Corporate report

Equal pay audit 2019: MOD core civilian non-industrial personnel (accessible version)

Published 30 March 2021

This report presents a comparison by Gender, and Ethnicity, of annualised average salaries in the period 1 April 2019 to 1 April 2020, in order to meet the Department’s obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty to provide information on its workforce identified by the Equality Act 2010. Further analysis to compare length of service in grade, promotions and length of time to promotion have been conducted to provide possible explanations for differences in pay that may be found between these groups.

Introduction

The Equal Pay Audit (EPA) examines the equality of pay of all non-industrial and industrial personnel by analysing the differences in average basic salary based on Gender. It also conducts the same analyses on Ethnicity and Working status.

The analyses conducted within this report require exclusions. The population in this report consists of MOD Main non-industrial personnel with a current Human Resources Management System (HRMS) record, who are identified as being paid on the CHIPS pay extract as at 1 April 2019. The following exclusions were applied throughout:

• Defence, Equipment & Support Bespoke Trading Entity (DE&S) personnel.
• Trading Fund and Executive agency personnel.
• Royal Fleet Auxiliary personnel.
• Locally engaged civilians.
• Industrial grades (separate report for these grades).
• Analogue grades (which include: Ministry of Defence Police, Fire Service, NHS, Teachers, Civilian Medical Practitioners and Civilian Dental Practitioners).
• Senior Civil Servants and equivalent (those paid above the Band B1 maximum).
• Personnel for whom no basic salary data is recorded on CHIPS pay extract as at 1st April 2019.
• Personnel for whom required data are missing for other explanatory factors required for these analyses.
• Personnel on Zero pay, not being paid by the MOD as at 1 April 2019, are excluded from salary analysis, but are included within the feeder grades of promotion analysis, due to the fact that someone can be promoted from zero pay into a paid position.

Further exclusions in addition to those listed above are made for the promotions analysis:

• Personnel not substantively promoted between 1 April 2019 to 1 April 2020
• Personnel promoted into or between Senior Civil Service grades.
• Other personnel whose pay falls outside the pay band scales, such as Apprentices and some Retained grades; although those on broader banded pay scales, such as Fast Streamers are included.
• Personnel who move from a Trading Fund / Executive agency post into a MOD Main post.

To assist anyone who requires historical or additional data, Defence Statistics publishes Civilian and Armed Forces Personnel data via the MOD Statistics homepage.

Definitions

Adjusted Average Basic Salary figures have been calculated using Analysis of Covariance methodology, with adjusted averages obtained after the differential effects of Length of Service in Grade in males and females have been taken into account. See background notes for more detail.

Average Basic Salary figures for each individual are derived from the basic monthly salary rate they were paid as at 1st April 2019, annualised to assume a whole year at the same salary rate. In order to assure comparability independent of full-time/part-time status, for each individual it represents what they would earn in a full year at the same salary rate with an FTE of 1.

Difference in Average Basic Salary represent the ratio of the percentage difference between the gender averages to the higher of the gender averages.

MOD Main Total

• Includes: Top Level Budgetary Areas (TLBs)
• Excludes: Trading funds, Executive agency, DE&S Bespoke Trading Entity, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Locally engaged civilians.

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME): BAME is now the widely used terminology, as a collective descriptor for non-white citizens, across Whitehall, other public sector bodies and the third sector, as well as among civil service race staff networks and their cross-Whitehall umbrella body, the Civil Service Race Forum. See also Ethnic Origin.

Declaration rates: Ethnic background, disability, religion and sexual orientation are self-declared. Therefore representation rates are calculated from known declarations and exclude unknown and undeclared personnel.

Ethnic origin is the ethnic grouping to which a person has indicated that they belong. The classifications used were revised for the 2011 Census of Population when a classification of nationality was also collected.

Full-time civil servants are those working 37 hours a week (36 hours or over in London), excluding meal breaks.

