Equality and diversity - UK Export Finance
The policies and objectives UK Export Finance has in place to meet its equality and diversity duties.
Equality Act 2010
Under the Equality Act 2010, public sector organisations are required to demonstrate that they are mindful of the three main aims of the Equality Act. These are:
- eliminate unlawful discrimination
- advance equality of opportunity
- foster good relations
The two specific public sector duties are to:
- publish equality and diversity information to show compliance with the Act by 31 January 2012, and at least annually from then on
- set and publish one or more specific and measurable equality objectives by 6 April 2012, and at least every 4 years.
Equality objectives
Our equality objectives are articulated in our annual HR Plan, which is developed to support the relevant strands of work in the delivery of the Business Plan 2024-29 and People Strategy 2024–2027.
This includes complying with the aims of the public sector equality duty each year. The objectives focus on the areas which the department has chosen to target over the year. They do not seek to cover every area of the business or to represent all of the department’s equality-related activity.
We publish our diversity data annually as of 31 March for the preceding year, which we use to measure our progress against our targets and external commitments.
UK Export Finance Public Sector Equality Duty Compliance
Women in Finance Charter
In 2017, UKEF became a signatory to the Women in Finance Charter, publicly affirming our commitment to improving gender diversity across the Department. At that point, women represented 8% of our Senior Civil Service (SCS) population, and we set a target to increase representation to 30% by 2020. We subsequently exceeded this target, with women representing 33.3% of SCS staff as at 31 March 2021.
The proportion of women in SCS roles has fluctuated since then. As at 31 March 2026, women represented 32.7% of UKEF’s SCS population, compared with 26.53% as at 31 March 2025. Our current target is to achieve 35% female representation in SCS roles by 2027, and we believe we are on track to meet it.
During 2025-26, we analysed recruitment data and consulted colleagues to help identify actions to support our Public Sector Equality Duty objective to increase the proportion of women in SCS roles by 31 March 2029. We also joined Women in Tech, which enables us to advertise roles to a wider audience of women, build UKEF’s profile as an employer in STEM and provide development opportunities for existing staff. This will help us broaden the pipeline of female candidates for technology roles and support women’s development and progression. Over the coming year, we will focus on delivering the agreed actions and monitoring their impact.