Corporate report

Home Office gender pay gap report 2023

Published 30 November 2023

Executive summary

The Home Office is committed to being representative of the communities we serve. We recognise that we will achieve better outcomes for the public by having a broad range of experience, knowledge, and awareness to deliver our objectives. Our focus is also to enable and support all our people to flourish in their careers.

We are committed to reducing the gender pay gap, and our approach looks holistically at the interventions which will achieve this. Our analysis has found that the primary driver of the gender pay gap is the fact that the Home Office often provides extra compensation for those engaged in front line 24/7 operations, and that workforce is predominantly male.

Our approach to becoming representative of the communities we serve focuses on recruitment outcomes for under-represented groups, including gender. On the 31st of March 2023, female representation at Senior Civil Service (SCS) grades was 48.1%, which met and slightly exceeded our 2025 target of 47% and an increase of 3 percentage points compared with March 2022. Our targets were set in 2018 and are based on the economically active population, or maintaining representation of our workforce at that point in time. For grades below SCS, we have achieved our target of 52% but remain under-represented at Grades 6 and 7, the key internal talent pipelines to maintain our SCS female representation. Our action plan for next year will seek to address this.

This year we are disappointed to see an increase in both our mean and median hourly pay gaps. We have seen of significant increases in our total workforce, which is 18% higher compared to March 2022, with noticeable increases at our administration grades, AA, AO and EO. The proportion of women employed at our AO and AA grades has increased at a higher rate compared to men, which has been a factor in seeing an increase in our median and mean pay gaps. We have continued to see a reduction in our mean bonus pay gap, which is now narrowly in favour of women.

Last year we said that we would undertake a deeper analysis of what is causing our gender pay gap and develop localised plans. This year we are strengthening our approach, with a focus on accountability and clearly defined outcomes to help both monitor progress and achieve further reductions. Our outcomes, last year, included further enhancement to the performance management system to help simplify the process for issuing bonus and voucher payments.  This has enabled a quicker turn around for our people to be recognised for strong or excellent performance.

Our approach to the gender pay gap goes beyond focusing solely on pay, ensuring that our working conditions and approach to female specific issues are considered and addressed. I was particularly pleased that the Home Office signed up to the menopause in the workplace pledge this year as well as introducing the use of free sanitary products for emergency use across the whole of the Home Office estate. These are important steps which demonstrate practically how the Home Office is creating and continues to create an inclusive workplace environment for women in our workplace.

Professor Jennifer Rubin, Home Office Gender Champion

Introduction

This report covers the period from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

Organisations with 250 or more employees are required to report annually on their gender pay gap. Government Departments are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. These regulations underpin the Public Sector Equality Duty and require relevant organisations to annually publish their gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap is different to equal pay. The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce and the reporting requirements specify the calculations to include in the report. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs, or work of equal value. A gender pay gap does not equate to the existence of an equal pay problem but may be the trigger for investigating why the gap exists. If an organisation 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.

Organisational Context

The Home Office is committed to closing the gender pay gap. We continue to focus on three thematic areas; to build a resilient and inclusive culture, to have a workforce representative of our communities, and embedding accountability throughout our organisation. These thematic areas are aligned to the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy alongside the Declaration on Government Reform. We aim to attract the best people to work for us from a range of backgrounds, experience, talents, and locations. Our executive level Champions and staff networks collaborate, recognising the benefits of sharing knowledge, experience, and insights so the Home Office is seen as a visibly inclusive employer.

Our thematic approach frames our approach to reducing the gender pay gap and the key activities under our wider Gender Action Plans. This work is coordinated and led by our executive Director General Gender Champion and her board. The board monitors and evaluates the Department’s progress against the commitments we make to close our gender pay gap. This ensures that the actions which we take are the right ones. Our approach is evidence led, informed by both the feedback and personal experiences of our people and quantitative data collected through our People Survey. These are in addition to insights we draw from our gender pay gap analysis.

We have set ourselves specific targets to address the under-representation of women in the Senior Civil Service (SCS) which we aim to achieve by 2025. As of 31 March 2023, our SCS female representation was 48.1%, which exceeded our 2025 target of 47%. Our total female SCS workforce increased from 139 to 166 since March 2022.

