Transparency data

Ministry of Justice gender pay gap report: 2025

Published 16 December 2025

Applies to England and Wales

Executive Summary

This report has been prepared for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Group as part of the legal requirement to publish the gender pay gap on an annual basis.

The MoJ Group is responsible for all aspects of the criminal and civil justice systems. It is the second largest government department^{[footnote 1]}, with a total full-pay^{[footnote 2]} workforce of 94,646 people (31 March 2025). 58% (54,497) of full-pay staff were female and 42% (40,149) were male. Female staff made up 50% of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) and 55% of the feeder grades (Grade 6 and 7) below SCS.

Staff employed in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) made up 72% (67,604) of the full-pay workforce. Being a prison officer is the most common role in the MoJ Group. In HMPPS 69.9% (13,154) of prison officers are male and 30.1% (5,670) were female.

In 2025, the mean gender pay gap was 6.1% (an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 2024) and the median gender pay gap was 8% (an increase of 3 percentage points from 2024). Allowances for shift working in the prison service continue to be a crucial factor producing a gender pay gap for the MoJ Group.

The gender bonus gap is typically subject to greater year-on-year variation as a result of award amounts and frequency. In 2024/25 the mean overall gender bonus gap was -1.1% and the median was -15.4%. Negative values (-%) indicate that the average and middle-ranked female member received a higher bonus payment than the average and middle-ranked male staff member although analysis of the distribution of bonus amounts received by male and female staff are a lot closer than the median bonus gap figure implies.

MoJ is committed to narrowing the gender pay and bonus gap. Our ongoing monitoring and analysis is informing a future reward and people strategy that supports inclusion and retention.

1. Introduction

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulation 2017^{[footnote 3]} came into force on 31 March 2017. Departments are required to publish their gender pay gap taken on the snapshot date of 31 March each year. Gender Pay Gap figures include:

• the mean and median gender pay gap based on hourly pay
• the percentage of male and female staff in each hourly pay quartile
• the mean and median gender bonus gaps
• the percentage of male and female staff receiving a bonus in the 12 months up to 31 March 2025 (reporting period is 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025)

The MoJ Group gender pay gap calculations include full-pay employees in post on 31 March 2025. Totals may not sum as expected due to rounding.

The official gender pay gap methodology only includes full-pay staff (but the gender bonus gap includes all staff in post who received a bonus regardless of full-pay status)^{[footnote 4]}. A full-pay employee is defined as an employee who is paid their full basic pay – including paid leave or paid for piecework during the pay period in which their snapshot date falls. Part-time staff may be classed as full-pay.   

Organisational context

The MoJ Group has a Headquarters (HQ) and several executive agencies, whose staff have been included in these figures. These executive agencies are His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS), His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

Business Area	Female	Male	Total	Female Proportion	Male Proportion
MOJ HQ	4,661	3,384	8,045	58%	42%
HMPPS	36,971	30,633	67,604	55%	45%
HMCTS	10,862	4,755	15,617	70%	30%
OPG	1,003	761	1,764	57%	43%
LAA	819	473	1,292	63%	37%
CICA	181	143	324	56%	44%
Total	54,497	40,149	94,646	58%	42%

At 31 March 2025, the overall MoJ Group had 94,646 full-pay staff in total, including SCS (compared to 94,380 staff in 2024 and 90,169 staff in 2023). Overall, 58% (54,497) of full-pay staff were female and 42% (40,149) were male. In each part of the MoJ Group female staff made up over 50% of the workforce. 

HM Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) staff made up almost three in four of all staff (72%) in the MoJ Group. In HMPPS, Operational Prison Officers are predominantly male at 70% and Probation Service Bands 1 to 3 are predominantly female at 70%.  

The table below shows the distribution of female and male staff across each grade. The split in each grade in the department as a whole is fairly even, with most grades having more female staff. Overall, female staff made up 50% of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) and 55% of the feeder grades (Grade 6 and 7) below SCS, consistent with previous years.

Grade	Female	Male	Total	Female Proportion	Male Proportion
SCS	157	157	314	50%	50%
Grade 6/7	2,456	2,026	4,482	55%	45%
SEO/HEO	8,999	6,428	15,427	58%	42%
EO	6,162	5,730	11,892	52%	48%
AA/AO	19,708	20,219	39,927	49%	51%
Other[footnote 5]	17,002	5,576	21,941	75%	25%
Total	54,486	40,136	94,622	57%	43%

A single grade will often correspond to a number of very distinct roles across a diverse workforce and there is a significant female/male split among some roles. Operational Delivery is the most common profession group with 87%^{[footnote 6]} of staff working in operational roles alongside non-operational roles in professions like Digital and Legal.  