Industrial personnel are civilian personnel employed primarily in a trade, craft or other manual occupation. This covers a wide range of work such as industrial technicians, air freight handlers, storekeepers, vergers and drivers.

Non-industrial personnel are civilian personnel who are not primarily employed in a trade, craft or other manual labour occupation. This covers a wide range of personnel undertaking work such as administration, analysis, policy, procurement, finance, medical, dental, teaching, policing, science and engineering.

Part-time civil servants are those working fewer than 37 hours a week (36/37 hours in London), excluding meal breaks.

Date comparisons

Pay Awards were delayed for the 2019/20 financial year, resulting in the 2019 Equal Pay Audit data being taken from 1 April 2019 to 1 April 2020 as opposed to the standard 1 October 2018 to 1 October 2019 for reliability purposes. Therefore, data in this report is not fully comparable with data for 2016, 2017 and 2018 in terms of MOD Main departments.

However, MOD Main does not include Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S). Since 1 July 2015 DE&S has been reported as a bespoke trading entity. Due to the size and makeup of DE&S, its removal from MOD Main may have an impact on a number of variables which means that direct comparison with outputs prior to 2015 are not consistent.

Abbreviations, Symbols and Conventions

Abbreviations

Abbreviation	Complete Phrase or Word
FTE	Full Time Equivalent
LoS	Length of Service
Diff.	Difference
Adj.	Adjusted
%	Percentage

Symbols

• (~) fewer than five
• (*) not applicable and/or data is not of a sufficient size
• (–) zero or rounded to zero.

All percentages are calculated from headcount totals (part time equivalent to one person), from unrounded figures and are shown to 1 decimal place.

Rounding

Where rounding has been used, totals and sub-totals have been rounded separately and so may not equal the sums of their rounded parts. When rounding to the nearest 10, numbers ending in ‘5’ have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias.

Tables

All tables in this publication can be viewed in Excel ODS format here: ODS tables.

Average Annual Basic Salary by Gender and Grade

Average Annual Basic Salary for All Permanent Employees by Gender and Grade

Table A1 shows for each Non-Industrial Broader Banded Grade; the strength of personnel (headcount), the average (arithmetic mean) FTE worked, the average (arithmetic mean) length of service in grade, and the average annualised basic salary split by gender. In addition, the gender difference in length of service in grade is presented in years, and the percentage gender difference in average basic salary is given.

Key Point

When average annual salary is adjusted to take account of length of service in grade there is no substantial difference between male and female average annual salary for all grades (differences for Bands B1 to E2 are no more than + 0.7%).

Summary

Taking the average annual salary without adjusting for any factors which may affect a difference, at each grade (Bands B1 to E2) males had a higher average basic salary than females. These differences ranged from 0.3% (Band B2) to 1.1% (Band C1 and C2). There was also a length of service difference by gender with males having longer length of service within grade for all grades, apart from Band E1 (0.1 years in favour of females).

This is highlighted in Table A0, where there was noticeable variation in the average length of service in grade (Bands B1 to E2). This ranged from 3.1 years (Band B2) to 10.7 years (Band E2).

Table A0: Average Length of Service (years) in Grade by MOD Main Broader Banded Non-Industrial Personnel, as at 1 April 2019

Grade	Average	Males	Females
B1	3.4	4. 0	2.3
B2	3.1	3.7	2.3
C1	4.2	5. 5	3.0
C2	4.8	5.5	3.9
D	6.3	7.4	5.0
E1	8.9	9.2	8.7
E2	10.7	11. 6	7.5

• Overall average per grade excluding gender

To take the observed differences in length of service in grade into account when making gender comparisons in pay, Table A1 presents adjusted average basic salary figures by gender, and the resultant percentage gender difference in average basic salary. These adjusted averages were derived using ANCOVA analysis to remove the effect which an individual’s length of service in grade has to their basic salary, providing a more representative comparison of the average basic salary of males and females of the same grade.

