, which support and encourage women in our workforce and create and maintain a culture in which they can thrive.

1. Introduction

Under the terms of the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017, HM Land Registry, like other public authorities, is required to annually publish its gender pay gap information.

To fulfil this legal requirement, HM Land Registry has prepared information on:

• the mean and median gender pay gaps in hourly pay
• the mean and median gender bonus pay gaps
• the proportion of men and women who receive bonuses
• the proportion of men and women full-pay relevant employees in each pay quartile

The reporting period is 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

HM Land Registry uses the standard civil service grading system, ranging from Administrative Assistant (AA) to Senior Civil Service (SCS). However, we also use 2 unique grades, SEO+ and Grade 7 Lawyer, which were implemented to meet the specific needs of the organisation.

Since 2021, HM Land Registry has increased its workforce by 284 (4.5%). Except for the Administrative Officer grade, there were headcount increases in most grades, with a 30% increase in capacity in SEO+ grades due largely to recruitment in specialist digital roles.

Grade	Headcount
	31/03/2022	31/03/2021
APP (apprentice)	35	27
AA	1	2
AO	1,725	1,839
EO	2,383	2,170
HEO	1,358	1,291
SEO	688	621
SEO+	154	118
Grade 7	133	121
Grade 7 Lawyers	112	121
Grade 6	61	57
SCS	27	26
Total	6,677	6,393

Delegated grades – AA to Grade 6

As a Civil Service department, HM Land Registry is governed by public sector pay policy as set out in the Civil Service Pay Guidance for delegated grades. Pay guidance defines the overall financial parameters for Civil Service pay awards each year to ensure that these awards are consistent with the government’s overall objectives.

HM Land Registry has 14 offices across England and Wales. We operate a national pay rate and an enhanced London pay rate to reflect the higher cost of living in the South East.

In HM Land Registry, the AA to HEO grades consist of a single spot rate of pay. Grades between SEO and G6 have pay ranges consisting of a minimum and maximum rate of basic pay. Movement through these ranges is via annual pay awards.

Senior Civil Service

The Senior Civil Service (SCS) is covered by separate SCS pay guidance published by government. Pay and grading for the SCS across the Civil Service is governed by the Cabinet Office. Within HM Land Registry, the SCS structure consists of 2 grades: Deputy Director (SCS1) and Director (SCS2). Each grade has a set pay range within a minimum and maximum rate of basic pay.

Diversity and inclusion strategy

During 2021/22 we have developed an action plan building on our diversity and inclusion strategy. This remains focused on improving representation within our workforce, creating an inclusive culture and embedding diversity and inclusion outcomes. We continue to offer family-friendly policies accompanied by sessions through line manager forums and communications to remind colleagues of the breadth of advice and support. We remain focused on the development of women, and we offer access to Women into leadership events and support and encourage women to take up development opportunities. We support networks with time and advice and our Women’s Network is now one of our largest groups with strands supporting menopause and parents.

2. Gender pay gap report

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. It is expressed as a percentage of earnings for men. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate that there may be issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help 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.

Each full-pay relevant employee’s hourly rate of pay has been determined using full-time equivalent salaries and contracted weekly hours. Permanent and pensionable allowances, non-consolidated performance payments, and salary sacrifice deductions are all incorporated to ensure that the methodology is consistent with reports produced in previous years.

The legislation and the standard calculation methodology used throughout the Civil Service relates only to the pay of men and women. By publishing our data accordingly, HM Land Registry is not intending to make any comment on intersex people or those with non-binary gender identities.

HM Land Registry’s 2022 gender pay gap figures

All data represents the position as at 31 March in any given year.

	2022	2021
Gender pay gap
Mean gender pay gap	5.7%	7.5%
Median gender pay gap	1.7%	0%
Bonus gap
Mean bonus gap	4.9%	7.3%
Median bonus gap	0%	6.7%

Percentage of men and women receiving a bonus

	2022	2021
% Men receiving a bonus	37.2%	43.0%
% Women receiving a bonus	38.3%	44.6%

We pay ‘end-of-year’ non-consolidated performance awards. In the financial year 2021 to 2022, to be eligible for HM Land Registry’s end-of-year non-consolidated performance award, employees had to be in HM Land Registry employment on 1 June 2022.

Distribution of women through each pay quartile

	2022	2021
% Women in lower quartile	62.6%	62.1%
% Women in lower middle quartile	67.8%	68.9%
% Women in upper middle quartile	59%	59.7%
% Women in upper quartile	52.4%	49%

The table above shows the percentage of women in each pay quartile in HM Land Registry. Pay quartiles are created by ranking each full-time employee in order from the lowest earning (lower quartile) to highest earning (upper quartile).

There are more women than men in every pay quartile, including, for the first time, in the upper quartile. This demonstrates that there are no substantial barriers to women being able to access jobs within HM Land Registry in the upper pay quartile.

