Transparency data

Defra gender pay gap report 2024

Published 17 December 2024

Applies to England

Executive summary

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our food and farming industry and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people’s day-to-day lives, developing policies and services that impact people across the UK and beyond.

Defra is committed to being an equitable, diverse, and inclusive organisation, where every individual has equality of opportunity to progress and can thrive in a supportive environment. Our Defra group equality, diversity and inclusion strategy 2020 to 2024 reaffirms this commitment. Our gender pay gap reporting considers how well we achieve gender equality in our pay structures. This report provides gender pay gap information for the year ending 31 March 2024, with comparable information since 2017.

We are pleased to report that there has been a decrease in both the mean (3.8%) and median (8.7%) gender pay gaps of 2.8 percentage points (pp) and 2.3pp respectively since 2023. This is the lowest mean gender pay gap Defra has reported since gender pay gap reporting began in 2017.

Analysis of Defra’s workforce shows that the percentage of women in Defra’s workforce is 56.4%. The percentage of women in the upper quartile (representing the top 25% of earners) has increased significantly from 50.4% in 2023 to 52.5% in 2024. This shows Defra has made good progress in achieving workplace equity at higher grades.

We know that there is still more that we can do to close our gender pay gap. Defra will continue to uphold our commitment to developing and driving forward practices and policies, which we know make a difference in closing the gender pay gap. The cross-Defra group Gender Board works collaboratively across Defra organisations to address gender equality by developing actions to improve equality, promote collaborative working and remove barriers to progression. We have reviewed our inclusive recruitment panels and performance bonus processes, built line manager capability in conscious inclusion, and continued to raise awareness of women’s menstrual and reproductive health in the workplace. We are confident that continuing to break down barriers to inclusion will positively impact the everyday lived experiences of women in Defra.

Our commitment to close the gender pay gap speaks to a broader agenda of inclusion and we look forward to further progressing this goal as part of an ambitious strategy to achieve equality in the workplace.

Sarah Homer - Defra Group Gender Champion

Introduction

The Gender Pay Gap legislation was introduced in April 2017, requiring all employers of 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap annually for workers in scope as of 31st March.

The gender pay gap is the difference in the average pay between all men and all women in the organisation. It is different to equal pay, which is about the difference in the actual earnings of men and women doing equal work (or work of equal value).

The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the mean hourly rate of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees.

The median gender pay gap is the difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees.

The bonus pay gap measures payments to reward performance that are as part of the annual pay award (as a proportion of basic pay) or throughout the year as either cash or gift vouchers. The mean bonus value is found by adding all bonus values together and dividing the total by how many people were paid. The median is the middle value if all bonuses were stacked from lowest to highest. It’s important to note some bonus payments such as end of year performance awards are pro-rated for part time workers which can influence bonus pay gaps.

The gender pay gap is measured using a few different calculations including:

• the mean and median hourly gender pay gap
• the mean and median gender bonus pay gaps
• the proportions of men and women receiving bonuses
• the proportions of men and women in each pay quartile

Notes

Full-pay relevant employee’ means a relevant employee who is not, during the relevant pay period, being paid at a reduced rate or nil as a result of the employee being on leave, The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Throughout this report, references to employees or gender profile includes full-pay relevant employees only.

The ‘relevant pay period’, in relation to the relevant employee, means (a) the period in respect of which the relevant employer pays the employee basic pay, whether weekly, fortnightly, or monthly or any other period, or (b) if the relevant employer does not pay the employee basic pay, the period in respect of which the employer most frequently pays the employee one of the elements of ordinary pay mentioned in regulation 3(1) (b) to (e), The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017.

Defra Civil Service pay gap reporting includes the core government department and its executive agencies; Rural Payments Agency (RPA), Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) and Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).  All references to Defra in this paper refer to Defra and its executive agencies.

Summary

This summary includes mean and median pay figures, proportions of men and women receiving bonuses, proportions of men and women in each pay quartile and the overall makeup of women in Defra Civil Service in addition to female Senior Civil Service (SCS) representation.