Adjusting for length of service in grade resulted in average female salaries being broadly equivalent to average male salaries (for each grade the difference was no more than + 0.7%). To illustrate this point, before the adjustment for length of service in grade, there was a 1.1% difference, between males and females, in average annual salary for Band C1. After the adjustment for length of service in grade, the difference was 0.6% in favour of males; dropping by half a percent.

Table A1: Average Annualised Basic Salary by Gender and Grade

Grade	Band B1	Band B2	Band C1	Band C2	Band D	Band E1	Band E2
Headcount	460	1,340	3,720	5,660	5,820	6,620	190
Male	300	790	2,250	3,140	3,060	1,870	150
Female	160	560	1,470	2,520	2,760	4,760	40
Average FTE	0.98	0.98	0.97	0.97	0.97	0.94	0.99
Male	0.99	0.99	0.98	0.99	0.99	0.98	1
Female	0.98	0.97	0.96	0.96	0.95	0.93	0.97
Average LoS in Grade (years)	3.4	3.1	4.2	4.8	6.3	8.7	10.7
Male	4.0	3.7	5.5	5.5	7.4	8.7	11.6
Female	2.3	2.3	3.0	3.9	5.0	8.7	7.5
Diff. in LoS in Grade (years)	1.6	1.4	2.6	1.6	2.4	-0.1	4.1
Average Basic Salary (£)	64,440	54,100	40,390	33,010	26,510	20,850	19,220
Male	64,570	54,170	40,570	33,170	26,640	20,900	19,240
Female	64,190	53,990	40,120	32,810	26,370	20,820	19,170
Diff. in Average Basic Salary	0.6%	0.3%	1.1%	1.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.4%
Average Basic Salary Adj. for LoS in Grade (£)
Male	64,561	54,107	40,493	33,105	26,552	20,897	19,224
Female	64,205	54,078	40,244	32,887	26,473	20,825	19,207
Average Basic Salary Diff. Adj. for Los in Grade	0.6%	0.1%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%

• Salaries have been rounded for presentation purposes
• Because of rounding, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts

Average Annual Basic Salary for Part-Time Permanent Employees by Gender and Grade

Table A2 shows the same outputs as in Table A1, but for part-time personnel. Average basic salary for part-time personnel is presented as annualised in order to be comparable to individuals working varying numbers of hours and is derived from the basic monthly salary as at 1 April 2019 which they would receive if they worked full-time, multiplied by 12 to obtain the current annual basic salary level assuming 1 FTE.

Key Point

Average FTE changes through grades indicate different part-time working trends per gender as they transition through higher grades.

Summary

At Band E2, the numbers of personnel are too small to conduct any salary comparisons. For all other grades, females make up the majority of the part-time workforce, in particular at Band E1 where 91% of part-time personnel are female.

Average FTE for part-time personnel tends to increase from lower grades to higher grades for females, (Band E1 it is 0.67 FTE, and rises to 0.74 FTE for Band B1), but for males, average FTE mostly falls as grade increases (Band E1 it is 0.65 FTE, and falls to 0.59 FTE for Band B1) indicating different part-time working trends per gender as they transition through higher grades.

Males have a higher average LOS in grade across all grades apart from E2 where male’s Average LOS was not measurable due to the low number of personnel. Excluding E2, the gender difference is highest for B2 where male LOS was on average 5.3 years longer in the grade than females (8.4 years compared with 3.1 years respectively).

As previously highlighted, when observing gender differences in average basic salary, it is necessary to consider the differences which exist in length of service in grade. The adjusted annual salary figures which take length of service in grade into account are presented in Table A2.

The differences between average salaries generally remain higher for part-time personnel than for the whole workforce reflecting the fact that those persons with longer lengths of service in grade are more likely to opt for part-time work.

