Transparency data

MHRA gender pay gap report: 2018 to 2019

Updated 5 January 2023

1. Agency gender pay gap report: April 2018 to March 2019

Snapshot date: 31 March 2019

1.1 Definitions

Mean Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay

The difference between the mean* hourly rate of pay of males and females, where hourly pay includes basic pay, bonuses, and allowances. *average pay for all male and female employees

Median Gender Pay Gap in Hourly Pay

The difference between the median* hourly rate of pay of males and females *middle rate of pay (when listed in order) for all males and female employees

Mean Gender Pay Gap in Bonus Pay

The difference between the mean* bonus paid to males and females where bonus refers to a variety of bonus payments (see Point 4 below) *average bonus for all male and female employees

Median Gender Pay Gap in Bonus Pay

The difference between the median bonus pay paid to males and females *middle value of bonuses paid to all males compared to all female employees

Bonus proportions

The proportions of males and females who were paid a bonus

Quartile bands

The proportions of male and female employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle, and upper quartile pay bands

1.2 Gender pay gap data

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce.

This report fulfils our reporting requirements in providing an analysis of data and sets out what we are doing to close the gender pay gap in the Agency. We have not included contingent workers and contractors, but we intend to review information for this group in the future.

The information in this report is extracted from payroll data as at 31 March 2019 where 58% (754 employees) of the Agency workforce were female and 42% (544 employees) were male.

The Agency supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender. Our pay approach is based on the principles of consistency, fairness and transparency.

Data summary	%
1. Mean gender pay gap in hourly pay	7.1
2. Median gender pay gap in hourly pay	6.2
3. Mean gender pay gap in bonus pay in the 12 months ending 31 March	28.2
4. Median gender pay gap in bonus pay in the 12 months ending 31 March	25.4
5.The proportion of male employees paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 31 March	23.3
6.The proportion of female employees paid a bonus in the 12 months ending 31 March	23.9

The data summary is the overall Agency picture using ‘raw’ data from the payroll system and is made up of an average of basic pay, bonuses, and allowances. Sections 3 and 4 below, offers more analysis and explanation of the data that underpins this summary.

Proportion of male and female employees in each quartile (basic pay):

Quartile	Proportion of male employees at the Agency	Male %	Proportion of female employees at the Agency	Female %
First quartile (lower)	117	36.1	207	63.9
Second quartile (lower middle)	128	39.7	196	60.3
Third quartile (middle upper)	142	44.0	182	56.0
Fourth quartile (upper)	152	46.9	172	53.1

63.9% of employees in the lower pay quartile are female, compared with 53.1% in the upper pay quartile. 58% of the workforce of the Agency is female.

1.3 Further Analysis

The number of male and female employees at each grade/basic hourly pay:

Grade	Female	Male	Female Mean Hrly Rate	Male Mean Hrly Rate	% Difference
AA/AO	25	25	£11.66	£11.49	-1%
EO	114	69	£14.19	£14.10	-1%
HEO	135	83	£16.90	£16.93	0%
SEO	171	117	£21.38	£21.06	-1%
Grade 7	149	106	£27.44	£27.24	-1%
Grade 6	88	72	£35.30	£35.91	2%
SCS	72	72	£44.16	£46.18	5%
All employees	754	544	£24.43	£24.70	1%

Whilst the table above does not appear to align with the mean gender pay gap in terms of hourly pay and percentage differences as reported above, this is an analysis of basic pay only and does not include bonuses and allowances which the mean gender pay gap does.

It is noted that the span of salaries within the SCS 1-3 bands is significantly larger than within the delegated grade pay bands and therefore averaging is influenced by this.

As highlighted in previous reports, it would appear to be the case, that the majority of the pay gap relates to employees who joined the Agency or our legacy organisations, more than 5 years ago.

We are pleased to note that our gender pay gap has reduced by 3.5% in the last year, which we believe is mainly as a result of the increase of the number of women in higher graded posts e.g. SCS and progression over time away from legacy pay policy differences.

1.4 Bonus Pay

Bonus pay includes special bonuses paid to delegated grade employees, and the in-year bonuses for the SCS. Bonuses were paid to 106 employees from delegated grades (9% of the delegated grade population) with a total payout of £124,174; and to 18 employees in the SCS grades (12.5% of the SCS population) with a total payout of £127,601. It should be noted that there are separate schemes for delegated and SCS grades.

• 8% of the female (delegated grades) population received a special bonus totalling £70,608 with an average payment of £1,196.75
• 10% of the male (delegated grades) population received a bonus totalling £53,566 with an average payment of £1,139.71
• 11% of the female SCS population received an in-year bonus totalling £24,000 with an average payment of £3,000
• 13.8% of the male SCS population received an in-year bonus totalling £30,000 with an average payment of £3,000

The median bonus for males was £1,175 compared to £1,000 for females

1.5 Targeted action to reduce the pay gap

1. We continue to review our recruitment policies and processes to ensure fairness and equality, and that all new starters are recruited in line with Agency/Civil Service pay policy and any flexibility requiring a business case approved by Human Resources / the Agency Pay Committee. Human Resources will continue to support recruitment activity. The next phase of our work will be to scrutinise and review the recruitment journey from job posting through to job offer, which offers insight into the demographics of applicants at each stage of the process. This hasn’t been possible to date due to implementation of the new Taleo platform.

2. The Talent & Learning team continue to monitor the mandatory requirement for all staff to undertake unconscious bias training - the year showed an increased take up which is a move in the right direction; 91.2% of all staff completed Equality & Diversity Essentials and 93% completed Unconscious Bias training. We will also continue our in-house recruitment training for recruiting managers, covering recruitment principles and selection techniques.

3. The Agency continues to support women returning to work following maternity or adoption leave. There is the possibility of shared parental leave, job share or part time working, as well as flexibilities such as flexible working hours and home working for appropriate roles. There are policies to support line managers with discussing flexible working options with their staff. There is an active Parent Support Network.

4. There is continued focus on improving representation of female participants on talent development schemes. Our efforts to promote and increase awareness of the Civil Service Crossing Thresholds and Positive Action Pathway 12-month programmes have resulted in increased interest and 3 employees completed PAP compared to none the previous year. Other more general career development activities such as expansion of the Agency’s coaching and mentoring networks and completion and launch of the Agency’s Career Pathways project, provide support to all staff.

5. The Executive Team, and through delegation to the Data Sub-group of the Agency Diversity and Inclusion Group, continues to monitor diversity related demographics on a regular basis and consider any related action; this includes for example the distribution of bonuses.