Home Office gender pay gap report 2025
Published 16 December 2025
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Executive summary
The Home Office is committed to being representative of the communities and the country we serve. We recognise that we will achieve better outcomes for the public by building a workforce with a broad range of experience, knowledge and backgrounds. The HO supports the fair treatment, reward and recognition of all staff and we want to enable and support all our people to achieve their potential so they can deliver the vital work our department undertakes, but there is still more to do to deliver the cultural change needed across the department.
We have further to go to reduce the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) between men and women. The drivers of the pay gap are complex and multi-faceted, but our analysis has found that the GPG is primarily influenced by the composition of the Home Office’s workforce. The Home Office pays allowances to recompense our people engaged in front line operations rostered on a 24/7 basis. This has a significant positive impact on their pay in comparison to other parts of our workforce. Our people working 24/7 rosters are more likely to be male. Our people working in unrostered casework roles are more likely to be female.
Our data
This year’s 2025 GPG data shows:
- Our mean pay gap has increased by 0.1 percentage point (ppt) from 6.7% to 6.8%.
- Our median pay gap has increased by 0.9 ppt. from 11.1% to 12%.
- Our mean bonus pay gap has increased by 3.1 ppt from 0.1% to 3.2%.
- Our median bonus pay gap has increased by 7.2 ppt from 0% to 7.2%
When we remove additional allowances relating to front line 24/7 operations from our GPG calculations the data shows a much narrower GPG:
- Our mean pay gap decreases by 0.2% ppt from 2.8% to 2.6% in 2025
- Our median pay gap decreases by 3.6 ppt to from 4.3% 0.7% in 2025.
Our workforce
As part of the Home Office Diversity Strategy 2021 to 2025, the department has adopted representation targets for female representation. For Senior Civil Servants (SCS) this was set at 48%, and for grades below SCS this was set at 52%. On the 31st of March 2025, the Home Office workforce female representation was 52.6%, exceeding our agreed target of 52%. Our female representation at Senior Civil Servant (SCS) grades was 46% a decrease from 47% in 2024, 2% below our revised SCS female representation target of 48%. Between March 2024 and March 2025, we saw an increase in women employed in the SCS from 165 to 171, however we saw a higher increase in the number of men from 188 (53%) in 2024 to 200 (54%) in 2025.
We remain focused on improving representation of women at SCS. We aim to increase our representation at Director level and above, which at March 2025 was 33%, which will support meeting our wider target for SCS of 48%.
Our actions
We continue to focus on addressing female underrepresentation in our workforce, which is most notable in our front-line operational roles. The Civil Service commissioners recognised the work we are doing to achieve our ambitions with the Home Office awarded the Civil Service Commissioner’s Mark of excellence for our innovative work to attract women into front line roles.
Our Digital and Data functions saw a strong increase in female representation from 33% to 38% in 2025, with our women into tech programme delivering strong results.
We have also seen success with our talent development programmes contributing to an increase in the proportion of our female workforce who are middle managers (HEO/SEO grade) This rose by 1.2%, from 26.5% in 2024 to 27.7% in 2025. The proportion of our female workforce who are senior manager (Grade6/7) rose by 0.7% from 8.7% to 9.4%.
During 2024/25 we focused on reducing the disparity in bonuses awarded to men and women within each of our business areas. We are pleased that this approach has had a positive impact including within our operational areas, with the mean and median bonus pay gaps reducing to below 3%. To build on this progress we will be undertaking further analysis of how bonuses are awarded, to identify additional actions to address remaining disparities.
This year, the civil service has focused on supporting colleagues through the menopause. The Home Office introduced a new Menopause in the Workplace policy, associated guidance, training and additional support for women experiencing the menopause or menopausal symptoms in the workplace.
We have continued to focus in increasing opportunities for part time working at more senior grades where historically part-time working has been less prevalent. This has built on our flexible working and wider policies, guidance and training that support our ambition to be an inclusive employer.
We have also introduced a new policy, assessment framework, training and guidance to meet our statutory responsibility to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The Home Office remains committed to creating a safe culture where all our people feel empowered and can achieve their potential.
Introduction
This report covers the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
Organisations with 250 or more employees are required to report annually on their Gender Pay Gap (GPG). 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 GPG.
The GPG is different to equal pay. The GPG 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 GPG 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 GPG, this can indicate there may be a range of issues, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.
Organisational context
The Home Office is committed to reducing and removing the GPG. To do so we continue to focus on three thematic areas: building a resilient and inclusive culture; maintaining a workforce representative of our communities; embedding accountability throughout our Organisation. These thematic areas are aligned to the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Our thematic approach informs how we intend to reduce the GPG through actions being taken forward in our Gender Action Plan. This work is coordinated and led by our executive Director General Gender Champion and her Gender Equality Board. The board monitors and evaluates the Department’s progress against the commitments we make to closing our GPG. Our approach is evidence-led, informed by both the feedback and firsthand experiences of our people and quantitative data collected through our People Survey.