Table A2: Average Annualised Basic Salary for Part-Time Permanent Employees by Gender and Grade

Grade	Band B1	Band B2	Band C1	Band C2	Band D	Band E1	Band E2
Headcount	20	100	320	500	580	1,160	~
Male	10	30	110	120	130	110	-
Female	10	70	200	380	450	1,050	~
Average FTE	0.68	0.71	0.69	0.71	0.70	0.67	*
Male	0.59	0.65	0.65	0.66	0.67	0.65	-
Female	0.74	0.73	0.72	0.73	0.71	0.67	*
Average LoS in Grade (years)	4.4	4.6	5.5	6.8	7.7	9.7	*
Male	7.5	8.4	7.7	10.5	11.4	10.5	-
Female	2.6	3.1	4.3	5.6	6.6	9.6	*
Diff. in LoS in Grade (years)	4.9	5.3	3.4	4.9	4.8	0.8	*
Average Basic Salary (£)	64,890	54,430	40,780	33,250	26,610	20,860	*
Male	65,550	55,730	41,650	34,180	27,020	21,010	-
Female	64,500	53,930	40,300	32,940	26,490	20,840	19,340
Diff. in Average Basic Salary	1.6%	3.3%	3.3%	3.8%	2.0%	0.8%	*
Average Basic Salary Adj. for LoS in Grade (£)
Male	65,950	55,097	41,448	33,847	26,786	20,980	*
Female	64,277	54,172	40,411	33,050	26,559	20,842	*
Average Basic Salary Diff. Adj. for LoS in Grade	2.6%	1.7%	2.6%	2.4%	0.9%	0.7%	*

• Salaries have been rounded for presentation purposes
• Because of rounding, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts

Average Annual Basic Salary by Ethnicity and Grade

Average Annual Basic Salary for All Permanent Employees by Ethnicity and Grade

Table B1 examines the equality of pay of all personnel by analysing the differences in average basic salary by ethnicity.

Key point

Proportions of BAME and White personnel (headcount) must be considered when analysing data in this table as there are large proportion differences.

Summary

White personnel have a greater average length of service (LOS) in grade than BAME personnel for every grade except for B2 and E2 (0.1 and 0.9 years greater LOS for BAME compared to White personnel respectively for these grades).

Since the LOS differences for B1, C1, and C2 to E1 are roughly less than or equal to two years, adjusting salary per grade using the Analysis of Covariance methodology is unnecessary because the impact of LOS in grade upon salaries will be small.

The average basic salary difference ranges from 0.1% to 1.9% in favour of BAME personnel, meaning that BAME personnel are receiving a higher pay than White personnel. The most likely explanation for this is known differing proportions of White and BAME on the London and National pay scales. Based on known declaration, the proportion of London personnel who are BAME is 18.1% compared to only 3.3% of National personnel (National excludes London).

Table B1: Average Annualised Basic Salary by Ethnicity and Grade

Grade	Band B1	Band B2	Band C1	Band C2	Band D	Band E1	Band E2
Headcount	410	1,150	3,250	4,900	5,160	5,920	150
White	390	1,080	3,010	4,610	4,840	5,580	100
BAME	20	70	240	290	310	340	50
Average FTE	0.98	0.98	0.97	0.97	0.97	0.94	0.99
White	0.98	0.98	0.97	0.97	0.94	0.94	1
BAME	0.98	0.98	0.98	0.99	0.95	0.95	0.99
Average LoS in Grade (years)	3.3	3.2	4.2	4.8	6.3	8.9	11.6
White	3.4	3.2	4.3	4.9	6.5	8.9	11.3
BAME	1.8	3.2	3.1	3.5	4.4	7.6	12.2
Diff. in LoS in Grade (years)	1.6	-0.1	1.1	1.4	2.1	1.4	-0.9
Average Basic Salary (£)	64,330	54,080	40,380	32,980	26,500	20,850	19,220
White	64,280	54,040	40,340	32,960	26,490	20,820	19,220
BAME	65,160	54,620	40,840	33,240	26,650	21,230	19,230
Diff. in Average Basic Salary	-1.3%	-1.1%	-1.2%	-0.8%	-0.6%	-1.9%	-0.1%

