Equal Pay is not just about the size of or even closing the Gap

Interest in equal pay has been given a temporary jump-start this month, with private sector organisations employing over 250 people in Great Britain being forced to publish details on their equal pay gaps.  Before applauding that as positive or as progress, keep in mind that legislation on equal pay has been in place since 1970, almost 50 years ago.

In Scotland a different approach was taken to implementing the terms of the 2010 Equality Act on equal pay.  The public sector has been required to publish equal pay gaps every two years, as between women and men, and more recently the equal pay gaps between disabled people and non-disabled people, and between BME people and non-BME people.  One of the problems in Scotland has been the inability of the public sector to agree a universal methodology for calculating the equal pay gap and publishing the findings.  The Equality & Human Rights Commission has chosen not to impose a common approach or to enforce the law, instead seeking to encourage employers to do the right thing.  The outcome is a dodgy dossier of data on equal pay which helps public sector bodies hide from real scrutiny and real accountability.  All the time the equal pay gaps remain stubbornly in place.

For example in NHS Scotland, research in 2017 showed that the equal pay gap between women and men employed there amounted to 19.99%, an increase on what research revealed in 2015 when data published by NHS Boards put the gap at 18.85% - in favour of men.  The findings of these research reports and the detail underpinning the sizes of the equal pay gaps have been shared with Scottish government.  

Both the Cabinet Secretary for Health and the Cabinet Secretary for Equalities have declined to intervene either with the EHRC or with Scotland's 22 NHS Boards.  Curiously, Scottish government Cabinet Secretaries have declined to act on suggestions that data on equal pay gaps [and equality data generally] be published on a central web site hosted by government.  This would allow everyone to easily access and compare equality data of interest to them and gives oxygen to the democratic principles of transparency and accountability.  Yet in Westminster, the equal pay gap data being gathered across the UK from the private sector, voluntary sector and England's public sector will be published on both the organisation's own web site as well as the government's gender pay gap reporting web site.

Angela Constance [left]
Cabinet Secretary for Communities, 
Social Security and Equalities

Shona Robison
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport

Part of the enduring mystery over the size of the equal pay gap in Scotland's NHS is that it operates a pay system which should, if scrupulously adhered to, eliminate or reduce to statistically insignificant levels any equal pay gap.

For this reason, additional research into pay in NHS Scotland was undertaken this year.  In simple terms, all of Scotland's NHS Boards were asked to split their workforce by earnings, either side of a pay point £25,806, which is close to Scotland's median pay point of £23,150.  As a benchmark test, Scottish government was asked to provide similar data around a split of £25,682 [they use different pay scales].  They were asked to do this for women and men, for disabled people and non-disabled people, and for Black Minority Ethnic [BME] people and non-BME people.

When the split was applied to all employees, it showed the NHS in Scotland has in-built pay inequality, with the majority of staff earning less than a minority of staff,

 In contrast, data on Scottish government staff shows the majority of staff earn more than the minority of staff.

The NHS data was reconfigured to show women and men in both pay cohorts.  This shows that 62.06% of women working in the NHS are in the lower paid cohort, while for men, just 49.16% of them are in the lower paid cohort.  It is the sheer scale of occupational segregation in NHS Scotland which creates and sustains the size of the equal pay gap.  

Until and unless the occupational segregation in the NHS and across the public sector is acknowledged and work led by government on eliminating occupational segregation is forced through at speed, women will continue to be expected to shore up the low paid end of the pay systems in the public sector so that men can continue to monopolise their hold on the better paid jobs.

Scotland's FGM National Action Plan - Scottish government lacks data on whether women are being protected

John Swinney
Cabinet Secretary for Education
 and Skills

is unable to tell you whether Scotland's
universities as employers are eliminating
sectarianism and discrimination against 
Catholic people

Scotland's Cabinet Secretary for Health, Shona Robison, knows when people waiting for NHS cancer treatments or for hearing tests have had their guarantee on treatment times broken by any Health Board.  

The Cabinet Secretary for Education, John Swinney, knows when targets for wider access to universities for students from Scotland's most deprived backgrounds is not being met, with the most recent target set at 20% of Scotland's university students to be from 20% of the most deprived areas by 2020.

