The UK Government supports the work of the Council of Europe and continues to support the European Social Charter (1961). Since the European Social Charter came into force in the UK we have introduced a number of policy and legislative reforms that provide equivalent or greater protections for individuals in the field of equal pay.<\/p>
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We have also ratified a number of international conventions which provide equivalent protections and which the UK has implemented via national legislation.<\/p>
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We are fully committed to the Equal Pay protections in the Equality Act 2010. In 2014, we introduced equal pay audits for when employers are found to have breached equal pay law and in 2017 we introduced gender pay gap reporting.<\/p>
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Our equal pay legislation complies with EU requirements, which are reflected in Article 4.3 of the European Social Charter. We are committed to ensure that the robust protections provided by Equality Acts 2006 and 2010 and equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland continue to apply after the UK leaves the EU, as will Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which will become part of EU-retained law.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-06-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-06-11T14:59:14.277Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "31"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Women and Equalities"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Women and Equalities"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-05-08", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Equal Pay"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, for what reasons the UK has not accepted the obligation under Article 4.3 of the European Social Charter to recognise the right of men and women workers to equal pay for work of equal value.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/3930", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Caroline Lucas"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Brighton, Pavilion"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Caroline Lucas"} ], "uin" : "251971"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1124136", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Women and Equalities"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1124136/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Organisations with 250 or more employees are now required to publish specific gender pay gap data on an annual basis. We believe that this transparency is motivating employers to take action, but these regulations are new and we will be monitoring them closely.<\/p>
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We continue to urge employers to go beyond the reporting requirements by publishing an action plan, setting out the steps they are taking to improve gender equality, just under half of employers did this in the first year. I intend to write to all public sector employers urging them to develop a plan, and will meet influential business leaders to press them to take action in their sectors.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-06-11", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-06-11T14:56:14.73Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "31"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Women and Equalities"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Women and Equalities"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-05-01", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Employment: Equality"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she has plans to introduce further auditing and fines for employers who cannot prove their gender equality practices.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4638", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Slough"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi"} ], "uin" : "249918"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }