Transparency data

Natural England gender pay gap report 2024

Published 28 March 2025

Applies to England

Foreword

Natural England’s purpose is to help conserve, enhance and manage the natural environment for the benefit of present and future generations. We play an integral role in supporting delivery of the government’s 25 year environment plan and environmental improvement plan targets, the commitment to net zero by 2050 and meeting the government’s post EU ambitions for agriculture and fisheries.

Our vision is ‘Thriving Nature for people and planet’ and we are driven by our mission, ‘Building partnerships for Nature’s recovery’.

Natural England are committed to being an equitable, diverse and inclusive organisation where every individual has equality of opportunity to progress and is able to thrive. The Natural England equality, diversity and inclusion action plan 2024-27 and Defra group equality, diversity and inclusion roadmap 2024-26 affirms this commitment and builds on a strong foundation for both individual and organisational growth.

Gender pay gap reporting helps us to understand how well we achieve gender equality in our pay structures. This report provides gender pay gap information for the year ending 31 March 2024, with comparable statistical information since 2017. We are pleased to report that our mean (1%) gender pay gap reduced in 2023-2024 by 2 percentage points (pp) supporting a continuous downward trend since 2017. However, our median pay gap has widened by 1pp to -1.0% and is now favouring women.

Our policies and initiatives promote equal opportunities for all our workforce, and it is encouraging to see this reflected in our narrow gender pay gaps. However, there remains more work to do and it’s important that we continue to pay particular attention to how we are recruiting, developing and retaining staff and creating clear pathways for people to progress in their career.

Natural England (people committee) work collaboratively across the Defra group to address and close the gender pay gap through the Gender Board. We are fully committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our people, and we will continue to work towards making further improvements to reach gender parity at all grades.

James Diamond, People Director

Introduction

Gender pay gap legislation introduced in April 2017, requires all employers of 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap for workers in scope as of 31 March annually. This includes the mean and median gender pay gaps; the mean and median gender bonus gaps; the proportion of men and women who received bonuses; and the proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile.

The gender pay gap is the difference in the average pay between all men and women in the organisation. It is different to equal pay, which is about the difference in the actual earnings of men and women doing equal work (or work of equal value).

The mean gender pay gap is the difference between the mean hourly rate of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full pay relevant employees

The median gender pay gap is the difference between the median hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees.^{[footnote 1]}

Natural England’s pay approach supports the fair treatment and reward of all staff irrespective of gender.

The bonus pay gap measures payments to reward performance that are a part of the annual pay award or throughout the year under the in-year performance payment scheme. The mean bonus value is found by adding all bonus values together and dividing the total by how many people were paid. The median is the middle value if all bonuses were stacked from lowest to highest. It’s important to note some bonus payments such as end of year performance awards are pro-rated for part time workers which can influence bonus pay gaps.

Gender pay gap summary

This includes the mean and median pay figures, proportions of men and women receiving bonuses, proportions of men and women in each pay quartile the overall make up of women in Natural England.

Gender pay gap reporting is a statutory requirement and government guidance indicates that employers should take information as to gender from payroll or HR records. The Natural England gender pay gap report is therefore based on the information we hold on our payroll records.

Mean gender pay gap	Median gender pay gap	Mean gender bonus gap	Median gender bonus gap
1%	-1%	-3.2%	0%

Proportion of women receiving bonuses	Proportion of men receiving bonuses
14%	13%

Quartile	Female %	Male %
Lower quartile	57.9	42.1
Lower middle quartile	60.9	39.1
Upper middle quartile	64.7	35.3
Upper quartile	56.8	43.3

Natural England group	Female %
Total workforce	60.1
Senior levels (levels 5 and 6)	57.9
Director / Chief Officer and Chief Executive group	44.8

Organisational context

Natural England have their own staff framework terminology, and have pay groups ranging from Level 1 to Chief Executive as follows:

Table 1: Natural England and Civil Service grade comparisons

Natural England pay group (increasing in seniority)	Equivalent Civil Service grades used for Cabinet Office reporting
Level 1	AO
Level 2	EO
Level 3	HEO
Level 4	SEO
Level 5	Grade 7
Level 6	Grade 6
Director	SCS1
Chief Officer	SCS2
Chief Executive	SCS3
Board Member	n/a

Grades vary according to the level of responsibility and each pay group has a set pay range.