• Salaries have been rounded for presentation purposes
• Because of rounding, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts

Average Annual Basic Salary for Part-Time Permanent Employees by Ethnicity and Grade

Table B2 shows the same outputs as in Table B1, but for part-time personnel. A number of categories within this table do not have sufficient numbers to provide robust data and have been replaced with a ~ (see section ‘Symbols and Conventions’ for more detail).

Summary

At grades B1, B2 and E2 the numbers of part-time BAME personnel are too small to reliably conduct any salary comparisons. The numbers of personnel at each grade, split by ethnicity, have been shown for information. At no grade do BAME personnel make up more than six percent of the part-time workforce. As these proportions are very small it would be prudent to interpret further analysis with caution, considering many possible reasons for any differences that may be observed.

Table B2: Average Annualised Basic Salary for Part-Time Permanent Employees by Ethnicity and Grade

Grade	Band B1	Band B2	Band C1	Band C2	Band D	Band E1	Band E2
Headcount	20	80	290	450	520	1,050	~
White	20	80	270	440	500	1,010	~
BAME	~	~	20	10	30	40	~
Average FTE	0.68	0.71	0.69	0.71	0.70	0.67	0.62
White	0.69	0.72	0.69	0.71	0.67	0.67	1
BAME	0.61	0.62	0.69	0.79	0.63	0.63	0.63
Average LoS in Grade (years)	4.2	4.2	5.6	6.7	7.9	9.9	7.3
White	4.3	4.0	5.7	6.8	8.0	10.0	20
BAME	2.0	9.8	5.1	4.2	6.2	7.6	1.0
Diff. in LoS in Grade (years)	2.3	-5.8	0.6	2.6	1.8	2.4	19.0
Average Basic Salary (£)	64,780	54,390	40,830	33,210	26,580	20,860	19,340
White	64,760	54,320	40,760	33,210	26,580	20,860	19,440
BAME	65,040	55,820	41,910	33,030	26,630	20,970	19,290
Diff. in Average Basic Salary	-0.4%	-2.7%	-2.7%	0.6%	-0.2%	-0.5%	0.8%

• Salaries have been rounded for presentation purposes
• Because of rounding, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts

Promotion by Gender and Grade

Length of Time to Promotion by Gender and Grade

Table C1 shows the number of males and females in each grade who were substantively promoted/advanced in the year from 1 April 2019 to 1 April 2020 (temporary promotions were not included here, except where those temporary promotions were made substantive, and in these cases the point of promotion was taken at the point where the promotion was made substantive). The grade referenced in this table is the grade which personnel were promoted into i.e. where a B2 was promoted to B1, they are listed here under their new grade of B1.

It also considers the average length of service in grade prior to promotion (i.e. in the lower grade) in order to observe the length of time it took to be promoted for those individuals who were promoted within the period 1 April 2019 to 1 April 2020.

The analysis also observes the average basic salary upon promotion, which will be also be affected to some degree by the differing proportions of males and females on the London or National pay scales.

Key point

Gender disparities in LOS are less than one year across all grades.

Summary

The average length of service in grade prior to promotion is broadly comparable between males and females, but more favourable to females for most grades. The exception is Band D where the length of service to promotion for females is 0.7 years longer. However, gender disparities in LOS are still less than one year across the other grades.

It is important to note that these figures do not represent the average length of time spent within a grade that it takes to achieve promotion, as there are inevitably many other individuals remaining in the previous grade who will achieve promotion in the future. These figures are simply representative of the average length of time spent in the previous grade prior to promotion by those who were promoted within the stated period.