On the 31 March 2025, the Home Office employed a total of 50,653 relevant employees compared to 50,923 on 31 March 2024. Of these 50,282 were below SCS, and 371 people were at SCS. This is a decrease in our total workforce of 369 in scope for our GPG report in 2025 compared to 2024, a decrease of 0.73%.
22% of all women in the Home Office in 2025, compared to 23.7% in 2024, were employed at AO/AA, our most junior grades, a decrease of 1.7% compared to 2024 and, a reduction of 3.9% from 2023. In comparison 17% of men are employed at AA/AO grade. 43% of men are employed at EO grade compared to 40% of women. More men are employed at senior grades as a proportion of the workforce than women.
The primary driver of the Home Office GPG continues to relate to our workforce composition and the use of allowances. The Home Office pays allowances to recompense our people engaged in front line operations rostered on a 24/7 basis. This has a significant positive impact on their pay in comparison to other parts of our workforce. Our people working 24/7 rosters are more likely to be male. Our people working in unrostered casework roles are more likely to be female. The removal of allowances from our GPG calculations reduces our hourly GPG mean to 2.6% and the median to 0.7%. The overall mean GPG, excluding allowances, decreased by 0.2%, from 2.8% in 2024, while the median decreased from 4.3% in the previous year to 0.7% in 2025.
In 2022, the Home Office introduced a new performance management approach; aiming to reward and recognise our people throughout the year, moving away from one off end of year performance bonuses. We have seen a further increase in the proportion of our people who receive either a formal performance management award, or smaller voucher, issued as part of our “thank you” scheme. This year over 90% of our workforce received some form of bonus, compared to 83% in 2024. The proportion of female employees receiving a bonus compared to male employees remains balanced as in previous years.
1. Gender Pay Gap Report
Both mean and median pay gaps are calculated as the percentage difference in female hourly pay compared to male hourly pay. The mean hourly pay gap is the percentage difference between the total of male hourly pay and female hourly pay. That is, we sum up the hourly pay for all male and female staff in the organisation separately and calculate the percentage difference to find the mean GPG. While the median pay gap is the hourly pay of the middle-ranked female compared to the middle-ranked male across all grades. As per the guidance, we use hourly pay because it takes out the effect of different working patterns and different contracted hours on the pay gap.
The GPG shows the difference in the average pay between all male and female staff in a workforce.
The GPG is different to equal pay. Equal pay legislation deals with the pay differences between men and women who perform the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value (‘equal work’). Men and women in the same employment performing equal work must, by law, receive equal pay unless any difference in pay can be justified. Having a GPG is not unlawful and does not necessarily mean there is an unlawful inequality in an organisation’s pay arrangements.
Hourly pay has been calculated in line with the government’s published guidance and broken down into four quartiles from highest to lowest. In descending order, these are called: upper, upper middle/third, lower middle/second and lower pay quartiles.
As a Civil Service Department, we are subject to current public sector pay policy, pay restrictions, and comply fully with all requirements of Civil Service Pay Guidance.
For the reporting period from the 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 (2024/25), the GPG figures were published in the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) for the sixth time. ACSES provides an overall picture across government.
This report fulfils Home Office reporting requirements and sets out the actions we are taking. This information is published on GOV.UK and the Office for Equality and Opportunities (OEO) Gender Pay Gap service portal.
2. Analysis of Hourly Gender Pay Gap
The hourly GPG 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.
A comparison of the Home Office hourly pay gaps from 2021 to 2025 is shown below:
Table 1: Hourly mean and median pay gaps, 2020-2025
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | 7.7% | 6.7% | 7.0% | 6.7% | 6.8% |
| Median | 11.5% | 7.5% | 10.7% | 11.1% | 12.0% |
The Home Office pays allowances to compensate our people engaged in front line operations rostered on a 24/7 basis has a significant positive impact on their pay in comparison to other parts of our workforce. People working 24/7 rosters are more likely to be male. In Border Force, where the majority of our 24/7 workforce is based, 60% of all employees are male. Removing allowances, the Home Office pay gap reduces to Mean 2.6% and Median 0.7%.
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 of pay ranges, with higher grades receiving higher salaries. Our administrative grades have a spot salary.