Our diversity and inclusion approach

The Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2022-2025 and Civil Service People Plan 2024-2027 published in February 2022 and January 2024 respectively, focus on enabling a more inclusive Civil Service which values and invests in its people as well as understanding and drawing from the communities it serves, contributing to the delivery of A Modern Civil Service. 

The MoJ People Strategy 2023-2026 and related MoJ Inclusion Approach continue to be our strategic departmental framework.

2. 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 gender pay gap. 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 gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all male and female staff in a workforce.

The gender pay gap 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 gender pay gap 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^{[footnote 7]}and broken down into four quartiles from highest to lowest. In descending order, these are called: upper, upper middle, lower middle and lower pay quartiles.

This report fulfils Ministry of Justice reporting requirements and sets out the actions we are taking. This information is published on GOV.UK and the Gender pay gap service portal^{[footnote 8]}.

3. Analysis of pay gap

The mean and median gender pay gap is calculated on hourly pay of full-pay employees in post on 31 March 2025.

Year	Mean Pay Gap	Median Pay Gap
2025	6.1%	8%
2024	5.7%	5%
2023	5.9%	6.3%
2022	5.9%	11.4%
2021	5.9%	13.6%
2020	5.8%	15.6%
2019	5.8%	15.9%
2018	6.5%	15.3%
2017	6.8%	15.3%

From 2021 to 2023, the overall mean pay gap plateaued at 5.9%, reducing to 5.7% in 2024 before increasing by 0.4 percentage points (pp) to 6.1% in 2025.

Across the MoJ Group, approximately 1 in 3 male staff are employed in HMPPS as prison officers, a role that includes allowances for shift work. By contrast, approximately 1 in 9 (11.0% of all female staff) are employed in HMPPS as prison officers. Allowances for shift working in the Prison Service continue to be a key factor leading to a gender pay gap for the MoJ Group.

The median pay gap for 2025 of 8%, is an increase of three percentage points from 2024. The median pay gap is sensitive to the grade or role of the middle-ranked individuals. Last year, both the median persons were in the same role. This year, the median persons are in the different roles, the median male is a Band 3 prison officer, while the median female is a court clerk. Although the median female has slightly higher hourly base pay, the gap is created by the prison officer’s shift working allowances.

By comparison the Civil Service mean and median gender pay gaps in 2025 were 6.9% and 6.4% respectively^{[footnote 9]}.

Hourly pay quartiles

Percentage of female and male staff in each pay quartile comparison by year.

Year	Upper Quartile		Upper Middle Quartile		Lower Middle Quartile		Lower Quartile
	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male
2025	56%	44%	48%	52%	58%	42%	69%	31%
2024	56%	44%	45%	55%	60%	40%	69%	31%
2023	55%	45%	46%	54%	61%	39%	69%	31%
2022	55%	45%	48%	52%	59%	41%	66%	34%
2021	52%	48%	46%	54%	56%	44%	66%	34%
2020	52%	48%	43%	57%	56%	44%	66%	34%
2019	51%	49%	42%	58%	57%	43%	63%	37%
2018	51%	49%	40%	60%	59%	41%	62%	38%
2017	51%	49%	38%	62%	59%	41%	65%	35%

The hourly pay quartiles data show the proportion of female and male staff in each pay quartile when we rank staff in order of hourly pay rate. Female staff occupied 56% of the highest hourly pay (upper quartile). The proportion of female staff in the lowest hourly pay (lower quartile) remained unchanged from the previous two years at 69%.

Since pay gap reporting began in 2017, the upper quartile has increased from 51% to 56% and the upper middle quartile has increased from 38% to 48%. This year the upper middle quartile figure matches the previous peak which was seen in 2022.  

4. Analysis of the bonus gap

The mean/median bonus gap is the difference between the mean/median bonus paid to male and female staff, who have received bonuses. The bonus pay gap is more volatile than the gender pay gap because there is year-on-year variation in award amounts and frequency.

For bonus pay we captured data for the 12-month period between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025 from our in-year reward scheme.

