Corporate report

UK Space Agency Gender Pay Gap Report: 2020 (HTML)

Published 4 October 2021

1. Background

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) has published our report again on a voluntary basis, due to the number of employees being below 250 for the Financial Year 2019-2020. 250 is the number of staff whereby the report is mandatory as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish their gender pay gap on an annual basis. The UKSA and the Civil Service want to create a diverse and representative workplace – one that will attract talented people from all backgrounds, and give everyone, including those already working for us, the opportunity to achieve their potential. We also want to ensure that we reach our vision of ‘an economy that works for everyone’, at the same time as being a great place to work.

In 2017, the government introduced world-leading legislation that made it a statutory requirement 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 male and female employees in each pay quartile. Due to the impacts of the pandemic, the publishing deadline for all organisations was extended by the government from 30 March 2021 to 5 October 2021.

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 a number of 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.

UKSA support the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. In October 2017 the new Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy was published. This important document sets out new programmes and initiatives to realise our ambition to become the UK’s most inclusive employer by 2020.

2. 2020 Headline figures:

This is the third time the UK Space Agency has published its Gender Pay Gap Report on gov.uk. Whilst we do not have a legal obligation to do this as we employ under 250 employees, we want to be transparent and continue to work towards gender equality. For context, we have therefore included the figures from previous years (2018 and 2019) in our analysis. Please note when comparing to previous years, for 2020 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 the UK Space Agency show a mean gender pay gap of 11.9% and a median gender pay gap of 17.9%.

The headline 2019 Gender Pay Gap figures for the UK Space Agency show a mean gender pay gap of 11% and a median gender pay gap of 17%, for 2018 there was a mean gender pay gap of 15% and a median gender pay gap of 23%.

The mean is what is commonly described as the average. It involves adding together the pay or bonuses of employees and then dividing by the number of employees.

The median is the middle value of all hourly rates or bonuses when ranked. That is the amount paid to the employee in the middle of the list, if employees are listed in order of pay or bonus. The advantage of looking at the median is that it’s less affected by numbers at the top end of the pay range, such as the earnings of a small number of senior executives.

The gender pay gap is calculated as the difference between average (mean or median) hourly earnings excluding overtime of men and women as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings.

We’re using both figures because they give us slightly different insights into the distribution of our pay and bonus data, and regulations require us to report on both. As per the regulations, the pay gaps and quartiles figures are based on the pay data on the snapshot date of 30 March 2020. The bonus gaps and participation figures are based on bonuses paid over the 12 months prior to the snapshot date.

This report fulfils the Agency’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.

3. Organisational context

We are looking to create a culture and way of working which is truly and actively inclusive of everyone. We want to make sure our decisions, internal and external processes and polices take D&I into account from the earliest of stages.

We have delivered and support this through our People Survey Action Plan with the ultimate aim of making the UKSA a great place to work for our colleagues and for ourselves together with a reputation that marks us out as an employer of choice.

4. The Data

The report published provides our gender pay gap, using the snapshot date of 31 March 2020. This data was drawn from the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES).

Gender make-up of the organisation:

• On 31st March 2020 the UK Space Agency recorded 238 employees, with 47% Female and 53% male.
• On 31st March 2019 the UK Space Agency recorded 187 employees, with 47% Female and 53% male.
• On 31st March 2018 the UK Space Agency recorded 133 employees, with 48% Female and 52% male.

As the Agency has increased its staff numbers, it has broadly maintained the proportion of Male to Female employees.

5. Closing the gender pay gap

In analysing the UKSA 2020 report, the Gender Pay Gap marginally widened and whilst we would have liked to see this reduce, the percentage increase (0.9%) is minimal which remains positive news from where we started reporting in 2018, albeit improvements can still be made. In terms of the data relating to bonuses, women were higher than men in both the mean and median bonus paid.

We reflected in the last report that the difference in grade distribution was likely to be the main driver of the overall UKSA gender pay gap. Whilst our staff numbers have increased, this has resulted in broadly the same proportion of Male to Female employees. The figures show that of those employed across UKSA, nearly 31% of men are at Grade 7 or above, compared to 19% of women. As the GPG calculations look at the total workforce, the departmental pay gap in UKSA can be attributed to an uneven split of men and women by grade – with more men occupying higher grades. Notwithstanding this at our very senior level, women occupy more of the Senior Civil Service Grades.

