Voluntary Gender Equality Reporting

Wednesday 14th September 2011 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May)]

“Building a Fairer Britain” (December 2010) announced the Government’s intention to work with business and others to develop a voluntary approach to greater transparency on gender equality in the private and voluntary sectors.

The “Think, Act, Report” initiative being launched with business leaders today sets out a step-by-step approach to improving transparency. It encourages employers to undertake their own analysis of gender equality in their organisation, take action where appropriate to address issues identified, and in time report publicly. To support participating employers, the Government have produced a framework containing the measures which would be most useful for employers to monitor and report on, and ACAS is publishing new guidance.

The Government will review annually the number of companies releasing information, and its quality, to assess whether this approach is successful. A copy of the baseline report on voluntary gender equality reporting will be placed in the Library of the House. This sets out the aims of the “Think, Act, Report” initiative, looks at the existing evidence on how many employers currently engage in monitoring and reporting on gender equality, and explains how we will measure progress.