Transparency data

DSIT: gender pay gap report, 2025 (HTML)

Published 16 December 2025

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) publishes this report to meet the legal requirement to report its gender pay gap (GPG) annually.

Executive summary

Headline figures (2025)

As of 31 March 2025, DSIT’s workforce was 48.2% men and 51.8% women.

• Mean pay gap: 2.3%
• Median pay gap: 1.1%
• Mean bonus gap: -7.9%
• Median bonus gap: -8.8%
• Bonus participation: 83.0% men, 81.1% women

Workforce and pay distribution

Women hold most roles, including in the Senior Civil Service, but their share in the highest pay quartiles has fallen slightly. The increase in the pay gap reflects more senior men in higher-paid grades and fewer women in upper quartiles.

Trends and analysis

Both mean and median pay gaps rose in 2025, reversing earlier progress. The bonus gap remains in favour of women, with participation rising for both genders following new departmental reward initiatives.

Actions and initiatives

Over the last 12 months DSIT has:

• introduced a Diversity Dashboard and Data Leaderboard to increase transparency.
• expanded staff networks such as the Women’s Network and “The M Word”
• updated policies on flexible working, parental bereavement, miscarriage and sexual harassment
• supported women’s career development through talent schemes including Future Leaders and Pathway to Leadership
• begun harmonising policies post-Machinery of Government changes and developing new equality objectives under the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

Looking ahead

DSIT will continue to embed gender equality across all work, review policies and invest in inclusion and talent development. New equality objectives will be published, by April 2026, to further strengthen an inclusive culture and support all staff.

Organisational context

The GPG regulations require DSIT to include its 4 Executive Agencies in the published figures as they are not separate legal entities. The data published on GOV.UK therefore includes core DSIT, Building Digital UK, The Intellectual Property Office, The Met Office, and the UK Space Agency. This report is based on core DSIT, not including GDS colleagues due to date of transfer.

As DSIT continues to expand, developing a culture of inclusion is a key priority. We are committed to ensuring that all colleagues feel supported, respected, valued, and empowered to contribute to meeting DSIT’s purpose, mission, and vision.

The gender pay gap represents the difference in average hourly pay between all men and women in the organisation. It is important to distinguish this from equal pay, which refers to paying men and women equally for the same or similar roles. Unequal pay is unlawful; however, a gender pay gap can still exist due to variations in role distribution and working patterns. Hourly pay has been calculated in accordance with the ACSES methodology and relevant regulations.

The department has published this report in line with the statutory duty to report gender pay gap (GPG) data annually.

Gender pay gap report

While the gender bonus gap remains in favour of women, the widening of the pay gap may indicate a shift in pay distribution across grades that requires ongoing monitoring.

Summary of key metrics

Indicator	2024	2025	Trend
Women in workforce	51.6%	51.8%	↑ Slight increase
Mean gender pay gap	0.5%	2.3%	↑ Increased by 1.8%
Median gender pay gap	0.0%	1.1%	↑ Increased by 1.1%
Women in upper pay quartile	52.3%	51.7%	↓ Slight decrease
Mean bonus gap	-8.7%	-7.9%	→ Narrowed slightly
Median bonus gap	-8.3%	-8.8%	→ Widened slightly
Bonus received – men	52.2%	83.0%	↑ Strong increase
Bonus received – women	52.7%	81.1%	↑ Strong increase

Analysis of pay gap

Departmental pay system and context

DSIT operates a structured pay framework aligned with Civil Service grading, from Administrative Officer (AO) to the Senior Civil Service (SCS). Pay scales reflect grade and increasing responsibility.

Since the last report, DSIT implemented the 2024/2025 pay award for both SCS and delegated grades. This award was applied consistently by grade and enabled some individuals to progress within their pay range. Aside from the annual pay award, there have been no changes to the departmental pay framework.

Year-on-year workforce changes, particularly the distribution of men and women across grades and quartiles, have influenced the 2025 gender pay gap results. As of 31 March 2025, women represented 51.8% of the workforce, a slight increase from 2024. Women continued to hold more roles than men at most grades, including senior positions within the SCS, although this distribution was not evenly reflected across pay quartiles.

