Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a statutory requirement on companies to report their disability pay gap.

We want employers to better understand the composition of their workforce and recognise external reporting as a positive step on the journey towards driving a culture of transparency and openness around health at work. In November 2018, we published a voluntary reporting framework, aimed at large employers (with over 250 employees) that recommends that they publicly report on disability employment and mental health and wellbeing. The framework can also be used to support smaller employers who are keen to drive greater transparency in their organisation or industry. In November 2019, it also became a requirement for new and renewing Disability Confident Leaders to publically report on disability and mental health.

Whilst we recognise the merits of disability reporting, we would not propose to extend this to pay gap reporting due to the risk of dis-incentivising employers from recruiting more disabled people.

Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith is also leading a time-limited independent Commission looking at how DWP, wider Government and employers can best support people to progress out of low pay, especially for those groups more likely to be in persistent low pay. A report will be published shortly. The ONS identified in 2018 that disabled employees were over-represented in lower-skilled and lower paying occupations when compared to their non-disabled counterparts.