Distribution of male and female staff in NE

60.1% of Natural England’s workforce are women, an increase of 1.1 percentage points (pp) from 59% in 2023. Table 2 shows the distribution of female and male staff by grade as of 31 March 2024 from junior to senior roles in Natural England.

Representation of women at senior levels of the organisation (Level 5 and 6) has increased by 2.9 percentage points from 55% in 2023 to 57.9% in 2024. The percentage of women in the Director, Chief Officer and Chief Executive Group is 44.8% which has decreased 3.6pp from 48.4% 2023.

Table 2: Distributions of male and female staff by grade

Pay group (Increasing in seniority)	Number of men	Men as % of workforce at this grade	Number of women	Women as % of workforce at this grade
Level 1	52	4.1%	30	1.6%
Level 2	178	14.0%	241	12.7%
Level 3	405	32.0%	644	33.8%
Level 4	445	35.1%	741	38.9%
Level 5	144	11.4%	198	10.4%
Level 6	23	1.8%	32	1.7%
Directors / Chief Officer / CEO	16	1.3%	13	0.7%
Board Member	4	0.3%	6	0.3%
Total workforce: (3,172 people) (includes rounding)	1,267	100%	1,905	100%

Mean and median hourly pay gaps

The mean gender pay gap is 1.0% a decrease of 2 percentage points (pp) from 3.0% in 2023. The mean gender pay gap is now the lowest since reporting began in 2017, when the mean gender pay gap was 10.9%, representing an overall reduction of 9.9pp.

The 2024 median gender pay gap is now -1.0% in favour of women, which is an increase of 1pp from 2023, when the median pay gap was 0%.

Table 3: Mean and median hourly pay gaps over time (2017 to 2024)

	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	(pp) change from 2023
Mean gender pay gap - ordinary pay	10.9%	9.4%	8.4%	7.0%	5.0%	3.8%	3.0%	1.0%	2pp
Median gender pay gap - ordinary pay	13.2%	12.4%	6.1%	2.7%	1.0%	0.3%	0%	-1.0%	1pp

Graph 1: Mean and median hourly pay gaps over time (2017 to 2024)

Mean and median bonus pay gaps

There has been a 14pp change in the mean bonus pay gap from 10.8% in favour of men in 2023 to -3.2% in favour of women in 2024. The median bonus pay gap has remained the same at 0%.

Table 4: Bonus pay gap figures 2017 to 2024

Bonus pay gap	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	(pp) percentage point change from 2023
Mean gender pay gap - bonus pay in 12 months ending 31 March	20%	21.9%	0.5%	0.9%	0.6%	10%	10.8	-3.2%	14pp
Median gender pay gap - bonus pay in 12 months ending 31 March	0%	0%	0%	-160%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0pp
Proportion of male employees paid a bonus in 12 months ending 31 March	87%	44%	40%	91%	41%	74%	81%	13%	68pp
Proportion of female employees paid a bonus in 12 months ending 31 March	89%	37%	44%	92%	44%	73%	82%	14%	68pp

Graph 2: Percentage of men and women paid bonuses over time (2017 to 2024)

In comparison to previous years there has been a large decrease in bonus payments with 13% of men receiving bonus payments and 14% of women receiving bonus payments.

The decrease in the number of male and female staff receiving in-year bonuses is due to a change in how bonuses are awarded within Natural England. The new People Performance system moves away from end year performance decisions to goal-based performance recognition, therefore high performance is now rewarded throughout the year. Therefore, Natural England have seen a shift in culture relating to how performance recognition is awarded and distributed.

The 2023 pay award was the last where bonuses were paid based on end-of-year ratings, and as part of the transition to the system outlined above, bonuses were paid only to those in receipt of the highest rating.

Graph 3: Mean and median bonus pay gaps over time (2017 to 2024)

Pay by quartiles

The percentage of women in the highest quartile has increased by 3.5pp from 53.3% in 2023 to 56.8% in 2024. The percentage of women has slightly increased in the upper middle quartile by 0.6pp from 64.1% in 2023 to 64.7% in 2024 and slightly increased in the lowest quartile by 0.4pp from 57.5% in 2023 to 57.9% in 2024.

