Transparency data

Ethnicity pay gap report: April 2020 to March 2021

Updated 6 January 2023

Agency ethnicity pay gap report: April 2020 to March 2021

Snapshot date: 31 March 2021

Definitions

Mean Ethnicity Pay Gap in Hourly Pay

The difference between the mean* hourly rate of pay of staff who have declared their ethnicity as White or BAME, where hourly pay includes basic pay, bonuses, and allowances. *average pay for all male and female employees

Median Ethnicity Pay Gap in Hourly Pay

The difference between the median* hourly rate of staff who have declared their ethnicity as White or BAME *middle rate of pay (when listed in order) for all male and female employees

Mean Ethnicity Pay Gap in Bonus Pay

The difference between the mean* bonus paid to staff who have declared their ethnicity as White or BAME where bonus refers to a variety of bonus payments (see Point 4 below) *average bonus for all male and female employees

Median Ethnicity Pay Gap in Bonus Pay

The difference between the median bonus pay paid to staff who have declared their ethnicity as White or BAME *middle value of bonuses paid to all males compared to all female employees

Bonus proportions

The proportions staff who have declared their ethnicity as White or BAME who were paid a bonus

Quartile bands

Quartile bands The proportions of staff who have declared their ethnicity as White or BAME in the lower, lower middle, upper middle, and upper quartile pay bands

Ethnicity pay gap data

The ethnicity pay gap shows the difference in average pay between White and BAME staff in the Agency who have declared their ethnicity, which at the snapshot date was 94.7% of the Agency workforce where 65% of the Agency workforce were declared White and 35% of the Agency workforce were declared BAME.

The reporting methodology is the same as used for gender pay reporting and the series of targeted actions to reduce the gender pay gap also being applied by the Agency to reduce the ethnicity pay gap.

Data Summary	%
Mean ethnicity pay gap in hourly pay	23.0%
Median ethnicity pay gap in hourly pay	31.9%
Mean ethnicity pay gap in bonus pay	71.1%
Median ethnicity pay gap in bonus pay	17.3%
Proportion of White staff paid a bonus	46.3%
Proportion of BAME staff paid a bonus	35.1%

The information in this report is extracted from payroll data and declared ethnicity rates as at 31 March 2021. The data summary is the overall Agency picture using ‘raw’ data from the payroll system and is made up of an average of basic pay, bonuses, and allowances.

While both the mean and median ethnicity pay gaps appear significantly high this is due, in the main, to there being a higher proportion of BAME staff in more junior roles and a smaller proportion of BAME staff in more senior roles. This also has an impact on median pay, where the median salary for BAME staff is at Grade SEO but at Grade 7 for White staff.

The figures reduce when you review the ethnicity pay by male and female staff who have declared their ethnicity as BAME only. In those cases the mean gender pay gap is 10.0% and the median gender pay gap is 15.0%, both in favour of male staff, where the median salary for BAME male staff is at Grade SEO but at Grade HEO for BAME female staff. While these are both higher than gender pay it would indicate a co-ordinated approach in our targeted actions to reduce the gender pay gap would also be successful, in part, in helping to also reduce the ethnicity pay gap while recognising that there are specific issues relating to ethnicity that need to be taken forward.

Sections 2 and 3 below offer more analysis and explanation of the data that underpins this summary

Proportion of White and BAME employees in each quartile (basic pay)

Quartile	Proportion of White employees at the Agency White (%)	Proportion of BAME employees at the Agency	BAME (%)
First quartile (lower)	150	47.6	165	52.4
Second quartile (lower middle)	187	59.4	128	40.6
Third Quartile (middle upper)	223	70.8	92	29.2
Fourth quartile (upper)	255	81.2	59	18.8

It is clear that the proportion of BAME employees at the Agency decrease in relation to seniority. As part of our targeted actions to reduce the ethnicity pay gap we have looked at the barriers that individuals may face and have sought to improve participation onto internally run and Civil Service wide talent management schemes.

Further analysis

Grade	BAME	White	BAME	Mean Hourly Rate	White Mean Hourly Rate	% Difference
AA/AO	18	22	£12.21	£12.25	0.3%
EO	109	87	£14.54	£14.63	0.6%
HEO	94	104	£17.39	£17.54	0.8%
SEO	94	176	£21.77	£21.79	0.1%
Grade 7	73	185	£28.26	£28.25	0.0%
Grade 6	32	133	£36.76	£36.27	-1.4%
SCS	24	108	£47.21	£46.43	-1.7%

This shows a salary analysis by grade, that shows basic pay only and does not includes allowances. The breaks the pay gap down by grade and shows a positive pay gap for BAME staff in two of the seven grades, which are also at the most senior levels in the Agency. Given the relatively small number of BAME staff at Grade 6 or SCS then the average salary figure is more greatly affected whenever BAME staff either join or leave the Agency at these grades.

Bonus Pay

It should be noted that there are separate schemes for delegated and SCS grades. Bonus pay includes end of year awards (until 31 March 2021 only), special bonuses and vouchers paid to delegated grade staff, and end of year awards and in-year bonuses for the SCS.

Bonuses were paid to 464 staff in the delegated grades who had declared their ethnicity, this covers 41% of the delegated grade workforce. Similarly, these were paid to 69 staff in the SCS grades who had declared their ethnicity, this covers 52% of the SCS workforce.

• 35.5% of BAME staff in the delegated grades received an end of year award, special bonus or recognition voucher.
• 44.6% of White staff in the delegated grades received an end of year award, special bonus or recognition voucher.
• 29.2% of the BAME employees in the SCS received an end of year or in-year award.
• 57.4% of the White employees in the SCS received an end of year or in-year award.

Targeted action to reduce pay gap

We have an active action plan in place to help reduce the pay gap. We work with our network groups and other key stakeholders to ensure that it is realistic and achievable and report annually to senior management on its progress. Our targeted action includes:

• focussing future pay awards on reducing specific pay ranges and on addressing specific pay issues that benefit the majority of our workforce. We will factor how the pay award effects staff covered by the 2010 Equality Act to monitor diversity related demographics to identify if certain staff are adversely affected.
• continuing to review our recruitment policies and processes to ensure fairness and equality, including the diversity of the interview panel and starting salaries.
• scrutinising and reviewing the recruitment journey from job posting through to job offer and monitoring job advertisements to ensure that they are gender neutral and fully reflect the benefits of working for the Agency.
• monitoring and reporting on the uptake of mandatory modular training on Diversity and Inclusion. This will be complemented by providing bespoke in-house recruitment training
• improving representation of BAME participants on talent development schemes that are either run by the Agency or the wider Civil Service.
• evaluating our existing development programmes to assure our Talent Management processes.