Reply to questionnaire by the Welsh Office
1. What practical measures have you taken
to implement the duty in relation to the employees of your Department?
A diversity co-ordinator was appointed in July
this year and the Department has an action plan in place since
September which incorporates all three of the equality duties,
gender, race and disability. A diversity champion at Management
Board level has also been appointed since June this year, to raise
the profile of the issue, within the office.
Have you undertaken an equal pay audit, or
another survey to detect any barriers to the full participation
of women in your workforce?
The equal pay audit process is covered by the
Ministry of Justice for administrative purposes. Our equality
action plan includes making use of our periodic local staff surveys,
material from exit interviews, and the like to try to ascertain
more qualitatively what barriers there may be.
What have you done to address under-representation
of women in specific grades or types of post?
Currently women hold 50% of middle grade posts
in the Office.
The Office has also had reasonable percentages
of women in its staff at middle grades in the past, but not at
the senior grades. There is no evident pattern of under-representation
by type of post. The Wales Office management board is conscious
of the imbalance by grade, and looks to give development opportunities
whenever possible to help overcome any imbalance.
2. Have you reviewed the policies and administrative
procedures of your Department for gender bias? What action have
you taken to correct any such bias?
Our equality action plan requires that selected
members of staff in particular roles are identified and trained
to conduct Equality Impact Assessments on all future policies
and administrative procedures generated or overseen by this Office.
The Wales Office is associated with the Ministry
of Justice for all wider administrative and human resource policies
and will take part in and be covered by whatever steps they take.
3. Have your procurement policies and practices
been changed to take account of the gender equality? How do they
reflect this duty?
Again, for the purposes of procurement, the
Wales Office is an associate office of the Ministry of Justice,
and adopts its practices.
4. Generally, are there any differences in
your approach to implementing the gender equality duty from your
approach to implementing the race equality duty?
No. The equality action plan for the Office
aims to address all three of the equality duties, including any
practical implications for staff and working practices.
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