The average basic salary on promotion of males and females in each grade remains comparable for most grades, with a difference of less than one percent. Overall, males have a higher average salary on promotion than females at all grades apart from Band B1 and D, where difference between males and females is 0.2% and 0.6% respectively in favour for females.

Table C1: Length of Time to Promotion by Gender and Grade

Grade	Band B1	Band B2	Band C1	Band C2	Band D	Band E1
Headcount	40	220	560	660	540	190
Male	20	110	280	290	360	60
Female	20	110	280	370	180	120
Average Basic Salary	63,850	53,870	39,850	32,660	26,160	20,540
Male	63,780	54,070	39,850	32,720	26,050	20,610
Female	63,920	53,660	39,860	32,610	26,210	20,500
Diff. in Average Basic Salary	-0.2	0.8	0.0	0.3	-0.6	0.5
Average LoS to promotion (years)	2.7	2.9	3.2	2.9	3.8	3.6
Male	3.0	2.9	3.4	3.2	3.4	4.1
Female	2.5	2.8	3.1	2.7	4.1	3.4
Diff. Average LoS to promotion (years)	0.6	0.1	0.2	0.5	-0.7	0.6

• Salaries have been rounded for presentation purposes
• Because of rounding, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts

Promotion Proportions by Gender and Grade

Table C2 shows the number of substantive promotions into grade and the proportion of those who were female. Promotion figures exclude Trading Funds, Royal Fleet Auxiliaries, Locally Engaged Civilians, SCS, retained grades, personnel on zero pay, those whose pay falls outside the pay scales, and those where no valid grade or pay data are recorded as at 1 April 2019.

It also shows the average strength (personnel) of the grade below and the proportion of those who were female. Average strength is calculated as a 13-month weighted average and represents the pool of people at one grade beneath the promotion grade (lower grade). It is assumed for simplicity that there are no promotions from two grades below or more. Average strength figures exclude all above categories, except personnel on zero pay who are included as potential promotes to paid positions.

Significance tests examine whether the difference between promoted female proportions is significantly different to the female proportions in the lower grade. Where the difference is positive the promoted female proportion is higher than the lower grade female proportion. Whether these differences are statistically significant can be identified by an S in the % Diff. for Females in Promotion & Lower Grade row below. The significance test is conducted at a 95% confidence level.

Key point

A significantly higher proportion of females were promoted than would be expected overall given the female proportion at the lower grade. However, for grade Band D the proportion of females promoted was significantly less than expected. Apart from Band E1, these results are all statistically significant at a 95% confidence interval.

Summary

Of all promotions, 1120 were male (50.9%) and 1,080 were female (49.1%). Only in Band D were there a higher number of males promoted. For the rest of the grades, a higher number of females were promoted. However, it is important to consider these in the light of the individual male/female representation at the lower grade. For example, in Band C2, the proportion of promotes into this grade who were female was 56.1%, was higher than the female proportion in Band C2 (43.9%). Contrary to this at Band D the proportion of females promoted to this grade (33.3%) was lower than lower grade female representation (47.5%).

Table C2: Promotion Proportions by Gender and Grade

Grade	All Grades	Band B1	Band B2	Band C1	Band C2	Band D	Band E1
Number of Promotions into Grade	2,200	40	220	560	660	540	180
Male	1,120	20	110	280	290	360	60
Female	1,080	20	110	280	370	180	120
% of Promoted Females	49.1%	50.0%	50.0%	50.0%	56.1%	33.3%	66.7%
Average Personnel at Lower Grade	24,080	460	1,310	3,660	5,860	5,900	6,860
Male	11,740	310	790	2,230	3,290	3,110	2,010
Female	12,340	150	520	1,440	2,570	2,800	4,860
% of Females at Lower Grade	51.2%	32.6%	39.7%	39.3%	43.9%	47.5%	70.8%
% Diff. for Females in Promotion & Lower Grade	-2.2%S	17.4%S	10.3%S	10.7%S	12.2%S	-14.1%S	-4.2%
Promotion Rate into Grade	9.1%	8.7%	16.8%	15.3%	11.3%	9.2%	2.6%
Male	9.5%	6.5%	13.9%	12.6%	8.8%	11.6%	3.0%
Female	8.8%	13.3%	21.2%	19.4%	14.4%	6.4%	2.5%
Promotion Rate Diff.	0.8%	-6.9%	-7.2%	-6.9%	-5.6%	5.1%	0.5%