Our aim has been to reduce the gender pay gap through retention, recruitment, and development of our people. To affect this change, we developed local action plans focused on targeted areas of priority and aligned to addressing imbalances within our workforce composition.

As of 31 March 2023, the Home Office employed a total of 43,127 relevant employees of which 42,782 were below Senior Civil Servant (SCS), and 345 people were at SCS. This is an increase in our total workforce of 6,590 in scope for our GPG report in 2023 compared to 2022, an increase of 18.0%.

Across all grades and business areas, our workforce consists of 22,434 females and 20,693 males, which represent 52.0% and 48.0% of the workforce respectively. This is an overall increase in the proportion of female employees of 0.3 percentage points compared to 2022. The proportion of female staff at SCS grades increased from 45.1% in 2022 to 48.1% in 2023. 

Gender pay gap figures for 2022/23 are given in the following sections.

The primary driver of the Home Office gender pay gap continues to relate to our workforce composition. The use of allowances to recompense our people engaged in front line 24/7 operations, has a significant impact on their pay in comparison to other parts of our workforce. The removal of allowances from our GPG calculations reduces our hourly gender pay gap to 3.2% mean and the median to 1.1%. The overall mean gender pay gap, excluding allowances, has increased by 0.1 percentage points, from 3.1% in 2022.

During the 2022/23 financial year, the Home Office has further embedded our new performance management approach; aiming to reward and recognise our people throughout the year, moving away from one off end of year performance bonuses. The proportion of female employees receiving a bonus compared to male employees remains balanced as in previous years.

Gender pay gap report

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 that there may be several issues to address and consider.

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.

For 2022/23, the gender pay gap figures were published in the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) for the fourth time. ACSES provides an overall picture across government. The reporting period was 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

This report fulfils Home Office’s reporting requirements and sets out the actions we are taking in relation to improving gender parity. This information is published on GOV.UK and the Government Equality Office (GEO) portal.

Table 1: Hourly and bonus gender pay gaps, 2022/23

Hourly gender pay gap

Mean	Median
7.0%	10.7%

Bonus pay gap

Mean	Median
-0.8%	4.4%

Table notes:

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

The bonus pay gap refers to the bonus pay paid to male and female relevant employees during the twelve months prior to the snapshot date, expressed as a percentage of the bonus pay paid to male relevant employees. Bonus pay includes all monetary and voucher payments made during the twelve-month period.

Table 2: Percentage of male and female employees receiving a bonus 2022/23

Men	Women
81.0%	80.8%

Table 3: Proportion of male and female employees in each pay quartile, 2022/23

Pay Quartile	Male	Female
Upper quartile	54.8%	45.2%
Upper middle quartile	53.0%	47.0%
Lower middle quartile	43.3%	56.7%
Lower quartile	41.2%	58.8%

Table 4: proportion of male and female by grade

Grade	Male	Female
SCS	0.9%	0.7%
G6/G7	11.2%	9.3%
SEO/HEO	26.2%	26.4%
EO	43.0%	38.4%
AA/AO	18.8%	25.1%

Proportion of male and female staff, by grade

Table 4 shows the distribution of men and women across each grade for the Home Office. We continue to have a higher proportion of women than men at our more administrative grades (AA/AO) – staff at these grades account for 22.0% of our total workforce, with 59.2% female staff at these grades.

Analysis of gender pay gap

The Home Office uses the Civil Service grading system ranging from Administrative Assistant (administration level grades) to Senior Civil Servant (director level grades). Grades are determined by the level of responsibility that employees have in their job roles. Each grade, except for administrative grades, has a set pay range, with higher grades receiving higher salaries. Our administrative grades have a spot salary.

As a Civil Service Department, we are subject to current public sector pay policy and pay restrictions and comply fully with all requirements of Civil Service Pay Guidance. Under the historical contractual automatic pay progression policy, which was removed in 2013, employees moved through the pay range for their grade annually. This meant that the longer someone had spent in a grade the more we would expect them to earn, irrespective of their gender. One of our key approaches to reduce our gender pay gap has been to shorten pay ranges. When excluding allowances, which are separate from our pay scales, the mean gender pay gap reduces from 7.0% including allowances, to 3.2% excluding allowances, in 2023. Our median gender pay gap, when excluding allowances reduces from 10.7% to 1.1%.