Table 5: Pay quartiles 2017 to 2024

Pay   quartiles	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Lower quartile - men (%)	44	44	41	44	42	42	42	42
Lower quartile - women (%)	56	56	59	56	58	58	58	58
Lower middle - men (%)	34	36	38	38	41	38	38	39
Lower middle - women (%)	66	64	62	62	59	62	62	61
Upper middle - men (%)	42	42	46	41	39	40	36	35
Upper middle - women (%)	58	58	54	59	61	60	64	65
Upper quartile - men (%)	61	57	56	56	53	49	47	43
Upper quartile - women (%)	39	43	44	44	47	51	53	57

Graph 4: Representation of women by quartile over time (2019 to 2024)

Taking action to close the gender pay gap

Natural England aspires to be one of the most inclusive employers in the UK. The Natural England People Committee provides executive leadership to all Natural England’s work and oversees the delivery of actions to close our gender pay gap through the Natural England equality, diversity and inclusion approach 2024 to 2027 and the Defra group equality, diversity and inclusion roadmap 2024 to 2026.

Although our gender pay gap continues to decrease, Natural England recognise that we must continue develop and progress actions to achieve equitable gender representation at all grades.

To reduce barriers to career progression and for a good work-life balance, we have clear and visible policies on flexible working arrangements for all employees including job sharing, part time and hybrid working.

Natural England are committed to creating an inclusive culture and have achieved accreditations including disability confident, carer confident and are an age friendly employer.

Building capability and awareness of workplace equality, diversity, and inclusion, through delivery of the line manager conscious inclusion awareness sessions and the mandatory Civil Service expectations course, which provide an overview of diversity legislation, explores biases and how to improve inclusivity and equality amongst diverse colleagues and customers.

Natural England have reviewed our inclusive recruitment processes, which now include a more consistent approach to outreach activity, have anonymised application processes and use diverse interview panels. Recruitment outcomes data is reviewed throughout the attraction, recruitment, and selection processes to evaluate effectiveness and identify areas for improvement to achieve greater workforce diversity.

Natural England have a range of staff networks championed by senior leaders. Networks include the Gender Equality network, the Pregnancy and Parenting network and the cross-Defra group Job Share, Solo Parents, Homeworkers’ and Work Life Balance networks. Our employee networks offer peer-support and networking opportunities to our staff, act as a consultative support to the organisation and help raise awareness of diversity through the sharing of lived experiences.

Natural England workplace policies and guidance support equality in the workplace. Policies and guidance include maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, parental bereavement leave, breastfeeding, menopause, parents’ guidance and a fertility policy and pregnancy loss policy, to support employees and their partners and the new paid leave for carers policy.

The revised workplace adjustments policy provides information on holding effective conversations and recommends the employee passport to ensure that appropriate adjustments are in place to remove any barriers within the work environment for employees.

To support career development and encourage a more equitable representation throughout organisational grades, Natural England offer targeted training, mentoring, and coaching, have a range of apprenticeships and have developed a career conversation guide to facilitate discussions on career aspirations.

Following the 2023 to 2024 pay review we have continued our targeted pay strategies. Natural England previously introduced the Support Adviser spot rate and has continued to shorten pay scales by increasing pay range minima; applying a pay freeze to the pay range maximum and applying larger pay increases to staff who are at the lower end of their pay scale.

Natural England ensures that pay scales are transparent and easy for staff to understand. Our pay strategies have continued to positively impact on the gender pay outcomes.

Declaration

We confirm that data reported by Natural England 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.

Marian Spain
Natural England Chief Executive

1. ‘Full-pay relevant employee’ means a relevant employee who is not, during the relevant pay period, being paid at a reduced rate or nil as a result of the employee being on leave. The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. Throughout this report, references to employees, workforce or gender profile includes full-pay relevant employees only. As of 31 March 2024, Natural England employed 3,273 people. Of these 3,172 were full pay relevant employees who are included in the gender pay gap reporting.

   The ‘relevant pay period’, in relation to the relevant employee, means (a) the period in respect of which the relevant employer pays the employee basic pay, whether weekly, fortnightly, or monthly or any other period, or (b) if the relevant employer does not pay the employee basic pay, the period in respect of which the employer most frequently pays the employee one of the elements of ordinary pay mentioned in regulation 3(1) (b) to (e), The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017. ↩