Shona Robison
Cabinet Secretary for Health
and Sport

can't tell you whether NHS Scotland as an
employer is eliminating racism as an employer
because she chooses not to have the data
gathered which would help inform her

What Shona Robison  can't tell you is whether NHS Scotland as an employer is eliminating racism as an employer, because she chooses not to have the data gathered which would help inform her on that question.  Likewise John Swinney is unable to tell you whether Scotland's universities as employers are eliminating sectarianism and discrimination against Catholic people, because he chooses not to have the data gathered which would help inform him on that question.

Put simply, government ministers cannot know whether progress is being made with policies and strategies in their areas of responsibility unless they put in place data and evidence gathering systems which help inform them if progress is being made or if they are simply describing ever-decreasing circles in the sand of poorly constructed policies and strategies.

In 2005, the then government in Scotland put in place an Act aimed at the prohibition of female genital mutilation [FGM].  In February 2016, the current government published a national action plan to prevent and eradicate FGM.  Three of the primary outcomes set in the national action plan were :

• prioritise protection from, and prevention of, FGM
• provide services and appropriate support for those who have experienced FGM
• hold perpetrators to account

Using a Freedom of Information request, I asked government some questions on what progress had been made with the aims of the Act and the current national action plan.  I asked for data and evidence on :

• the number of women in Scotland protected from FGM as a result of work under this strategy and since the Act of 2005
• the number of incidents in Scotland where FGM was prevented as a result of work under this strategy and since the Act of 2005
• the number of incidents where women in Scotland who have experienced FGM have been provided with support as a result of work under this strategy and since the Act of 2005
• the number of FGM perpetrators in Scotland who have been arrested as a result of work under this strategy and since the Act of 2005
• the cumulative jail terms served by all FGM perpetrators as a result of work under this strategy and since the Act of 2005
• the total funding provided by government to organisations providing protection from FGM, prevention of FGM, services and support to those who have experienced FGM, and additional funds provided to such as Police Scotland in the work required to hold perpetrators to account – and since the Act of 2005

The answers ?  Scottish government does not know how many women in Scotland have been protected from FGM.  Scottish government does not know how many times FGM was prevented.  Scottish government does not know how many women experiencing FGM have had support under the strategy.  The reason Scottish government does not know the answers is formally put as "this information is not held by Scottish government".  It is reasonable to conclude that not only does government not hold the information but that it has not asked other organisations to provide it with the information.  It chooses not to be informed.

When asked about how many FGM perpetrators had been arrested, the response was, again, that government did not hold this information.  It did however point out that Police Scotland would hold it.  Scottish government has again chosen not to inform itself of this crucial data set.

On cumulative jail terms for all FGM perpetrators since 2005, Scottish government was informed enough to admit that the answer was zero - explaining that there have been no convictions in Scotland for FGM related offences.

On funding the work under the strategy, government advised that Police Scotland has received no additional funding for preventing and eradicating FGM.  On funding work under the strategy, government provided details of grants awarded since 2012/13.  These, in round figures, indicate spending of over £2,200,000 on work in providing protection from FGM, prevention of FGM and support to those who have experienced FGM.

Angela Constance [left]
Cabinet Secretary for Communities,
Social Security and Equalities

has chosen not to have the data or
evidence gathered which would inform her as
to whether the National Action Plan on FGM
is effective

In summary, we have an Act of the Scottish Parliament on FGM, a Scottish Government National Action Plan aimed at preventing and eradicating FGM, we have innumerable organisations funded to do work delivering the aims of the National Action Plan, and we have spent at least £2,200,000 in enabling that work.  We have all of that and yet not one person has gone to jail for carrying out FGM or being involved in carrying out FGM.

Based on the response from Scottish government, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance, has chosen not to have the data or evidence gathered which would allow her to be informed as to whether Scottish government's National Action Plan on FGM is effective.  To be fair, if one must, she simply follows the example of other Cabinet Secretaries who choose to remain uninformed as to whether progress on equality in their areas is being made, based on data and evidence gathering systems they put in place to ensure they are informed - or in this case, uninformed.