These factors, together with the overall workforce composition, are reflected in the modest increase in both mean and median gender pay gaps in 2025. Compared with the first year the department reported its GPG, this indicates a modest shift, suggesting that although the workforce remains broadly gender-balanced, men’s earnings may have grown more than women’s over the reporting period.

Grade	Total Staff	% Men	% Women
SCS	138	44%	56%
Grade 6/7	1,136	49%	51%
SEO/HEO	941	48%	52%
EO	95	34%	66%
AO	9	78%	22%
Total	2,319	48%	52%

Pay quartile distribution

Pay Quartile	2024 (Women)	2025 (Women)	Change in %
Lower	54.0%	54.1%	+0.1
Lower Middle	51.6%	52.2%	+0.6
Upper Middle	49.5%	48.5%	-1.0
Upper	52.3%	51.7%	-0.6

Women continue to make up the majority of staff across all pay quartiles. However, there has been a slight decrease in the proportion of women in the upper middle and upper quartiles compared with 2024. This shift means that fewer women are occupying the highest-paid roles, which is a key factor behind the small increase in the department’s mean and median gender pay gaps.

Gender representation by grade

Grade	2024 (Men/Women)	2025 (Men/Women)
SCS	52 / 76	61 / 77
G6/G7	485 / 500	562 / 574
SEO/HEO	418 / 431	455 / 486
EO	31 / 68	32 / 63
AO	6 / 2	7 / 2

In 2025, women continued to hold more roles than men across the SCS, G6/G7, and SEO/HEO grades. However, male representation increased at the SCS (+9 men) and G6/G7 (+77 men) levels. As these grades carry higher salaries, this shift contributed to the rise in the overall and median gender pay gaps. Although women still held more senior roles overall, the increase in senior male representation, combined with the continued concentration of women in the lower senior grades and minor shifts in quartile distribution, resulted in a widening of the pay gap.

Key drivers:

• Upper quartile shifts: Women’s representation in the upper and upper middle quartiles declined slightly, which impacts average pay. Even small changes at these levels can have a measurable effect on the overall gender pay gap.
• Increased senior male representation: While women continued to hold the majority of SCS roles, the rate of increase in senior male appointments was greater. As senior grades are more highly paid, this shift may have had a notable impact on mean and median pay calculations.
• Position within grades: The data does not capture differences in pay progression within grades.
• No structural change: There were no changes to the department’s pay structures in 2025, so the gap appears to be driven by workforce composition and distribution rather than pay policy or grade design.

Analysis of the bonus gap

Bonus pay gap overview

The bonus pay gap continues to show a negative figure, meaning that women’s average and median bonus payments remain higher than men’s.

Metric	2024	2025	Change in %
Mean Bonus Gap	-8.7%	-7.9%	+0.8
Median Bonus Gap	-8.3%	-8.8%	-0.5
Men Receiving Bonus	52.2%	83.0%	+30.8
Women Receiving Bonus	52.7%	81.1%	+28.4

For delegated staff awards are available as cash payments (£150, £300, £500 or £850) or Love2Shop e-vouchers (£25, £50, £75 or £100) and are granted solely on performance and contribution, not grade or gender.

The negative gap can be influenced by the slightly higher proportion of women across DSIT and the overall distribution of award recipients, rather than any difference in award value or allocation criteria.

In 2025, the proportion of staff receiving a bonus increased sharply for both men and women^{[footnote 1]}. This rise is likely linked to several initiatives introduced during the reporting year, including:

• The launch of the new In-Year Award app;
• Updated reward and recognition guidance; and
• The establishment of a dedicated support team to assist managers and staff with the process.

Targeted communications and strong leadership support further reinforced the importance of consistent recognition across the department. As a result, bonus awards became more accessible and more evenly applied, helping to promote fairness and transparency in recognition practices.

DSIT will continue to monitor In-Year Award data to ensure equity, transparency, and consistent recognition of excellence across all teams.