Gender pay gap

• 3.8% mean gender pay gap
• 8.7% median gender pay gap

Proportion of men and women receiving bonuses

• female: 76.1%
• male: 75.6%

Pay by quartiles

Lower quartile:

• women: 59.0%
• men: 41.0%

Lower middle quartile:

• women: 59.2%
• men: 40.8%

Upper middle quartile:

• women: 54.9%
• men: 45.1%

Upper quartile:

• women: 52.5%
• men: 47.5%

Workforce

• 56.4% of Defra’s workforce are women
• 51.2% of Defra’s SCS are women

Defra’s gender profile

Our percentage of female employees (gender profile) is 56.4% and has remained consistent when compared to previous years. It also continues to be higher than the Civil Service average of 54.5% female. The percentage of women within Defra’s Senior Civil Service (SCS) is 51.2%, whilst the overall Civil Service female SCS representation is 48.2%.

Overall, there are more women than men at all grades in Defra with the exception of Grade 6 where men outnumber women in terms of headcount. Female representation at SCS has increased from 49% in the previous reporting period to 51.2% in this reporting period.

Defra uses Civil Service grades ranging from Administrative Assistants (administrative level grade) to SCS (executive level grade). Grades vary according to the level of responsibility and each grade has a set pay range. Employees are subject to an annual pay review and pay increases on promotion.

The following table shows the distribution of female and male employees by grade from junior to senior roles in Defra.

Table 1: Defra’s workforce split by grade and gender

Grade	Number of women	Women as % of workforce at this grade	Number of men	Men as % of workforce at this grade
AA/AO	1457	61	932	39
EO	1349	60.4	885	39.6
HEO	1475	56.2	1151	43.8
SEO	1636	55.1	1334	44.9
G7	1241	52.7	1114	47.3
G6	370	49.2	382	50.8
SCS	109	51.2	104	48.8
Grand total*	7637	56.4	5902	43.6

*Figures include unknown grades and include rounding.

In comparison, the following table shows the overall representation of women at each grade in the Civil Service taken from the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Dashboard, 2024 ^{[footnote 1]}.

Table 2: Representation of women in the Civil Service

Women at each grade in the Civil Service	Representation (%)
AA/AO	55.4
EO	56.5
HEO/SEO	52.5
G6 and G7	49.8
SCS	48.2
Women in the Civil Service overall	54.5% (2024)

Defra’s gender pay gap over time

Table 3: Defra Civil Service mean and median pay gaps (2017-2024)

Defra Civil Service	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Difference from 2023 (pp)
Mean Gender Pay Gap (%)	11.5	9.8	8.4	7.2	6.7	5.6	6.6	3.8	2.8 pp
Median Gender Pay Gap (%)	12.1	11.7	9.4	7.4	6.8	6.6	11	8.7	2.3 pp

Table 4: Defra Civil Service bonus pay gaps (2017-2024)

This covers bonus pay in 12 months ending 31 March.

Year	Mean Gender Pay Gap (%)	Median Gender Pay Gap (%)	Percentage (%) of male employees paid a bonus	Percentage (%) of female employees paid a bonus
2017	20.6	16.7	47	45
2018	10	19	39	35
2019	11.6	14.2	49	47
2020	12.3	20	57	58
2021	10.6	0	67	67
2022	7.6	1.4	70.8	70.3
2023	5.9	-12.8	76.3	78.2
2024	5.5	0	75.6	76.1
Difference from 2023 (pp)	0.4pp	12.8pp	0.7pp	2.1pp

Analysis of gender pay gap data

Ordinary pay gender pay gap analysis

This year the Defra group mean gender pay gap has reduced to 3.8%, which is a decrease of 2.8 percentage points (pp) from 2023 and a decrease of 7.7 pp since gender pay gap reporting began in 2017. The Defra group mean pay gap is lower than the 2024 Civil Service gender pay gap which is 7.4%.

The median pay gap has decreased by 2.3pp from 11% in 2023 to 8.7% in 2024. The Defra median gender pay gap is slightly higher than that of the overall Civil Service of 8.5%.

Analysis of workforce data shows that the remaining gender pay gap is being driven by a higher percentage of women in lower grade roles than men. The closure of the gender pay gap this year is driven by the increase in the percentage of women in the upper quartile, which has increased by 2.1pp from 50.4% in 2023 to 52.5% in 2024.

