Reply to questionnaire by the Home Office
1. What practical measures have you taken
to implement the duty in relation to the employees of your department?
Have you undertaken an equal pay audit, or another survey to detect
any barriers to the full participation of women in your workforce?
What have you done to address under-representation of women in
specific grades or types of post?
In April 2007, the Home Office published its
Gender Equality Scheme as part of its Race, Disability and Gender
Equality Scheme (RDG Scheme) with associate schemes being produced
for each of its agencies. The GES action plan for the core scheme
identified some 45 actions in relation to gender issues. Furthermore,
in May, the Home Office launched its 3-year Diversity Strategy
supported by a high level Diversity Strategy Programme Board.
The board is there to ensure the department meets all of its responsibilities
both as an employer and a provider of services.
Pay
Triennial equal pay audits were conducted in
2002 and 2005 and will be repeated in 2008. The 2002 and 2005
audits were shared with and discussed with the Trade Union representatives
of staff. The results have also helped inform the detail of pay
awards, in particular reducing the potential for pay differential
for staff doing work of equal value.
The RDG Scheme contains further actions in respect
of pay which aim; to continue to reduce any pay differential;
reduce the minimum and maximum time taken through salary scales
with a view to providing fairer outcomes for all staff, and the
pay review of 2008 will move from salaries to earnings which will
give a more accurate reflection of any pay differentials.
Home Office agencies, the Identity and Passport
Service, Criminal Records Bureau and Borders and Immigration Agency,
also have robust approaches to ensuring equal pay.
Addressing under-representation
The Home Office has undertaken a number of initiatives
(listed below) to improve representation and this is further complimented
by one of the specific Aims of the Home Office 3-Year Diversity
Strategy: Potential of under-represented groups developed to
create a representative workforce at all levels.
The Fast Stream "In-Service Nomination
Scheme (07) received a total of 66 applications. The initial
sift identified 35 candidates to go forward to the assessment
centre, of which, 7 (20%) BME, 13 (34.2%) female, and 2 (6%) disabled.
Following the assessment centre, a final sift was conducted and
18 candidates were put through, of which, 5 BME, 7 female, and
2 disabled applicants were put forward for the Fast Stream.
Development Plus is a positive action
learning and development programme designed for female and minority
ethnic staff across the Home Office and its Agencies.
Leaders UnLtd is a new corporate leadership
development scheme designed specifically for talented people in
groups currently under-represented in the Senior Civil Service.
Leaders UnLtd is open to Grade 6/7 (or equivalent or on a minimum
three year fixed-term contract) UK civil servants who are either:
— have a disability; or are
— from minority ethnic backgrounds.
The Intensive Development Programme (IDP)
has been running since 2001. The total number of IDP members
covering the period 2001-07 is 87. Twenty-one women participated,
two former members have since gained promotion to G6 and another
has been selected for Leaders UnLtd.
The New Leaders Programme (NLP) is the
BIA version of IDP and has been running since April 2006. The
total number of NLP participants covering this period is 51, of
which, 8 were of BME origin, 30 were female, and 2 participants
identified as disabled.
Positive action measures will naturally be open
to transsexual women. Any barriers to representation of such women
in any specific grade or type of post will be identified in the
"Barriers to Career Progression of Transsexual and Transgender
Employees" "Barriers Research project".
2. Have you reviewed the policies procedures
of your Department for gender bias? What action have you taken
to correct any such bias?
See response to question 1 as much of the material
provided there addresses this question.
3. Have your procurement policies and practices
been changed to take account of the gender equality duty? How
do they reflect this duty?
A specific action identified in the RDG Scheme
is to conduct an EIA of current service provision and revise policy
to ensure increased quality of services.
In addition, a further aim of the new Home Office
3-Year Diversity Strategy is Services are delivered in a way
that promotes equality and respects diversity. Among the key
targets and milestones set against this aim is the need to ensure
all guidance and standard contractual arrangements explicitly
outline supplier's responsibilities to monitor services in accordance
with the general equality duties by the end of 2008.
The revised Home Office Procurement Policy and
Procedures Manual contains a section on guidance on Equality and
Diversity. The section contains references to relevant equalities
legislation—including the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and
Equality Act 2006—as well as having clear guidance on procedure.
The manual has been issued to all Heads of Procurement in the
Home Office, Agencies and NDPB's.
IPS is currently undertaking a pilot project
to lead in public sector best practice for embedding equality
into the procurement exercises. Terms and Conditions for tendering
processes are being revised to ensure that IPS meets it legal
obligations of ensuring its delivery partners, third party service
providers and suppliers meet their own standards in equality and
diversity, particularly in the areas of gender, race and disability.
IPS is currently collecting and analysing data
about the diversity of staff who were recruited by its recruitment
agencies to examine whether IPS is procuring the services of agencies
who are supplying a diverse workforce in the same way as our own
recruitment processes.
4. Generally, are there any differences in
your approach to implementing the gender equality duty from your
approach to implementing the race equality duty?
As stated in response to question 1, the Home
Office and its agencies are implementing their Gender Equality
Scheme/s as part of combined Race, Disability and Gender scheme/s.
This is advantageous as each Scheme is thereby reviewed annually,
and gender equality is fully embedded as Equality Impact Assessments
cover race, disability and gender.
Immigration and Nationality functions of the
department are exempt from the Race Relations Act 1976 (as amended).
This is because the application of the immigration and nationality
legislation necessarily involves treating some nationalities differently
to others, for example, with regard to the freedom of movement
into the UK of EEA nationals. It has no such exemption with regard
to the Gender Equality Duty. In the asylum context, for example,
the Border and Immigration Agency is conscious of the fact that
a woman's experience of persecution may be very different from
that of a man, and that she may well come into the asylum system
in the UK with different needs. General instructions remind decision
makers of issues that particularly affect women, such as female
genital mutilation.
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