Targeted action to reduce and close the gender pay

What we have achieved over the past year

Over the past year, DSIT has continued to make inclusion a central part of our culture and ways of working. Our focus has been on supporting staff networks, ensuring fair treatment for all, meeting statutory obligations, reducing barriers to progression, and increasing diversity data declaration rates. By strengthening our data foundations, we are building a clearer picture of representation and helping to close gender, disability, and race pay gaps in 2025 and beyond.

Inclusion remains a priority for our Permanent Secretary and senior leaders across DSIT. Our solid values on inclusion are centred around supporting staff networks, enhancing inclusion and fair treatment for all, completing DSIT’s statutory obligations, reducing barriers to entry and progression, ensuring policies that impact our people are inclusive, and driving up completion rates of diversity information in order to support the completion of gender, disability, and race pay gaps in 2025 and beyond, and to ensure data is at the heart of decision-making.

Building a data-driven approach

Diversity dashboard

Launched in 2024, the diversity dashboard provides detailed workforce data, helping us identify where gender imbalances exist and track progress over time. Through a targeted campaign, we have raised diversity declarations to an average of 62%, improving transparency and enabling data-led action.

Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)

We introduced new internal guidance to help colleagues understand their obligations under the Equality Act 2010. Equality objectives are now being developed to ensure DSIT’s work remains measurable, focused, and aligned with legal and organisational priorities.

Empowering our staff networks

DSIT now has 30 staff networks, 19 focused on diversity and inclusion. These networks provide vital peer support and help shape our inclusive culture. Each network is supported by a Senior Civil Service Champion to ensure their work aligns with DSIT’s wider goals on inclusion and career progression.

Staff Network	Focus  and key activities
Women’s Network	Promotes inclusiveness, safety, and equal opportunities for all genders.
The M Word	Launched in May 2025 to support those experiencing perimenopause or menopause and their families, offering weekly virtual sessions and practical advice.
Carers and Parenting Networks	Strengthen support for colleagues balancing caring responsibilities, ensuring policies meet their needs.

Summer of listening

Following the appointment of our new Permanent Secretary, over 800 colleagues joined 35 sessions to share views on DSIT’s culture and values. Their feedback is shaping how we define and strengthen our departmental identity.

Inclusive recruitment

DSIT’s recruitment approach continues to embed diversity and inclusion to improve gender balance and reduce the gender pay gap. This year, we simplified job adverts and removed jargon to attract a wider range of applicants, and piloted sharing interview questions in advance to promote confidence and fairness, particularly for women returning from maternity or caring leave. We ensured mixed-gender interview panels, relaunched the Independent Panel Membership scheme to increase diverse perspectives, and advertised all roles as open to flexible or part-time arrangements (including job-share) unless a strong business need prevented it. Candidate feedback has been used to refine recruitment practices and ensure a transparent, supportive experience for all applicants. As a result, women’s success rates in recruitment have risen, showing that these interventions are improving fairness and accessibility.

Supporting women’s career progression

We continue to invest in talent programmes that create opportunities for women across all grades and encourage women into occupying higher paid roles, a contributing factor to the gap.

Programme / Initiative	Key outcomes and highlights
Future Leaders Scheme (FLS) and Senior Leaders Scheme (SLS)	66% and 100% of successful applicants were women.
Beyond Boundaries	100% female participation, supporting leadership development.
Crossing Thresholds	35 women will complete the next cohort in 2026, up from 27 in 2024.
Coaching and Mentoring	47 women received one-to-one coaching, with additional group coaching and ILM5 qualifications offered.
Pathway to Leadership	Newly launched, with 60% female participants from EO to SEO grades.
TechTrack Apprenticeship	DSIT joined this pilot to diversify digital and data roles and accelerate skills in AI and technology.
NextTech Girls (NTG)	Hosted 2 students in 2023, inspiring young women from lower-income and minority backgrounds to pursue STEM careers.
DSIT Shadowing Programme	The DSIT Shadowing Programme is a unique learning and development opportunity for colleagues to gain an insight into roles across DSIT whether within their own profession and subject area or to learn about what a different role could have to offer. Open to all colleagues, the programme supports junior staff to shadow senior staff to support career progression.