Bonus Pay

Year	Mean Bonus Gap	Median Bonus Gap
2024/25	-1.1%	-15.4%
2023/24	3.7%	-10.9%
2022/23	11.7%	-19.5%
2021/22	11.6%	0.0%
2020/21	31.7%	27.4%
2019/20	10.7%	0.0%
2018/19	15.9%	-6.7%
2017/18	8.0%	-13.3%
2016/17	18.3%	16.7%

The MoJ Group gender bonus gap figures differ from the Civil Service as a whole where the mean and median gender bonus gaps were 22.5% and 14.3% respectively.^{[footnote 10]}

In 2024/25, the overall MoJ mean bonus pay gap reduced by 4.8pp to -1.1% in 2024/25 compared to a gap of 3.7% in 2023/24. The median gender bonus gap for 2024/25 was -15.4%, a reduction of 4.5pp from -10.9% in 2023/24. Negative values (-%) indicate that the average female received a slightly higher bonus payment (£305) than male staff member (£302).

With the median bonus gap figures the distribution of bonus amounts received by male and female staff are a lot closer than the median bonus gap figure implies. Our analysis showed that c.50% of males received £130 or less, while c.47% of female staff received £130 or less. This implies the distributions of bonuses are closer than the median bonus gap figure suggests and a small variation in the distribution could produce no median bonus gap.

Year	Mean Award	Median Award
	Female	Male	Female	Male
2024/25	£305	£302	£150	£130
2023/24	£273	£283	£122	£110
2022/23	£263	£298	£120	£100
2021/22	£404	£458	£200	£200

Our performance and reward system focuses on providing reward and recognition throughout the year, rather than the end of the year. The percentage of staff receiving a bonus was higher in 2024/25 when compared to all previous years. Overall, for the MoJ Group 59.8% of female staff and 46.6% of male staff received a bonus. This is an increase in the proportion of staff receiving a bonus in 2021/22 when just 36.0% female staff and 30.3% male staff received a bonus. We will continue to deliver and monitor the in-year reward and recognition outcomes.

Year	% receiving bonus
	Female	Male
2024/25	59.8%	46.6%
2023/24	54.4%	42.8%
2022/23	56.9%	45.9%
2021/22	36.0%	30.3%

5. Action to reduce the gender pay gap

The MoJ will continue to take action to narrow our pay and bonus gaps. Below is a snapshot of progress made over the last year. We remain focused on monitoring pay and reward, improving our approach to attraction, recruitment and our employee offer.

Pay and reward

As in the previous year, this year’s pay awards, across the varied remits for Prisons, Probation and MoJ, continue to reflect our ambition to develop a modern employment offer that helps us attract and retain the skills we need to deliver our business.

All pay awards within the MoJ Group (i.e. MoJ, Probation Service and Prison Service) for delegated grades are subject to a detailed Equality Impact Analysis. We have monitored all pay award proposals to ensure we are reducing the pay gap for the relevant workforce as well as continuing to monitor gender outcomes for all bonus payments to promote a more equal distribution.

Our future work in this area will support the department to develop proposals to monitor and reduce the pay gap where possible, supported by a strong evidence-base.

Attraction and recruitment

This year we have refreshed the MoJ’s Inclusive Recruitment Guide. The guide takes vacancy managers through best practice steps to attract a broad range of candidates from across the country and embed inclusion throughout the recruitment campaign, from assessing need in marketing, to attraction, assessment/selection and appointment.

Over the last year, we have delivered ‘Making Fair and Effective Decisions in Recruitment’ training for those involved in recruitment. Attendees are taken through process from the point of writing a job description to the point of offering the role and provided with information, tools and techniques to help ensure we reach fair and effective decisions.

Employee offer

The MoJ have continued the programme of work to harmonise people policies across the department. In recent years we have updated policies and guidance to support parents and those who want to start a family. This year we introduced a new Neonatal Care Leave Policy, updated our miscarriage guidance and fertility treatment guidance. We also created a new Parent Support hub on our intranet for staff and managers. The page hosts information on family leave and pay, support in special circumstances, keeping in touch, returning to and being at work.

We have also relaunched the Carer Support hub on our intranet and delivered sessions to raise awareness and understanding of the Carer’s Passport for staff and managers, alongside events to improve wellbeing of carers.

Since introducing Menopause in the Workplace Policy in 2022, an animated explainer video and pre-populated workplace adjustment passport have been added to our resources. MoJ’s Supporting the Workplace in Menopause (SWIM) network have hosted regular ‘Let’s Talk Menopause’ sessions and created a supportive community open to all our staff and managers. 

This year we worked with our staff and senior leaders to relaunch an update to our Domestic Abuse guidance and support for staff and their managers. We recognise that the issue impacts everyone but particularly women, sometimes the workplace may be the only safe space to seek help. As an employer we play an important role in reducing the stigma and breaking the silence.