• ^S Statistically Significant at the 95% confidence interval
• Because of rounding, totals may not always equal the sum of the parts

Ministry of Defence Broader Banded Pay Ranges (Non-Industrial personnel)

The Ministry of Defence considers that a necessary and fair measure is to address the pay gap between people being paid considerably less than colleagues performing a similar role at the same grade. The pay award for 2019 followed the approach by recent settlements by providing larger increases for individuals towards the bottom of their pay scale. The following rates were applied:

• Maximum of scales will be increased by 1%. Individuals on the current maximum will be moved to the new maximum.
• Everyone below the current maximum will receive an uplift in their pay of 2.1% unless this takes them above the new maximum. If this is the case the individual will be placed on the new maximum.
• Minimum of scales will be increased by 2.3%. Individuals who fall below the new minimum after the application of the 2.1% outlined above will be moved onto the new minimum.

MOD Main Salary Ranges for Broader Banded Personnel (Non-Industrial) 2014 to 2019

See attached Excel ODS table: Non Industrial Tables: ODS table

Background notes

Data Sources

Defence Statistics (DS) Civilian statistics are compiled from:

MOD Main Personnel - Data for MOD Main personnel have been taken from the personnel system - Human Resources Management System (HRMS) on a monthly basis since April 2004. DS use budgetary UINs and attribute people according to the budgetary area that pays them, using the Standing Data System hierarchy from Financial Management Information Systems.

Civilian Personnel Pay - Defence Business Systems (DBS) provide Defence Statistics with a dataset of all those individuals on the pay system as at 1 April 2019 and their grade according to the ‘Salary Admin Plan’ field. Additional information in the DBS dataset includes those receiving a promotion in the relevant period, the date of that promotion, the grade they were promoted from and the new grade they have been promoted into, the length of service in grade prior to promotion, and basic salary as at 1 April 2019.

Data Definitions

Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) is a statistical methodology to obtain adjusted average salary figures. ANCOVA is a standard and robust statistical methodology used to observe differences in means between groups after accounting for and removing the effects of other variables (covariates). After the removal of the effects of covariates, adjusted means for each group being compared are obtained. These adjusted means allow observation of any differences between groups in the variable of interest on an equal and more comparable basis. The adjusted average salary figures presented in section A were derived from this approach to enable average basic salary to be compared between males and females in each grade without being confounded by the effects of the differing length of service in grade of males and females in each group. The resulting adjusted average salaries represent what the average salary for each gender within a specific grade would be if the average lengths of service in grade for each gender were equal for both genders. This enables a level comparison of the average salary of each gender without confounding with the effects of different lengths of service.

Length of service in grade (LOS) (which automatically resets to 0 on promotion) was recorded as at the period prior to promotion in order to ascertain the length of time in the previous grade prior to being promoted. The LOS in grade field was reset to start counting from 2000, for the majority of MOD personnel in post in April 2004, when the new HRMS data system was introduced. Despite this limitation there is no evidence that this would introduce any gender bias. Although caution should be used when viewing the actual values of length of service in grade, as these will be capped at 13 years for the majority of individuals. Initial investigations have shown this to only affect a few individuals and as such where these values are used for statistical analysis they are still valid for making statistical adjustments for the grade band in question.

Length of service in grade also resets to 0 for persons transferring in from another government department, irrespective of whether they transferred across at the same grade. This is unlikely to have a skewing effect, as these numbers tend to be small.

