Transparency data

UK Export Finance: gender pay gap report 2023 to 2024

Published 27 March 2025

1. Gender pay gap

This report is published in line with the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017,  which came into effect on 31 March 2017 and require organisations with 250 or more employees to publish their gender pay gap data annually.  Published data should include 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 (GPG) shows the difference in average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high gender pay gap, this can indicate there may be a number of issues to deal with, and the individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

The GPG is different to equal pay. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same jobs, similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally for the same work because they are a man or a woman.

This report sets out the figures in more detail and what we are doing to close the GPG in the organisation.

2. Gender make-up of the department

As of 31 March 2024, UKEF had 547 employees, of whom 44% identified as female.   

8.6% of UKEF employees were graded Senior Civil Servants (SCS); of these, 25.5% identified as female.

UKEF’s headcount has continued to rise over the last eight years, and the proportion of female employees has also risen over this period.  Compared to 22/23, the percentage of female employees has decreased marginally by 1%.

2.1 Impact over the last 8 years

	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
Number of employees	264	305	321	340	398	495	521	547
% female	36%	38%	39%	37%	38%	44%	45%	44%
% of employees SCS	4%	6%	5.30%	6.18%	6.78%	5.86%	6.33%	8.6%
% of SCS are female	20%	24%	29%	29%	33%	28%	33%	25.5%

3. Analysis by grade

Year	19/20		20/21		21/22		22/23	23/24
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
AA / AO	4	5	4	3	2	1	2	1	1	2
EO	28	21	22	24	22	41	28	35	28	33
HEO	31	23	38	33	43	43	36	45	38	47
SEO	63	36	77	49	82	63	69	64	61	53
Grade 7	48	20	55	22	73	36	90	49	95	53
Grade 6	26	14	31	13	35	25	39	30	49	40
SCS1	10	5	12	7	15	6	18	8	30	10
SCS2/3	5	1	6	2	6	2	4	3	5	2
Total	215	125	245	153	278	217	286	235	307	240

3.1 Analysis of employee gender by year

Year	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
Male	215	245	278	286	307
Female	125	153	217	235	240
Total	340	398	495	521	547

4. UKEF’s Gender Pay Gap

UKEF uses Civil Service grades ranging from Administrative Assistant (administrative-level grade) to Senior Civil Servant (executive-level grade). Grades vary according to the level of responsibility that staff have. Each grade has a set pay range with pay gaps inbetween grades.

All recruitment and promotions are undertaken on the basis of Fair and Open competition in line with the Civil Service recruitment principles; furthermore, all applications are anonymised at the initial sift stage.  To ensure a robust process, where possible the interview panels for recruitment and promotion consist of a balanced gender split.

In 2023/24, UKEF undertook 241 recruitment campaigns; 43% of these campaigns resulted in either new females hires or internal promotions within the organisation.

• Mean pay gap (ordinary pay): 11.8%
• Median pay gap (ordinary pay): 14.8%

4.1 Ordinary pay: trend over the last 8 years

	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
Mean pay	15.97%	15.25%	12.23%	13.90%	13.00%	14.20%	11.90%	11.80%
Median pay	16.26%	12.22%	11.97%	13.50%	15.60%	18.30%	16.40%	14.80%

4.2 Mean and median pay for 2024

Grade	Male	Female	Total	Mean (M)	Mean (F)	Mean GPG	Median (M)	Median (F)	Median GPG
AA / AO*	1	2	3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
EO	28	33	61	£18.15	£18.14	0.09%	£18.10	£18.10	0.00%
HEO	38	47	85	£20.74	£20.92	-0.86%	£20.76	£20.76	0.00%
SEO	61	53	114	£26.17	£25.05	4.28%	£25.35	£24.00	5.32%
G7	95	53	148	£32.98	£32.61	1.10%	£32.35	£32.29	0.18%
G6	49	40	89	£43.20	£42.09	2.56%	£42.05	£42.27	-0.52%
SCS1	30	10	40	£52.34	£52.44	-0.19%	£51.02	£51.79	-1.52%
SCS2*	4	2	6	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
SCS3*	1	0	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Total	307	240	547	£33.16	£29.23	11.8%	£30.61	£26.08	14.8%

Note: *Data set is less than 10; information has therefore not been published.

The 2024 mean GPG data has highlighted that amongst delegated grades (AO to HEO), there is mainly pay parity, with a marginal swing for HEO grades where the mean GPG is now positive towards females (0.86%).  It should be noted that to address the GPG, UKEF had equalised pay for AA to EO grades by introducing a spot rate of pay.

It is also pleasing to note that even though UKEF’s mean GPG has only reduced by 0.1% from 22/23, there has been a marginal approvement on the mean GPG at Grade 7 and Grade 6. However, the mean GPG at SEO level widened in 23/24; this was due to an increase in male hires and promotions at this grade.

4.3 Comparison of mean GPG 2024 vs 2023

Grade	Mean GPG 2024	Mean GPG 2023
AA/AO	Spot rate of pay	Spot rate of pay
EO	Spot rate of pay	Spot rate of pay
HEO	-0.86%	-1.02 %
SEO	4.28%	-1.56%
G7	1.10%	4.60%
G6	2.56%	5.05%
SCS1	-0.19%	5.00%

As a government department, UKEF must operate within the parameters detailed in the annual Civil Service Pay Remit guidance. Whilst UKEF will adopt these proposals, where possible it is UKEF’s ambition to try and close the GPG further across all of its grades.

5. Bonus pay

UKEF’s performance awards were paid as a set value depending on grade and performance level.

• Mean pay gap (bonus pay): 7.6%
• Median pay gap (bonus pay): 6.4%

5.1 Bonus pay: trend over the last 8 years

	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
Mean pay	22.36%	20.57%	24.68%	23.70%	13.10%	27.70%	23.20%	7.60%
Median pay	7.80%	25.09%	31.06%	8.70%	9.00%	19.70%	20.30%	6.40%

5.2 Percentage of men and women paid a bonus

• Male: 80.9%
• Female: 85.7%

6. Analysis by grade

6.1 Bonus by grade and gender

Grade	Male				Female
	No bonus	Bonus	Total employees	% rec’d bonus		No bonus	Bonus	Total employees	% rec’d bonus
AA / AO
EO	6	22	28	79%		14	19	33	58%
HEO	10	28	38	74%		3	44	47	94%
SEO	15	46	61	75%		5	48	53	91%
Grade 7	18	80	98	82%		4	49	53	92%
Grade 6	5	44	49	90%		5	35	40	88%
SCS1	7	23	30	77%		2	8	10	80%
SCS 2/3
Total	61	249	310	80.90%		34	206	240	85.7%

Note: *Data set is less than 10 years old; information has therefore not been published

UKEF had 18 new employees join the department in February and March 2024. In line with the rules relating to performance awards, whilst they were employed as of 31 March 2024, they would therefore have not been eligible for any bonus awards.

With regards to UKEF’s performance awards (bonuses): payments are deferred, meaning that for the purposes of the 2024 GPG report, performance awards paid in June 2023 relate to employee’s performance in 22/23.  Performance awards are pro-rated if an employee has not completed 12 months service or if they work part-time.

Of the 488 employees (excluding SCS), 475 employees were eligible for annual 22/23 performance awards which were paid in June 2023 and fall within the remit of the 2024 GPG report.  Of the eligible employees, 98.87% received an award; this equated to 99.2% of female employees compared to 98.58% of male employees. Performance awards are tiered, and 42.23% of females received either a tier “1” or “2” award compared to 44.33% of males.

Annual performance awards for SCS are also paid in arrears for the 22/23 performance year. Awards to SCS were made in June 2023.   

A number of individuals were also promoted during 23/24; therefore, they were graded as SCS as at the end of GPG year 2024.  Of this total cohort, 83.3% of females received an award compared to 80% of males.

6.2 Bonus: trend over the last 8 years

% Paid a bonus	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
M	46%	47%	55%	62%	75%	75.2%	75.8%	80.9%
F	51%	41%	58%	65%	74%	65.5%	74%	85.7%

7. Pay by quartiles

7.1 Pay by quartile: trend over the last 8 years

When the workforce is segmented into quartiles based on pay, and those quartiles are compared on gender grounds, the data shows that across the quartiles, female representation has stayed broadly similar to 22/23.

7.2 Proportion of women by salary by quartile over the last 8 years

Quartile	16/17	17/18	18/19	19/20	20/21	21/22	22/23	23/24
Lower Quartile	53%	46%	48%	46%	46%	57%	55%	54%
Lower-Middle Quartile	28%	42%	40%	39%	49%	50%	52%	48%
Upper-Middle Quartile	36%	34%	35%	32%	28%	33%	35%	36%
Upper Quartile	27%	30%	33%	31%	31%	35%	39%	37%

7.3 Male and female staff by quartile 2023/24

	Lower quartile	Lower middle quartile	Upper middle quartile	Upper quartile
Male	46%	51.8%	64.2%	62.6%
Female	54%	48.2%	35.8%	37.4%

7.4 Proportion of male and female staff by salary by quartile over the last 8 years

Lower quartile

Year	Male	Female	Total
16/17	47%	53%	100
17/18	55%	46%	100
18/19	52%	48%	100
19/20	54%	46%	100
20/21	54%	46%	100
21/22	43%	57%	100
22/23	45%	55%	100
23/24	46%	54%	100

Lower-middle quartile

Year	Male	Female	Total
16/17	72%	28%	100
17/18	58%	42%	100
18/19	60%	40%	100
19/20	61%	39%	100
20/21	51%	49%	100
21/22	50%	50%	100
22/23	48%	52%	100
23/24	52%	48%	100

Upper-middle quartile

Year	Male	Female	Total
16/17	64%	36%	100
17/18	66%	34%	100
18/19	65%	35%	100
19/20	68%	32%	100
20/21	72%	28%	100
21/22	67%	33%	100
22/23	65%	35%	100
23/24	64%	36%	100

Upper quartile

Year	Male	Female	Total
16/17	73%	27%	100
17/18	70%	30%	100
18/19	67%	33%	100
19/20	69%	31%	100
20/21	69%	31%	100
21/22	65%	35%	100
22/23	61%	39%	100
23/24	63%	37%	100

8. Work on closing the gender pay gap

The mean GPG from 2023 (11.9%) has marginally reduced over the last 12 months to 11.8% in March 2024; at the same time, the median GPG has also decreased by a slightly wider margin of 1.6% over the same period.

UKEF has a clear ambition to reduce the GPG further, and in our People Strategy for 2024-2027 we have committed to reducing this further to 9.9% by 31 March 2026.

UKEF values a diverse and representative workplace – one that will attract and retain talented people from all backgrounds, and give everyone, including those already working for us, the opportunity to achieve their potential. We have committed to reviewing our demographic data annually in order to better understand what levers need to be pulled to strive to make UKEF a great place to work.  We are proud of our annual People Survey scores and continue to benchmark ourselves against other government departments.

In 2017, we started our journey by signing the Women in Finance Charter, publicly affirming UKEF’s commitment to improve gender diversity.  We also aligned the department’s goals with the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, which set out new programmes and initiatives to realise the Civil Service’s wider ambition to become the UK’s most inclusive employer.

Following an organisational re-design in 23/24, UKEF created 14 new SCS positions. In-line with Cabinet Office guidance, these positions were advertised externally and were filled by both existing civil servants and external hires.  Whilst at the recruitment long-list stage UKEF looks to ensure that there is positive female representation, following a series of open and fair competitions, the majority of positions were filled by male candidates. Overall, the number of females (12) within the SCS cadre has increased; however, overall female representation has decreased from 33% in 22/23 to 25.5% in 23/24.

Working pro-actively with the Chief Executive Officer and the Gender-Network, UKEF has addressed some of the actions from the 2023 report. We have also ensured that on-going actions continue to be monitored, whilst at the same time we have looked to implement new ideas.

8.1 Actions from last year’s GPG report, and what has been delivered

In 22/23, the gender network felt that women at a Grade 7 and Grade 6 level experienced potential barriers to promotion. It is therefore pleasing to see that over the last 12 months, female representation across Grade 7 and Grade 6 has increased by 1% and 2% respectively.

In 23/24, we:

• Supported the Gender network by providing funding for speakers and events and promoting opportunities for women. This included the career progression survey and sharing access to the annual People Survey data that can be filtered by gender, enabling further discussions to take place on how improvements can be made to support women with career progression.

