Forthcoming changes in Legislation
30 March 2018
Gender pay gap reporting date for larger public sector organisations
Reporting on gender pay gaps became compulsory for private sector and voluntary sector organisations employing 250 or more people, and for larger public bodies in England on the 6 April and 31 March 2017 respectively. The measure enacts Section 78 of the Equality Act 2010, and is contained in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015.
Under the private sector gender pay gap information regulation employers in scope will need to publish their first report by 4 April 2018, based on a ‘snapshot’ date of their pay gap on 5 April 2017.
The public sector gender pay gap reporting regulations mirror those for the private sector, although the ‘snapshot’ date will be 31 March, and reports will have to be published by 30 March each year, in order to fit in with existing public sector reporting requirements.
Six sets of figures are required in the reports, including the percentage difference between male and female employees:
- in mean hourly pay on the snapshot date
- in median hourly pay on the snapshot date
- in mean bonus in the previous 12 months
- in median bonus in the previous 12 months.
Employers also have to report on the percentage of men and women who received a bonus in the previous year, and the percentage of men and women in each hourly pay rate quartile.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission can take enforcement proceedings against employers failing to comply with the regulations, and it is likely to take the guidance into account when deciding whether to take action. Any reporting inaccuracies could lead to adverse inferences being taken against an employer in a discrimination tribunal claim.
25th May 2018
General Data Protection Regulation in force
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which applies to all EU member states, will come in to force in the UK on 25 May 2018. The government has announced a Data Protection Bill that will amend the Data Protection Act to bring it into line with the new rules.
Data subjects will gain easier access to their own data, a ‘right to be forgotten’, and a right to know when their data has been hacked. There will be one set of rules and one supervisory authority applying across all EU member states, rather than the current individual authorities in each country. Organisations may need to appoint a data protection officer, and could face a fine equivalent to 4 per cent of their global turnover if they breach the rules. Exemptions apply for SMEs for whom data processing is not a core business activity.
The Information Commissioner’s Office is still working on definitive guidance on how the regulation will apply in the UK but has already produced useful information for organisations.