Table 5: Average hourly gender pay gap, 2021 to 2023

	2021	2022	2023
Mean	7.7%	6.7%	7.0%
Median	11.5%	7.5%	10.7%

Table 6: Proportion (%) of female employees in each pay quartile, 2021 to 2023

Quartile	2021	2022	2023
Lower salary quartile	59.1	58.8	58.8
Lower middle salary quartile	58.5	56.1	56.7
Upper middle salary quartile	45.0	46.3	47.0
Upper salary quartile	44.6	45.0	45.2

In 2022 we saw a reduction in the percentage of our workforce employed at our most junior grades AA and AO, for both men and women compared to 2021. This trend was reversed this year, with 25.1% of all female employees now employed in these grades an increase compared to 18.8% of male employees. This reflected the focus on increasing our workforce to meet increased business demands. Although the female representation remained broadly unchanged for other grades, for male employees we saw a small increase at EO grade, the grade at which 43.0% of male staff are employed. This year we have also seen that the proportions of our female employees working at HEO and SEO are now higher than the percentage of male employees.

The grade mix for male and female impacts on the percentage of women within each pay quartile. The increase in the proportion of female employees at AA/AO grades has contributed to increasing the percentage of women in the lower middle pay quartile by 0.6 percentage points, reversing the previous decline we have seen. The proportion of female employees in the upper and upper middle salary quartiles have also increased in the latest year.

Table 7: Proportion of employees by grade and sex, 2021 to 2023

Grade	Female			Male
	2021	2022	2023	2021	2022	2023
AO/AA	24.7%	22.9%	25.1%	20.2%	17.5%	18.8%
EO	39.0%	39.6%	38.4%	41.2%	42.6%	43.0%
HEO/SEO	25.7%	26.9%	26.4%	25.9%	27.3%	26.2%
Grade 6/7	9.3%	9.9%	9.3%	10.7%	11.6%	11.2%
SCS	0.8%	0.7%	0.7%	1.0%	1.0%	0.9%

Note: Unknown grades are excluded from the overall calculations. In 2023, 0.4% of staff did not have their grade recorded on Metis.

Table 8:  Proportion of employees receiving a bonus in 2021 to 2023, by sex

Year	Male	Female
2021	65.4%	64.3%
2022	79.7%	79.6%
2023	81.0%	80.8%

In 2022 we introduced a new performance management system. This led to a focus on awarding bonus and vouchers during the year, and a move away from end of year bonus payments. We have seen the number of people receiving either a bonus or voucher maintained at similar levels as in 2022 this year.

Our bonus payments include all vouchers and bonuses paid in the 2022/23 year. These range from small value vouchers to more substantial amounts depending on the performance or activity being rewarded. This year we have continued to see the mean bonus pay gap is in favour of women. The increase in our median bonus pay gap appears to relate to a higher percentage of low-level vouchers being awarded to female employers compared to men as a proportion of the workforce. In 2023 we saw 11.2% of men receive vouchers across the whole year of up to £100, compared to 12.9% of women.

Table 9: Mean and median bonus gender pay gaps (%), 2020 to 2023

-	2021	2022	2023
Mean	4.7	1.5	-0.8
Median	0.0	-6.7	4.4

Targeted action to reduce the gender pay gap

Our actions in 2022/23

We continue to focus on improving our approach to attracting diverse candidates from different backgrounds, and with different experiences to work in the Home Office, including women. We have focused on ensuring our vacancy descriptions are clear, highlighting the benefits of working for the Home Office and dispelling myths which may put people off applying for our roles. This attracts a broader range of applicants including female applicants to apply for our SCS roles. We will review this over the next 12-month period to check progress.

Building on the success of the Home Office Career Website, we have expanded this to include dedicated pages for SCS recruitment campaigns. This work is ongoing and will soon include stories from a broad range of SCS sharing their personal journey.

We extended our Independent Panel Members (IPM) pool to include LGBTI+ and female representatives with mixed sex panels being promoted as an expectation. The IPM acts as an independent panel member that sits outside the business area ensuring the successful candidate is selected on merit.