Average Length of Service in Grade is presented in years to one decimal place. Gender difference in average Length of Service in grade are calculated from the difference between the exact averages and are also presented in years to one decimal place.

Promotions: This report analyses the number of personnel who were promoted in the 12 months from 1st April 2019 to 1st April 2020. Included in these analyses were those who were substantively promoted or advanced within this period (including a small number of personnel who were both recruited and promoted within the time period). Temporary promotions were not included, except where individuals had been on temporary promotion and were made substantive within the period. MOD has advancement from E2 to E1, C2 to C1 and B2 to B1 but for the purposes of the report these are referred to as promotion.

Significance Testing: Section 7.2 includes statistical tests on the relative differences of the female proportion within promotion groups for each grade, compared to the female proportion of the underlying average strength of the grade from which they were promoted. The test only needs to be conducted on the female proportion, as we are considering the proportion as females divided by the sum of males and females in each case.

This is different to the significance test methodology used prior to 2012 which compared the promotion rates of male to females. It has been determined that this method is not the most appropriate and can be distorted by the fact that male and female rates are not independent of each other, whereas the proportion of females in the promotion group is independent of the proportion of females within the underlying strength group. This can be assumed to be true where the factors that influence promotion are equally distributed for men and women. Therefore, a statistical test result of ‘Significant’ suggests that either gender or a factor that is gender biased is having an influence on promotion.

Grade structures

Since 1 April 1996 all departments and agencies have had delegated responsibility for the pay and grading of their employees, except for those in the Senior Civil Service (SCS). The MOD grades are shown here against levels broadly equivalent (in terms of pay and job weight) to the former service-wide grades.

MOD Non-Industrial grades	Former service-wide grades
SCS – Senior Civil Service	SCS – Senior Civil Service
B1 & equivalents	Grade 6
B2 & equivalents	Grade 7
C1 & equivalents	SEO - Senior Executive Officer
C2 & equivalents	HEO - Higher Executive Officer
D & equivalents	EO - Executive Officer
E1 & equivalents	AO - Administrative Officer
E2 & equivalents	AA - Administrative Assistant

Other definitions (to those previously reported)

Broader Banded grade: Defence Statistics report personnel against their equivalence within the broader banded structure; B1 to E2 for non-industrials and Skill Zones 1 to 4 for Industrial. The analyses does not include: SCS for non-industrial, Industrial Firemen and Apprentices for industrial personnel. Also excluded are personnel in retained grade structures, (such as MOD Guards) and personnel employed in analogue grade bands (such as civilian nurses employed against NHS grade codes), who have their own delegated pay schemes outside of the MOD National and London pay scales.

Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) is responsible for equipping and supporting the UK’s Armed Forces. They manage a vast range of complex projects to buy and support all the equipment and services that the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force need to operate effectively. They work closely with industry, including through partnering agreements and private finance initiatives. Their main responsibilities are:

• The procurement and support of ships, submarines, aircraft, vehicles, and supporting services
• General requirements including food, clothing, medical supplies and temporary accommodation
• Inventory management
• British Forces Post Office
• Submarine dismantling project

DE&S was reported as a bespoke trading entity on 1 July 2015 (prior to this it was reported as an extant TLB). This means it is an arm’s length body of the Ministry of Defence with a separate governance and oversight structure with a board under an independent Chairman, and a Chief Executive who will be an Accounting Officer, accountable to Parliament for the performance of the organisation. It achieved full status for reporting purposes as at 1 April 2015.

Full Time Equivalence (FTE) is a measure of the size of the workforce that takes account of the fact that some people work part-time. Prior to 1 April 1995 part-time employees were assumed to work 50% of normal hours, but since then actual hours worked has been the preferred methodology. The average hours worked by part-time personnel is about 68% of full-time hours.

Top Level Budgetary Area (TLB) are the major organisational groupings of the MOD directly responsible for the planning, management and delivery of departmental capability.