Crown Prosecution Service Gender Pay Gap Report for year ending March 2023

Foreword by Chief People Officer, Dawn Brodrick

The CPS is an organisation that values equality, inclusivity, and diversity. A key aim in our organisational strategy - CPS 2025 - is ensuring our people are supported and able to develop to reach their full potential. How we pay and reward our employees is an essential part of that approach.

It is a legal requirement that people employed in an organisation are paid the same for like work regardless of their gender – that is the fundamental principle behind ‘Equal pay’. The Gender Pay Gap is different from, but often confused with, equal pay. The Gender Pay Gap spans all jobs in an organisation as a collective and measures the difference in the average hourly earnings of men and women as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings. It is separate to a measure of the difference in pay between men and women where they are doing the same job.

Our Gender Pay Gap figures for 2023 are 10.5% (mean) and 26.4% (median) and reveal slight decreases from those reported for the previous year. There are a number of reasons why this pay gap exists of which the principal one is associated with the high representation of women across our workforce and their distribution amongst our grades.

As an employer we continue to appeal to women, evidenced by the fact that they account for almost 73% of all appointments during 2022/23. At the 2023 Gender Pay Gap snapshot date (31 March 2023) CPS comprised 67% women; of these, 53.7% were employed in our more junior roles.

Whilst we are pleased to employ so many women, this has a bearing on the Gender Pay Gap as the uneven gender distribution has the overall effect of lowering the average hourly pay of women when compared to men.

In our more senior – and therefore higher paid – roles, we have a gender split of 62% women and 38% men. Because we employ more women in junior (and lower paying) roles relative to women employed in senior roles, the median Gender Pay Gap is affected in a similar way to the mean, resulting in a lower median hourly pay rate for women when compared to that for men.

From a wider perspective we are an employer of choice. We have progressive employment policies, such as hybrid working, and for the 7th consecutive year we are recognised as a Top 10 Working Families accredited employer by the charity ‘Working Families’. We have a skilled and diverse workforce, attractive career and learning and development opportunities, and much more. Of course, these factors appeal to all people regardless of their gender identity and our People Strategy reinforces our commitment to creating a workplace culture in which everyone can thrive. We are proud of the diversity of our workforce and that it reflects the communities we serve, helping us to deliver justice.

1. Executive Summary

The CPS has prepared this report as part of the legal requirement for public authorities to publish their Gender Pay Gap on an annual basis. CPS is a non-ministerial government department with a total head count of 7,552 at 31 March 2023. In this report, 7,467 individuals are included in the hourly pay gap figures and 7,244 are included in the bonus gap figures, based on our analysis of employees in scope as set out in Government guidance.

We have made progress in increasing female representation at our senior and consequently higher paying grades i.e. Grade 7 (G7) through to Senior Civil Service (SCS). Of these grades we now have 62% of roles filled by women. This, combined with other factors, has resulted in a decrease in the mean Gender Pay Gap from 11.2% in 2022 to 10.5% in 2023. The median Gender Pay Gap has also decreased from 28.3% to 26.4% for the same period. The decrease is explained by the fact that whilst the proportion of women at senior grades has increased, this is mostly offset by the proportion of women in our junior grades. The CPS has a very high representation of women in junior, and therefore lower paid, roles, and this distribution distorts (lowers) the women’s hourly pay mean/median outcomes and is the principal reason for our pay gap.

The mean bonus pay gap is 5%. This reverses the negative bonus pay gaps reported in previous years. (Negative pay gaps occur where women’s average pay or bonuses are higher than the average pay or bonuses for men).

There is no bonus pay gap using the median measure, that is because the midpoint value of the women’s and men’s bonus datasets are the same.

While we report mean and median hourly pay gaps that run above the Civil Service mean and median of 8.1% and 9.6% respectively, we continue to compare favourably with the mean bonus pay gap for the Civil Service (23.5% for 2023), and the median bonus pay gap (25.4% for 2023).

2. Introduction

In 2017, the government introduced legislation that made it mandatory for organisations with 250 or more employees in post on a specific date each year to report on their Gender Pay Gap. Government departments are covered by the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. These regulations underpin the Public Sector Equality Duty and require relevant organisations to publish their Gender Pay Gap data by 30 March each year. This includes:

• the mean and median gender hourly pay gaps;
• the mean and median gender bonus pay gaps;
• the proportion of male and female employees who received bonuses; and
• the proportions of male and female employees in each pay quartile.

The Civil Service Gender Pay Gap figures, published on GOV.UK for the fourth year under the annual Civil Service Statistics release, provides an overall picture across government.

Alongside the Gender Pay Gap figures set out in the Civil Service release, this report fulfils CPS’ individual reporting requirements for 2023.

Organisational Context and Gender Composition

CPS’ total headcount (staff in post) on 31 March 2023, was 7,552 employees. Of this number 7,467 employees were identified as ‘full pay relevant employees’, as set out in the Gender Pay Gap regulations, and included in the GPG calculations for the mean and median hourly pay gap.