We have refreshed our Talent Strategy for 2022-25. This articulates our belief that everyone has the talent and potential to grow and make a greater contribution to the organisation, whatever their skills or background. We have continued to increase the number of people who attend internal talent programmes.  In 2023, our internal records show that 64% of participants in middle manager grades (HEO/SEO) were female and 63% of successful applicants in administrative and first line manager roles (AA-EO).

We are making progress with our female representation in Digital, Data & Technology. Our Women in Tech continue to drive forward initiatives to progress this agenda. This year saw the launch of the Allyship programme. This not only seeks to support women in the workplace, but will take active, positive steps to ensure everyone has equal opportunities to flourish in their career.

We undertook a detailed analysis of our gender pay gap, highlighting the key drivers This has led a focus on actions and plans already in place, and to implement new actions to address gender imbalances in our workforce which are contributing to our gender pay gap

By default, the Home Office always includes options for flexible and part time working when vacancies are advertised.  In a bid to improve female representation within our largest 24/7 operational area, we have advertised 100 flexible and part-time working roles as part of our pilot approach to providing and encouraging more opportunities for women.  We have also introduced career progression focus groups exclusively for women at middle management grades within our largest operational areas. These are part of a wider series of actions being undertaken to increase our female workforce in roles where allowances are paid.

We continue to shorten pay ranges as part of our approach to reducing the gender pay gap. The range shortening strategy has continued to have a healthy influence towards narrowing pay differentials for both our mean and median pay gaps.

We are also focused on recognising the specific issues which women face in work, as part of our approach to retain and support colleagues. As an example, Our Gender Equality Network (GEN) continue to hold menopause sessions for staff and managers, including men only sessions. The Home Office menopause group for staff and managers has over 1000 members The Department, as part of the wider Civil Service, signed up the menopause in the workplace pledge this year. Civil Service becomes largest organisation to sign Menopause Workplace Pledge

We are committed to ensuring our people feel safe both in the workplace and travelling to and from the workplace. To address this the Gender Equality Network (GEN) have worked with Home Office security, the Metropolitan police and campus leads to hold personal safety events for staff in London and Croydon with more events planned.

Our areas of focus for the coming year

The Department is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and safe workplace for all our people. Our central project team which focuses on addressing bullying, harassment, and discrimination, including sexual harassment is undertaking research to ensure that the environment our people work in is safe, building on the work previously undertaken for other protected groups. 

We are undertaking further analysis of our workforce data against the 2021 Census. This will allow us to review and set revised representation targets and identify the areas where positive action would support our approach to dealing with under-representation.

We are continuing to focus on improving female representation within our technical and digital workforce. This includes “women in tech” events and continuing targeted talent acquisition for specialist digital and data skills.

We are continuously improving how we attract and help those from protected characteristics and diverse groups apply for and be successful when applying for our roles.

We are continuing to develop and implement local gender action plans for business areas. This includes ensuring that we understand and address local inclusion and under-representation issues within our workforce in respect of gender, coordinated and overseen by our Gender Equality Board and People Committee.

We will continue to focus on talent development and sponsorship programmes for those in our talent pipelines to SCS. We will focus on introducing interventions to help all colleagues, including women, understand how to prepare and be successful in progressing their career. We also intend to increase our focus in middle management grades (HEO-SEO), building on the success of female participants attending programmes. We will promote both cross Whitehall and internal talent programmes, with a focus on ensuring appropriate sponsorship is provided to those who take part in programmes.

We will continue to develop our SCS pages on our careers website to attract under-represented groups into our workforce at all levels. This will include ensuring that our marketing and branding shows role models and the diversity of our organisation, with our advertising promoting opportunities for women to work in the Home Office, particularly in those professions or occupations where there is under-representation based on gender.

Detailed analysis into the findings of the Menopause Survey is now completed. We will review the findings and where appropriate, develop an action plan that helps female colleagues sustain their career in the Home Office.

Declaration

We confirm that data reported by the Home Office 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.

Matthew Rycroft, Permanent Secretary

Julie Blomley, Chief People Officer