Table 2: Proportion of female employees in each pay quartile, 2020-2025
| Year | Quartiles | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower | Lower middle | Upper middle | Upper | |
| 2020/21 | 59.1% | 58.5% | 45.0% | 44.6% |
| 2021/22 | 58.8% | 56.1% | 46.3% | 45.0% |
| 2022/23 | 58.8% | 56.7% | 47.0% | 45.2% |
| 2023/24 | 58.8% | 57.4% | 46.6% | 45.4% |
| 2024/25 | 60.1% | 57.6% | 46.0% | 45.7% |
Figures relate to those in post as at 31 March of that year.
Table 3 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 junior grades – 22% of all women in the Home Office in 2025 were employed at AO/AA level a decrease of 1.5% percentage points compared to 2024 and a 3.9% reduction from 2023. In comparison 16.9%, (a decrease of 1.2% from 18.1% in 2024) of men are employed at AA/AO grade. 43.8% of men are employed at EO grade compared to 40% of women. More men are employed at senior grades as a proportion of the workforce than women.
Table 3: Numbers of staff at each pay grade, by sex, March 2025 and percentage change from 2024
| Grade | Female | Male | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of females at grade, 2025 | Percentage of females at grade, 2024 | Percentage change from 2024 | Percentage of males at grade, 2025 | Percentage of males at grade, 2024 | Percentage change from 2024 | |
| AA/AO | 22.2% | 23.7% | -1.5% | 16.9% | 18.1% | -1.2% |
| EO | 40.1% | 40.5% | -0.4% | 43.8% | 44.7% | -0.9% |
| HEO/SEO | 27.7% | 26.5% | 1.2% | 27.5% | 26.1% | 1.4% |
| G6/7 | 9.4% | 8.7% | 0.7% | 10.9% | 10.3% | 0.6% |
| SCS | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.0% | 0.8% | 0.8% | 0.0% |
We have more women working in our most junior grades than men (nearly 60% at AO level). We have fewer women in senior grades, 49% at G6/G7, and currently 46% at SCS. The imbalance and decline in female representation, as grades increase, negatively impacts our GPG. At SCS we have a stronger female representation at PB1 of 49% but a sharp decrease at SCS Director level and above at 33%.
The proportion of our female workforce at G6/7 has shown a 0.7 percentage point increase to 9.4%, from 8.7% in 2024. These are key grades for progression into SCS roles. We have seen 1.2% increase in the proportion of our female workforce at HEO/SEO level which in 2025 was 27.7%, increasing from 26.5% in 2024.
3. Analysis of the Bonus Pay Gap
In 2024, our departmental bonus pay gap was 0.1% mean, and 0% median. The bonus pay gap has fluctuated year on year (Table 4) both in favour of women in some years and men in others. This year has seen the reemergence of a pay gap of 3.2% mean and 7.2% median in favour of men.
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. This is 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 4: Bonus mean and median pay gaps, 2021-2025.
Bonus Pay Gap
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean | 4.7% | 1.5% | -0.8% | 0.1% | 3.2% |
| Median | 0% | -6.7% | 4.4% | 0% | 7.2% |
(a minus figure shows that the bonus gap is in favour of women)
Table 5: Proportion of employees receiving a bonus by gender, 2021-2025.
| Year | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| 2020/21 | 65.4% | 64.3% |
| 2021/22 | 79.7% | 79.6% |
| 2022/23 | 81.0% | 80.8% |
| 2023/24 | 83.2% | 82.8% |
| 2024/25 | 92.1% | 91.4% |
Figures relate to those receiving bonuses within the financial year.
In 2022, we introduced a new performance management system. This led to a focus on awarding bonuses 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 slightly increase each year since 2022.
Our bonus payments include all vouchers and bonuses paid in the year 2024/25. These range from small value vouchers to more substantial amounts depending on the performance or activity being rewarded.
In 2024/25 we focused on reducing both variation in the value and percentage of colleagues who received bonuses within each of our business areas This has been successful. All of our operational areas, where the majority of Home Office staff are employed have median and mean bonus pay gaps below 3%.
The proportion of people receiving a bonus this year has also increased, and our internal analysis shows that more women in junior grades received bonuses than in previous years. Our performance and reward system allows for higher bonuses to be paid as grade increases. The increase of more women at junior grades receiving bonuses this year has shifted the median point downwards contributing to a median bonus pay gap between men and women appearing this year.
Table 6: Percentage of men and women receiving a bonus at each grade.
| Grade | Percentage of individuals receiving a bonus | |
|---|---|---|
| Women | Men | |
| AA/AO | 90.9% | 92.9% |
| EO | 91.8% | 93.3% |
| HEO/SEO | 92.8% | 92.3% |
| G6/7 | 89.3% | 89.6% |
| SCS | 80.7% | 78.0% |
| Home Office | 91.4% | 92.1% |
4. Targeted Action to reduce the Gender Pay Gap
Our actions in 2024/25
Our response to our pay gap in 2024 has been informed by detailed workforce modelling undertaken by our Home Office analysts. This continues to highlight that the award of allowances, to recompense those employed in 24/7 operational roles, is strongly impacting our GPG. It also continued to show that focusing our attention at those areas in our organisation where there are less women employed than men would have a positive effect in reducing our pay gap. In 2024, the Home Office was recognised by the Civil Service Commissioner’s innovation award for excellence in external recruitment for its approach to attracting women into frontline roles. Our actions have included:
Pay and Reward
We have increased oversight and governance on the award of operational allowances. Our Transparency Board scrutinizes the rate and award of allowances to ensure both fairness and equity, while also ensuring that Value for Money is achieved.