We continued to monitor the uptake of talent and learning programmes including for the balance of women and men. We monitored uptake of our new Coaching and Mentoring Hub and undertook an evaluation 12 months after the launch of the scheme.

We introduced a new approach to line manager capability, which integrates Civil Service Line Manager Standards, and associated products with MoJ products. This is designed to support managers with the basics and to help them become confident capable and consistent. The approach acknowledges that the line management relationship is the most important in the organisation as it’s the point we can feel most connected, and that line managers will have different strengths and development requirements, depending on their level of experience.

In May 2025, the HMPPS Professional Standards Review^{[footnote 11]} was published, which included 12 recommendations to improve professional standards and culture in HMPPS. The recommendations include introducing independent reporting, investigating and decision-making for HMPPS staff complaints of bullying, harassment and discrimination, which the MoJ plans to implement more widely across the department, as part of its programme of HR policy harmonisation. A further recommendation is to improve how the organisation supports staff who may be a victim of sexual harassment or assault, which will be included in updated Sexual Harassment and Assault Guidance. This continues to build on the steps the organisation is taking to prevent sexual harassment, under the Worker Protection Act 2024.   

Our work to narrow the gender pay gap is part of our gender equality plan that is focused on inclusion and retention. We will build on our work to date; a summary of actions planned next year is listed below.

Action Summary

In the final year of our MoJ People Strategy 2023-26 we will continue to work to improve gender equality, maintaining female representation and narrowing our gender pay gap, by:

• evaluating the impact of line manager capability learning to ensure our managers can perform in their role and progress into leadership roles across the MoJ and the Civil Service;
• continuing to monitor the impact of pay deals on the gender pay gap and working closely with Government People Group to ensure our pay and reward approach is aligned with their future vision for Civil Service Reward as they develop a new Civil Service wide reward strategy;
• continuing to monitor the use of reward and recognition to ensure our policy and processes are implemented fairly and used appropriately;

To sustain our primary actions, we will undertake accompanying activities to reduce barriers for women to progress their careers and create a values driven culture that helps us attract and retain skilled, diverse staff, by:

• continuing to update our people policies to ensure they are inclusive, consistent across the MoJ and are easy to use. We will update a range of policy and guidance that could help reduce barriers for women including, Workplace Adjustments Policy to help put in place effective adjustments for needs, like menopause symptoms and Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault Guidance, a behaviour that disproportionately impacts female staff;
• continuing to promote, develop and report on the line manager capability approach through existing communication channels, design and develop new content reflecting organisational needs, and the establishment of a mechanism to collate management information across each component part of the line manager capability approach;
• continuing to work in partnership with departmental inclusion champions and staff networks to better understand staff experiences and to help the organisation improve and/or promote policy, guidance and the support available for all staff and managers in the workplace. A priority area in next year will be working with our SWIM Network and the Civil Service on consistent menopause support, policy and equipping managers to better support colleagues;
• seek Carer Confident reaccreditation and continue to improve support for carers by promoting the use of carers passports and raising awareness of caring responsibilities across the department to ensure support is in place for all who need it;
• HMPPS will continue to develop preventative steps to address sexual harm, including rolling out improved training resources and risk assessments. Further steps will closely align to delivery of the HMPPS Professional Standards Review recommendations;
• HMPPS will gather insights through a survey on women’s health, work-life balance and career progression barriers, particularly in frontline operational roles.

6. Declaration

We confirm that data reported by the Ministry of Justice 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.

MoJ Permanent Secretary: Dr Jo Farrar CB OBE

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1. Statistical bulletin - Civil Service Statistics: 2025 - GOV.UK ↩

2. A full pay employee is defined as an employee who is paid their full basic pay – including paid leave or paid for piecework during the pay period in which their snapshot date falls. Part-time staff may be classed as full-pay. ↩

3. The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017 (legislation.gov.uk) ↩

4. Preparing your data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ↩

5. Other predominantly refers to Probation Service grades that have no Civil Service grade equivalent, as well as staff whose grade is unknown. ↩

6. Civil Service statistics: 2025 - GOV.UK (Statistical tables: Civil Service Statistics 2025 - Table 8) ↩

7. Making your gender pay gap calculations - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ↩

8. Search and compare gender pay gap data - Gender pay gap service - GOV.UK (gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk) ↩

9. Statistical bulletin - Civil Service Statistics: 2025 - GOV.UK ↩

10. [Statistical bulletin - Civil Service Statistics: 2025 - GOV.UK ↩

11. HMPPS Professional Standards Review - GOV.UK ↩