Bonus gender gap analysis

The mean bonus pay gap is 5.5%, which is a decrease of 0.4pp from 2023 and a decrease of 15.1pp since gender pay gap reporting began in 2017. The median bonus gap has decreased from -12.8% (in favour of women) in 2023 to 0% in 2024.

The decrease in the gender bonus pay gap may be in part due to a change in how bonuses are awarded within Defra. Our new People Performance strategy moves away from end-year performance decisions to goal-based performance recognition, therefore high performance is rewarded throughout the year and reported on quarterly. We have seen a greater focus, and a shift in culture across Defra relating to how performance recognition is awarded and distributed.

In comparison to the previous years, there has been a slight decrease in bonus payments for both men and women with 75.6% of male staff receiving bonuses and 76.1% of female staff receiving bonuses.

Table 5: Percentage of men and women in each pay quartile 2017-2024 ^{[footnote 2]}.

Pay by quartiles	2017 M%	2017 F%	2018 M%	2018 F%	2019 M%	2019 F%	2020 M%	2020 F%	2021 M%	2021 F%	2022 M%	2022 F%	2023 M%	2023 F%	2024 M%	2024 F%
Lower quartile	36	64	36	64	37	63	38	62	37	63	39	61	40	60	41	59
Lower middle	43	57	43	57	43	57	43	57	44	56	42	58	42	58	41	59
Upper middle	50	50	47	53	46	54	45	55	45	55	45	55	44	56	45	55
Upper quartile	57	43	55	45	52	48	51	49	50	50	49	51	50	50	48	53

Note: table includes rounding.

Taking action to close the gender pay gap

Defra aspires alongside other Civil Service organisations to be inclusive employer. We are working to close our gender pay gap by delivering a number of initiatives through our Defra group equality, diversity and inclusion strategy 2020 to 2024 and through the cross Defra group Gender Board.

We recognise that although we have decreased our gender pay gap, we must further develop and progress our actions to achieve equitable gender representation at all grades and further close the gender pay gap. In Defra, this is overseen by the Gender Board, which is a working group chaired by an Executive committee champion.

The gender board has supported and driven evidence-based and targeted actions, which address the pay gap by improving equality, promoting collaborative working and removing barriers to progression.

Defra group organisations will continue to undertake actions to close the gender pay gap including:

• embedding inclusive practices in our attraction, recruitment, and selection processes, through using the inclusive panel guidance, name-blind external applications, success profiles and promoting flexible working and job-sharing opportunities

• supporting career development through targeted learning opportunities, including mentoring and talent schemes (such as the Senior Leader Scheme) and through conferences (such as women into leadership) to remove barriers to progression and achieve equitable gender representation across all grades

• our diversity staff networks offer networking and peer-support opportunities. We actively listen and amplify employee voices through our diversity staff networks, safe space and listening circle experiences

• Ensuring transparent and consistent workplace policies focusing on workplace equality, including blended working, shared parental leave, menstruation and menopause, breastfeeding, fertility treatment and pregnancy loss

• demonstrating our commitment to fair treatment and inclusive cultures in the workplace by becoming a Disability Confident (Level 3) Leader and achieving Carer Confident (Level 2) status

• building capability and awareness of workplace equality, diversity, and inclusion, for all employees through the line manager conscious inclusion awareness sessions and mandatory completion of the Civil Service expectations learning

• normalising conversations on women’s health through the development of a women’s menstrual and reproductive health awareness pack for line managers, which includes information on making reasonable workplace adjustments if required

• continuing to report internally on reward and recognition on a quarterly basis to ensure fairness and consistency

• using Equality Impact Assessments, to ensure that Defra considers any impacts of organisational change on women and those with other protected characteristics

Declaration

We confirm that data reported by Defra 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.

Tamara Finkelstein

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1. Cabinet Office (2024). National statistics. Statistical bulletin - Civil Service Statistics: 2024 [online]. Available at Statistical bulletin - Civil Service Statistics: 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).) (Published 20.08.2024) ↩

2. Figures include rounding to nearest whole number. (M = Male and F = Female) ↩