Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made, if any, of the amount by which the gender pay gap has been narrowed by the inclusion of biological men who identify as women in the same statistical category as biological women.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

The Rt Hon. the Lord Blencathra

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

16 November 2021

Dear Lord Blencathra,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate they have made, if any, of the amount by which the gender pay gap has been narrowed by the inclusion of biological men who identify as women in the same statistical category as biological women (HL3757).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes the annual Gender Pay Gap statistics; the latest data for 2021 was published on 26 October (1). These data are formed from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), for which employers are asked to supply pay levels for a 1% sample of employees taken from the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) system. ASHE does not collect information on either sex or gender directly. This information is taken from the PAYE data supplied by HMRC for the sample, provided to them by employers in respect of their employees (2).

This means that we do not currently have data on the earnings of transgender people (those whose gender identity is different from their sex registered at birth). In October 2020, I commissioned an independent Inclusive Data Taskforce to recommend how best to make a step-change in the inclusivity of UK data and evidence. Its report identified transgender people as among those about whom the absence of data reflecting their lives and experiences was especially critical (3).

Following the inclusion of a gender identity question for the first time in Census 2021, we will have more data about this population than ever before. The first results from Census 2021 will be available in late spring 2022, followed by further statistical and analytical publications, including on gender identity. When census data processing is complete, the ONS will explore what insights about the experiences of transgender people can be gained based on the census and other data.

(1) https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2021

(2) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-paye-tools-user-guide/basic-paye-tools-user-guide#Employee_details

(3) Inclusive Data Taskforce recommendations report: Leaving no one behind – How can we be more inclusive in our data? – UK Statistics Authority

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond