P-05-836 P-05-836 Gender Pay Gap Reporting – Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee, 5.11.18

Based on the letter from the Minister I have a few comments and covered with the response, namely that whilst they is a stated commitment to publication of data there is a lack of detail as to date of publication, nature of data published and if there are any plans in place to expand the bodies who are expected to comply. This suggests that despite the promises from the Welsh Government about a commitment to tackling the gender pay gap the correspondence from the Minister suggests that for the foreseeable future there will be far less accessible data available regarding Welsh bodies than those in England.

The original petition was focused on making the data accessible and increasing transparency. It strikes me as odd that when a system already exists for gender pay gap reporting, that allows easy comparison between bodies, that this is not mentioned in the Minister's reply instead there’s reference to ambitions around data transparency. This is particularly odd as many private companies and third sector organisations who are operating in Wales have already published this data in line with the Equalities Act as well as some publicly funded institutions such as Cardiff University who have actively published their data in line with the guidelines. The letter from the Minister suggests the Welsh Government is looking to be a leader in this area but in reality it's being outstripped.

I'd be happy to provide further comment on indictable points but overall my response is that the letter from the Minister is a set of intentions which fails to address the issues raised in the petition or offer any concrete actions on implementation, and there is a worrying lack of clarity or vision on improving transparency.

Thank you

Estelle Hart