CPS uses the Civil Service grading system which provides for roles ranging from Administrative Assistant (the most junior) to Senior Civil Servant (the most senior). Grades are determined by the level of responsibility that employees have in their job roles. Within CPS each grade has a set pay range which is aligned to either a National or London-designated pay zone specific to CPS.

The composition of the CPS workforce by gender and grade on 31 March 2023 and using standard Civil Service grading is shown at Table 1. Although there has been an increase in the organisation’s headcount year-on-year since Gender Pay Gap reporting began in 2017, the CPS’ gender split of 67% women to 33% men remains unchanged. The gender distribution is the main contributory reason for the resulting mean and median Gender Pay Gaps.

Table 1: Distribution of full pay relevant employees by grade and gender

*The CPS has two senior legal grades which are equivalent to the SCS. These have been included within this group

The column chart below at Figure 1 shows the percentage breakdown of the workforce by gender and grade illustrating the high representation of women employed in the junior grades/lower paid roles of Administrative Assistant (AA), Administrative Officer (AO) and Executive Officer (EO). Women in these grades represent 30.8% of the total workforce whereas men in these grades make up only 11.1%. This distribution difference impacts significantly on the CPS Gender Pay Gap calculations because overall it lowers the average hourly pay of the women’s group.

The gender distribution for each individual grade remains roughly unchanged from previous years.

Figure 1: Percentages by Gender and Grade across CPS workforce

3. Gender Pay Gap: The Six Measures

The gender pay gap shows the difference in the average pay between all men and women in a workforce. If a workforce has a particularly high Gender Pay Gap, this can indicate that there may be a number of underlying issues to address, and individual calculations may help to identify what those issues are.

The gender pay gap and equal pay are not the same thing. Equal pay deals with the pay differences between men and women who carry out the same or similar jobs or work of equal value. It is unlawful to pay people unequally because of their gender. However, it is possible to have a pay gap whilst still paying women and men fairly.

The mean and median hourly pay gaps for 2023 compared to the two prior years are shown at Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Hourly Pay Gaps (Mean and Median) comparison

CPS’ six gender pay gap figures reported for 2023 are summarised in Table 2, alongside those for the two previous years for comparison. These show an overall steady decrease in the mean pay gap and a slight decrease by 0.7 of a percentage point (ppt) between 2022 and 2023. The median hourly pay gap shows a larger decrease of 1.9 ppts compared to 2022.

Table 2: CPS GPG figures 2023

In monetary value, calculations show that for 2023:

• the overall mean and median difference in hourly pay is £2.53 and £6.39 respectively (for 2022 the differences were £2.66 for the mean and £7.04 for the median difference),
• the overall mean and median difference in bonus pay is £10.20 and £0.00 respectively (for 2022 the difference was £12.09 with bonus pay higher for women in that year hence the negative figure in the table; There was no difference i.e. £0.00 in the median bonus pay that year).

The CPS mean and median hourly pay gaps are not due to higher salaries paid to men compared to women but are because of the high concentration of women populating junior, and consequently lower paying, roles.

Figure 3 illustrates the percentage distribution of men and women in pay quartiles. Employees with the lowest hourly pay populate the lower quartile and those with the highest hourly pay form the upper quartile.

CPS workforce composition shows that those in the more junior grades of AA, AO, EO and HEO are placed within the lower and lower middle quartiles. The high representation of women in these two quartiles is the main cause of the CPS’ Gender Pay Gap.

Figure 3: 2023 Distribution of Women and Men through each pay quartile

Table 3 shows the 2023 quartiles compared to 2022 and 2021 confirming a broadly consistent trend in the gender make-up of the workforce.

Table 3: 2023 Pay Quartiles compared to 2022 and 2021 Quartiles

4. Analysis of Mean, Median and Bonus Pay Gaps

Mean Hourly Pay Gap

(Down by 0.7 of a ppt from 11.2% reported in 2022)

Averaged hourly pay for all men increased by 18p to £24.01 compared to averaged hourly pay of women increasing by 31p to £21.48. The decrease to the mean pay gap is due to a combination of:

(1) The 2022/23 pay award – This saw further shortening of pay ranges with an additional focus on targeting the pay of our people positioned in the pay range lower quartiles. Salary increases for those in the upper quartiles of the pay ranges were proportionately lower. Additionally, at EO level the pay ranges were significantly shortened compared to other grades which meant a greater proportion of this grade benefited from above average salary increases. With proportionately more women than men grouped within the lower quartiles and employed in the EO grade, the consequence of these arrangements contributes to an overall increase of average hourly pay for the women’s pay dataset.