These initiatives are helping to build a stronger, more diverse talent pipeline and ensure women have equal access to leadership opportunities.

Inclusive policies and supportive working practices

DSIT’s policies promote flexibility, inclusion, and wellbeing for all staff. Our hybrid working model allows colleagues to balance home and office time, while flexible hours and generous parental leave (nine months full-pay maternity leave and 3 weeks paternity leave) support families and caregivers.

In 2024/2025, new policies were introduced to provide compassionate support:

• Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Policy for colleagues experiencing the loss of a child.
• Miscarriage guidance for staff and managers, including support following early pregnancy loss and related conditions.

By addressing the impact of caring and family responsibilities, DSIT continues to remove barriers to progression and close gender pay gaps.

Looking ahead: 2025/2026 priorities

We remain committed to embedding gender considerations into all aspects of our work and building an inclusive department where everyone can thrive

Focus area	Key updates and actions
Inclusive Policies and Practices	DSIT updated its Sexual Harassment Policy in line with the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act. Work continues to review Discipline, Grievance, and Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination policies to ensure consistency and fairness across the organisation.
Organisational Change	Following the integration of the Government Digital Service (GDS) in 2025, DSIT is focusing on embedding new teams and strengthening a shared culture and values through upcoming Machinery of Government changes.
EDI Strategy	A refreshed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy will launch in 2026, aligning with Civil Service priorities and informed by workforce data and feedback.
Staff Networks	DSIT will continue to strengthen staff networks through clear governance and senior support, in line with the new Civil Service Staff Network Policy. Aim to achieve Carer Confident Level 2 accreditation by early 2026, with ambitions for Level 3. The M Word network will publish its aims and objectives in October, supported by new Menopause Guidance for staff and managers.
Public Sector Equality Duty	We will publish DSIT’s Equality Objectives in line with the Equality Act 2010, ensuring our progress remains transparent, evidence-based, and measurable.
Diversity Data	Increase diversity declarations to an average of 75% across DSIT to inform future actions.
Pay flex case	The department has recently gone through its second Machinery of Government (MoG). A post-MoG pay flex case can help reduce the gender pay gap by aligning inconsistent pay bands and progression arrangements inherited from different organisations. Harmonising pay ensures staff performing equivalent work are rewarded fairly, addresses legacy inequalities, and promotes transparent, consistent pay structures. The required equality analysis also helps identify and mitigate any emerging disparities.
Monitoring pay cases	To support efforts to reduce the gender pay gap, pay decisions that place staff above the standard pay band minima will be actively monitored. This ensures such decisions are evidence-based, applied consistently, and aligned with gender pay gap objectives. The guidance and policy for requesting and approving above-minima pay will be transparent, with regular analysis to track the gender balance of cases and identify any emerging disparities.

Recruitment and talent – key priorities

• Data and insight: Improve diversity data quality
• Fair selection: Pilot advance interview questions and expand Independent Panel Member training
• Representation: Maintain gender-diverse panels and deliver “How to Apply” sessions with the Women’s Network
• Talent development: Support women through FLS, SLS, Beyond Boundaries, Crossing Thresholds, and TechTrack

Summary

Over the past year, DSIT has strengthened its inclusive culture, improved gender representation, and introduced practical policies to support staff at all stages of life and career. Looking forward, we will continue to build on these foundations, embedding equality, data-driven decision-making, and inclusive leadership at the heart of everything we do.

Declaration

We confirm that data reported by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology 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.

Emran Mian
DSIT Permanent Secretary

1. The rise in the proportion of staff receiving bonuses from 2024 to 2025 is partly due to limited 2024 coverage, as DSIT systems were only fully operational from September 2023 and did not capture a full year. Eligibility in 2024 was also reduced by late joiners and MoG transition arrangements, with some staff still on DCMS systems. The 2025 uplift additionally reflects stronger promotion of in year awards, including a DSIT led campaign and training for directorate Single Point Of Contact (SPOCs), which improved budget use and recognition of exceptional work. ↩