UKSA is committed to continuing to reduce the overall gap and this is demonstrated through the following initiatives.

6. Our processes: recruitment, retaining and developing a diverse workforce

UKSA abide with the Recruitment Principles of fair and open competition with candidate selection based on merit. We are accountable to the Civil Service Commission. To ensure fairness we use the following methods:

• mandatory mixed gender sift and interview panels
• anonymised sifting: where all identifiable characteristics are removed
• 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.
• introduction of a new recruitment method (Success Profiles) which has gone through rigorous equality analysis. The Success Profiles Framework moves recruitment away from using a purely competency-based system of assessment. It introduces a more flexible framework which assesses candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods. This will give the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, driving up performance and improving diversity and inclusion. The elements that can be assessed to find the best candidate for the role are: strengths, behaviours, technical, experience and ability.

7. Performance management

In April 2018, UKSA introduced a new performance management approach, adopted through the BEIS change in policy which is intended to be better, simpler, fairer and more transparent. The process was implemented following extensive consultation and worked with key stakeholder groups to help shape the new approach. The performance management approach sees a focus on good-quality conversations, that should include a real focus on development. Running alongside the new performance management approach is a new in-year reward system. Our intention is to monitor and analyse the data to ensure that it is fully representative of our workforce around our diversity and inclusion agenda. This will be supported by our drive to increase our diversity declaration rates across the Agency

8. Learning and development

The Civil Service offers a number of central cross-government talent and positive action schemes, two of which are specifically aimed at women:

8.1 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.

8.2 Positive Action Pathways

A scheme for those in under-represented groups, aimed at women, and also minority ethnic, disabled, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) staff in all grades from Administrative Assistant to Grade 6. The 1-year programme consists of development workshops, action learning sets, and on-the-job learning.

These programmes aim to overcome barriers and help women compete on equal footing for progression or other Civil Service talent schemes, such as the Future Leaders Scheme (FLS) and Senior Leaders Scheme (SLS), which are accelerated development schemes for high potential G7s and G6s (FLS) and Deputy Directors (SLS).

In the latter part of 2019, UKSA agreed to fund places on two more talent programmes, Aspiring Leaders and Interdepartmental Talent Partnership (ITP). Aspiring Leaders is aimed at HEO/SEO staff who have the potential to raise to Grade 7 and the ITP will consider those who perhaps were unsuccessful at FLS. We will advertise these opportunities when the programmes run, with Aspiring Leaders launching in Feb/March 20. A selection panel will be convened to consider all applications. This will provide further opportunity for development and preparing staff for the next levels. UKSA are committed to ensure that opportunities are available for all its staff and to encourage those from under-represented groups to apply.

9. Working with the Staff Networks

UKSA diversity networks have played an incredibly important role in helping to deliver D&I activity across the Agency. UKSA continue to promote and have an active workforce to ensure all groups of staff are fully represented within the Agency. If the Agency does not specifically have its own network, then UKSA staff are encouraged to make contact with any of the networks listed below if they wish to find out more.

UKSA have the D&I Network and the Women’s Network. This report has been shared with the Women’s Network and their input has been welcomed in shaping this report.

Where UKSA do not have a specific network, all staff have access to the BEIS range of Networks. The support networks include:

• Age Network
• Carers Network
• Capability Action Network
• Domestic Violence
• EU Nationals Network
• LGBT+ Network
• Volunteering Network
• Women’s Network (Women Empowered)
• Faith and Minority Ethnic
• Multi-Faith
• Parental Support Network
• Part-Time Workers Network
• Schools Outreach
• Social Mobility Network
• Wellbeing and Mental Health Group

10. Next steps

The Agency will continue to assess progress and will:

• Monitor and review the data associated with the D&I declaration rates, encouraging staff to share information on a voluntary basis. In March 20 the Agency had a declaration rate of 29%.
• Monitor outcomes of performance management and In Year Awards to ensure that no groups of staff are disadvantaged through these processes.
• Seek to create a dedicated D&I and Wellbeing team and report progress in the 20/21 Gender Pay Gap report.
• Continue to support its corporate membership to “Women in Aerospace” which offers a versatile professional development programme and networking opportunities to its members.