• UKEF wishes to create an environment where all staff feel valued and respected in the workplace and has encouraged a culture where individuals should “speak up”.  To ensure that these values are embedded throughout the organisation, UKEF has increased its focus on Inclusion and Fair Treatment, which has been championed at a senior level by our Chief Executive and Executive Committee members. UKEF has also provided sexual harassment awareness and general Unacceptable Behaviours training to members of the HR team and the department’s Appropriate Behaviour Champions.

• The Gender Network has organised and delivered events in the past year including audiences with Executive Committee members, inviting external speakers, and marking International Women’s Day with awards and recognition for colleagues, writing blogs, supporting their members, and working collaboratively with other staff diversity networks and HR.

8.2 On-going actions (from 2023)

• UKEF HR has continued to maintain its strong relationship with the Gender Network, and this is actively promoted across UKEF.  The network continues to play a strong role in championing gender diversity issues at UKEF.

• We have continued to promote shared parental leave, as well as job share and part-time opportunities, and have guidance to help line managers ensure those returning from parental and adoption leave feel supported and welcomed.

• We continue to promote the various talent schemes which are available across the grades to ensure that opportunities are available to females to support their career development.

Attracting more women into UKEF also remains a key target:

• We continue to anonymise the application process to reduce unconscious bias; at the SCS level, it is mandated that the “long list” must contain female candidates.

• We have ensured that there is broader diversity on interview panels (both gender and ethnicity) and that this is representative of UKEF as an organisation.  Internal recruitment frameworks have been reviewed in the last 12 months and clearer guidance has been issued to recruitment panels.

• We continue to work with line managers to discuss how roles are advertised to ensure we can offer greater flexibility on both a part time and flexible-working basis.  A wider use of careers sites was undertaken, specifically sites which target more diverse gender and ethnic groups. UKEF saw an increase in part-time staff from 5.95% in 22/23 to 6.22% in 23/24, of which 76% of part-time positions are female.

• UKEF continues to develop its Diversity & Inclusion priorities, and over the 24/27 period of the People Strategy, UKEF will look to review and monitor how best it can continue to attract and retain a wide range of talent from diverse demographic groups.

• Whilst we recognise that we have made some progress in the last 12 months, we shall continue to work with our network to identify ways in which we can continue to close our gender pay gap.  Accountability starts with the senior leaders within UKEF.In order to ensure diversity and inclusion remains at the heart of our business, there is therefore commitment from the Executive Committee to ensure that D&I objectives are embedded within all of the SCS cohort’s objectives, and further guidance is being incorporated into the HR Policy to support with this.

UKEF’s Learning and Development offering continues to be central to HR’s People Strategy, and we have continued to offer a range of talent management opportunities to help support female staff progression:

• In 2023 we supported 20 places for the Women in Leadership Annual Conference; we continued to support this in 2024 and were able to offer 18 places at the annual conference.

• “Stepping into Leadership” is aimed at individuals who are graded SEO to Grade 6 staff, in 2023; we offered 12 participants of which (50%) were women, in 2024 the programme offered 24 places and 10 participants (42%) were women.

• The “Future Leaders Programme” is a pan-Civil Service programme aimed at accelerating high-potential Grades 7s and Grade 6s; UKEF staff were offered 3 places, of which 66% of the cohort were females.

• “Crossing Thresholds” is the final programme specifically aimed at women at HEO/SEO grades. This is a 12-month programme, and one female member of staff attended.

8.3 Planned new action for the coming year

• To undertake a more detailed, forensic review of people data (to include but not limited to recruitment and performance rating data) to better understand areas to focus on. This will include data by grade and gender, as well as other protected characteristics.

• Pay is a key driver of the GPG, and whilst UKEF is subject to the annual pay remit and the parameters set by the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury, UKEF is committed to working with the Government People Group where possible to review its current approach to remuneration.

9. Staff included in the Gender Pay Gap data

1. Information is based upon individuals employed by UKEF on 31 March 2024.
2. Contractors (off-payroll workers) are out of scope for this report.
3. Information prepared and published 27 March 2025.
4. The GPG data is taken from Civil Service ACSES data, and this did not include Fast Streamers who are funded by the Cabinet Office.
5. We confirm that data reported by UKEF 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.

Shane Lynch, Director of Resources, UKEF