The development of our pay award, for 2025 which is to be agreed, also identifies and proposes changes to our pay and allowance system would have a positive impact on our GPG.
We focused on reducing and eliminating differences in the mean and median bonus pay gaps between men and women within business areas. This approach has had a positive effect within our largest three operational areas, where we have reduced both mean and median pay gaps between men and women to less than 3%.
Increasing representation of women in our workforce
We continue to focus on increasing female representation where appropriate. The Home Office Women in Tech (WIT) network delivers targeted initiatives to develop our own people and address barriers to progression and recruitment. The introduction of career pathways, inclusive recruitment and outreach have continued at pace. Within our digital function we have seen a 5% increase in female representation from 33% in 2024 to 38% in 2025.
To address the gender imbalance within our 24/7 operational roles, we launched a series of actions to help increase representation by improving opportunities for career progression for women. These activities included bespoke positive action programmes as well as attraction strategies. We were recognised for our innovation in our approach to external recruitment by the Civil Service Commissioners.
During this year we launched a new talent programme, for those in feeder grades to Senior Civil Service (SCS). 47% of participants were female. We have had a particular success in seeing our female representation at middle management grades and senior management increase by 1.3% at HEO/SEO grades and 0.7% at Grade 6/7
An inclusive work environment
During this year we have developed and introduced a new policy to support those experiencing the menopause or menopausal symptoms., Our approach including a new centralised menopause resource hub providing access to policy, training, and further support has been shared with colleagues across Whitehall with considerable interest shown in our approach. An interim check-in showed colleagues felt that support in the Home Office (regarding menopause) had improved in the last 9 months. We are continuing to evaluate and coordinate our approach through both qualitative and quantitative approaches to broaden and ensure that we embed our approach across the Home Office.
Our areas of focus for the coming year
The Department remains committed to building an organisation that reflects the communities we serve. This will help us to better understand and respond to their needs. Our priority areas of focus remain unchanged from last year.
Pay and Reward
We will continue to identify opportunities to reduce our GPG through our pay system and how it is structured. Where opportunities exist which meet our business delivery and needs, we will seek to structure our pay system in a way which reduces or narrows the pay gap between women and men alongside other pay gap disparities.
We will build on the success we had from last year in minimising bonus pay gaps within different business areas. This year we will review our approach to performance management, undertaking regression analysis to better understand the drivers of our bonus pay gap differentials
We will review the application of bonuses and how these are applied across the Home Office by different business areas, to drive equity and fairness of approach,
Increasing representation of Women in our workforce
We are continuing our focus to improve our female SCS representation. Our actions aim to ensure that at Director level and above we have balanced male and female representation. As part of our approach, we continue to focus on ensuring that our key internal routes to SCS provide opportunities for women to progress.
We will continue to focus on increasing opportunities at senior levels of the organisation for flexible working, with the aim of reaching the Civil Service average at SCS. 80% of part time workers in the Home Office are women. We will identify opportunities for increased flexibility at SCS level, including opportunities for job sharing.
We will continue to focus on those areas of the Home Office where women are underrepresented, particularly in our frontline operational 24/7 roles and our technical Digital and Data roles. We will focus on attracting women to apply for and be successful for roles in these areas, building on our Women into Tech approach, and our approach to encourage women to apply for our 24/7 operational roles
We will focus on continuing to develop our people through leadership and talent initiatives. We will develop our sponsorship and positive action approach further, which increased female representation in our middle manager grades over the last year.
An inclusive Work Environment
We will continue to drive forward with our work to further support our people through menopause. We will continue to evaluate the impact of our new policy, training and support one year on and identify the areas where we still need to do more. We will create a menopause work group with senior representatives from each from each of our business areas to drive action and ensure the department is making the right progress.
We will continue to ensure that when changes within our organisation take place, the impact on different groups of employees is understood. We intend to strengthen our guidance on equality impact assessments, to consider not just the impact of different protected characteristic groups, including women, but how changes may impact on our pay gaps, to ensure we factor in wider opportunities to reduce our pay gap where appropriate to do so.
5. Declaration
I 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.
Lawrence Carter, Interim Chief People Officer