Grade (decreasing seniority)	Number of men (% of total male workforce)		Number of women (% of total female workforce)		% of women in the grade
SCS	14	1%	13	0%	48%
Grade 6/7	129	5%	177	4%	58%
SEO+/SEO/HEO	1021	39%	1179	29%	54%
EO	809	31%	1574	39%	66%
AA/AO	660	25%	1101	27%	63%
Total	2633	100%	4044	100%	61%

The table above shows the distribution of men and women across grades within HM Land Registry. While there are more women than men in the SEO+/SEO/HEO grade group, there is a higher proportion of the total male workforce at these grades than the female workforce. This is principally because of the higher proportion of the female workforce at EO and AA/AO grades.

3. Analysis of pay gap

Mean pay gap

	2022	2021	2020
Gender pay gap
Mean gender pay gap	5.7%	7.5%	8.5%

The mean gender pay gap figure uses hourly pay of all employees to calculate the difference between the mean hourly pay of men and the mean hourly pay of women.

Our mean gender pay gap reduced from 7.5% last year to 5.7% this year, continuing a positive downward trend.

Due to the public sector pay pause for the financial year 2021/22, there was no pay award in 2021/22 to the majority of HM Land Registry employees, with awards being limited to Administrative Assistants and Administrative Officers on national pay rates. This means it is primarily changes to numbers and distribution within grade that has been the most significant contributor to the reduction in the mean gender pay gap this year.

As of 31 March 2022, 61% of HM Land Registry’s employees were women. Except for the SCS, where distribution is as close to 50:50 as possible, there are more women than men in each grade group. However, the higher proportion of women in our high-volume AO and EO grades (63% and 66% respectively) acts to bring down the average pay for women.

There are also more women than men in every pay quartile. While in previous years, there were more men than women in our upper pay quartile, this year for the first time more than 50% of that quartile are women. This builds on steady progress over the last 3 years to increase the number of women in senior roles.

Median pay gap

	2022	2021	2020
Gender pay gap
Median gender pay gap	1.7%	0%	13.7%

The median pay gap is the difference between the hourly pay of the median man and the hourly pay of the median woman. The median for each is the man or woman who is in the middle of a list of hourly pay ordered from highest to lowest.

In 2021, there was a very significant decrease in our median pay gap, from 13.7% to 0%, which showed the effect of recruitment and growth within our caseworking grades. The relatively small increase this year shows the effect of organisational growth in 2021/22.

4. Analysis of the bonus gap

	2022	2021	2020
Gender pay gap
Median gender pay gap	1.7%	0%	13.7%

HM Land Registry follows the standard Civil Service approach to pay and reward, and an agreed fund, based on a fixed percentage of the total pay-bill, is reserved for payment of non-consolidated, non-pensionable awards linked to performance.

Despite the public sector pay pause in 2021/22, HM Land Registry was able to make end-of-year non-consolidated performance awards, which are pro-rated for part-time employees. HM Land Registry pays 2 rates of end-of-year performance awards: a higher rate for employees assessed as ‘exceeding’ through our performance management system and a lower rate for employees assessed as ‘high performing’.

	2022	2021
% Men receiving a bonus	37.2%	43.0%
% Women receiving a bonus	38.3%	44.6%

More women than men proportionately and in real terms earned a performance bonus in 2021/22. More women than men were paid the higher value performance bonus. However, the bonus pay gap exists because performance bonuses are pro-rated and more women work part-time than men.

5. Targeted action to reduce and close the gender pay gap

We review our activity on a regular basis and amend or replace actions as required. Several do continue forwards as evidence from organisations such as CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and GOV.UK is that these do have impact on gender pay gaps.

Our external actions include:

• using inclusive language in job adverts and ensuring the wording is gender neutral through use of algorithms
• ensuring applications are name blind and we offer structured interviews with the same questions used across candidates to remove any bias
• offering flexible working as standard in all our job descriptions – women are most highly represented in senior roles where there is correspondingly the highest number of part-time working opportunities
• broader advertising of all flexible vacancies, including Timewise Jobs and Mumsnet
• monitoring representation on recruitment panels, to make sure there is a diverse mix
• developing insight sessions on our application and interview processes

Our internal actions included:

• offering transparent pay, promotion, and reward processes
• helping recruiting managers to attract diverse applicants by asking them to consider flexibility in their person specification, such as minimum hours, suitable working patterns and only using essential criteria (studies show that women are more likely to hesitate in applying for a job if they do not meet all the listed requirements)
• promoting job-share opportunities
• challenging common misconceptions around part-time working
• promoting understanding of issues such as menopause with the development of a menopause policy
• supporting attendance at Women into leadership events
• supporting a Women’s Network who advocate for women in HM Land Registry and their development, including a subgroup specially for menopause
• carers and parents having dedicated network space to offer advice and support
• mentoring and coaching encouraged for all
• continuing to offer parental and family-friendly policies

6. Declaration

I confirm that data reported by HM Land Registry 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.

Simon Morris, HR Director