Select committee: Women and Equalities Committee
Recommendation 2
Fourth report - Ethnicity pay gap reporting
Published 8 Feb 2022
Paragraph 16
Addressed to Government Equalities Office
Women and Equalities Committee Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting: One-off All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government should introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting by April 2023 for all organisations that currently report for gender. Legislation should include the requirement for employers to publish a supporting narrative and action plan. The Government should produce guidance, with clear explanations on: (a) data protection to reassure employers how they can legally capture, retain and report ethnicity pay gap data; (b) methods for capturing, analysing and reporting ethnicity pay data; and (c) the body responsible for enforcement and what powers that body will have.
From: Women and Equalities Committee, Fourth report - Ethnicity pay gap reporting (HC 998), paragraph 16, 8 February 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 May 2022 (deadline 8 April 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government does not accept the Committee's call for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting, saying it "will not be legislating for mandatory reporting" and will instead provide guidance for employers who choose to report.
- It has accepted the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities' recommendation that ethnicity pay gaps "should continue to be reported on a voluntary basis".
- Its stated reasons are that reporting is "just one type of tool" that "may not be the most appropriate tool for every type of employer", and that it does not want to impose new reporting burdens on businesses.
- The guidance will cover data protection issues and methods for capturing, analysing and reporting ethnicity pay data, as the Committee recommended, and will support employers to produce a diagnosis and action plan.
- The Government says it "committed in 'Inclusive Britain' to publish the guidance in Summer 2022" and will publish its analysis of the 2018 consultation responses "in due course".