(2) Minor changes to gender headcounts at some CPS grades - The effect of the variations explained below has suppressed the growth of average hourly pay for men while increasing average hourly pay for women. Analysis shows that at:

• AO grade: Headcount for women increased by 8%, whilst men’s headcount increased by 13%. An increase in the proportion of men employed in this junior grade (that is lower paid) has led to a reduction in the average pay for men.
• HEO and SEO: Headcount for women increased by 13.5%. Men’s headcount increased by 16.8%. More men in these middle management grades reduced the overall average hourly rate of pay for men.
• Grade 7 and Grade 6: Headcount for women increased by 4% while men’s headcount decreased by 0.7%. More women in these senior grades increased the average hourly pay for all women.

(3) Employee turnover and backfilling - Analysis confirms that the average hourly pay for men that left CPS in the year to 31 March 2023 was £21.43 compared to £18.97 for women that left CPS in the same period. The hourly pay of new appointments shows an average of £16.93 for men compared to £16.13 for women. This, together with an identified trend that shows CPS’ has hired proportionately more women than men at all grades, contributes to diluting men’s average hourly pay.

Median Hourly Pay Gap

(Down by 1.9 ppt from 28.3% reported in 2022)

The 73.5% composition of women in the more junior grades (AA to EO) on lower salaries and consequently lower hourly pay is the main reason for the 26.4% pay gap. The high concentration of women in these junior grades (which all place within the lower and the lower middle quartiles) means that the mid-point of the women’s pay dataset is a significantly lower hourly rate than the mid-point of the dataset for men’s hourly pay.

In actual monetary values, the median hourly rate of pay for men decreased by 67p or 2.7% (to £24.23 from £24.90 in 2022) compared to women’s median hourly pay decreasing by just 2p or 0.1% (to £17.84 from £17.86 in 2022). The drop in the median hourly rate of pay for men and women can be attributed in part to the expansion of the workforce during the reference year and the subsequent distribution of the grades across the two genders. Headcount growth of junior grades (and consequently employees on lower pay) exceeds headcount growth for senior grades by a significant proportion. This is illustrated by the junior grades (AA to EO) headcount increasing by 8.1% since the previous year’s snapshot analysis compared to the senior grade headcount (Grade 7 up to SCS and equivalent) which increased by only 2.4%.

Alongside the factors above, the reduction in the median pay gap can also be linked to the outcome of CPS’ 2022 pay award. The settlement was structured to pay higher average awards to those in the more junior grades (AA to HEO). Because of the high concentration of women in these grades, analysis shows proportionately more women than men benefited from higher individual awards which increased the median pay for women.

Mean Bonus Gap

(Up 14 ppts from -9.0% reported in 2022)

CPS maintains its in-year employee recognition scheme which rewards employees for substantial corporate contribution through the use of vouchers. Additionally, the CPS operates a non-consolidated performance related pay scheme for the SCS and equivalent grades.

In January 2023, CPS also made a one-off flat-rate non-consolidated operational recovery payment of £180 to eligible employees below the SCS and equivalent grades. This pay is deemed bonus pay under GPG calculation requirements. It is standard practice across the civil service that non-consolidated payments are proportioned accordingly for those contracted to working less than full-time hours. Unlike the calculation for the mean hourly pay gap, pro-rated bonus payments are not converted into full-time equivalents. This is in line with Gender Bonus Gap calculation requirements.

At 31 March 2023, applying headcounts that compile the bonus pay datasets by gender, 29% of women worked part-time compared to 8% of men. As a result, women appear to have received disproportionately lower bonus amounts than men. This is not the case however but rather a factor of the specific GPG assessment requirements.

The 5.0% bonus gap reported is attributed to a higher proportion of women working part-time because the calculation uses actual payment values received rather than full time equivalent values.

Median Bonus Gap

(Unchanged from 0% reported in 2022)

As with previous years, we report no median bonus gap as the monetary value of the median bonus payment is the same for men and women.

5. Work on Reducing the Gender Pay Gap

The CPS gender ratio is approximately 2:1 women to men, with 45.7% of female employees in the most junior grades (AA/AO/EO). Consequently, to help narrow the pay gap, CPS’ efforts continue to focus on ensuring there are no barriers for women in these grades to move into more senior/ leadership roles.

Through various talent management and management development programmes (which are also available to men), together with identifying and eliminating potential barriers to career progression, CPS aspires to increase representation of females in senior grades/roles. Whilst there is evidence demonstrating these interventions are successful in their outcomes, the volume of women recruited into the junior grades of AA to EO has the impact of offsetting some of the gains achieved from these career development initiatives.

The CPS undertakes an annual pay analysis which compares the mean and median salary by grade for those in specific protected characteristic groups so that any disparities can be identified and addressed. It also helps inform the CPS’ pay strategy. The 2023 Pay Analysis does not identify any significant areas of concern across CPS pay by grade and gender.

However, as identified in previous years, there continues to be an underrepresentation of women in the Crown Advocate, Senior Crown Advocate, and Principal Crown Advocate grades. This is illustrated by the fact that at the 31 March 2023 snapshot date, only 38% of employees in these grades were women.

A review undertaken as part of the delivery of the CPS 2025 Advocacy Strategy found that the diversity (gender as well as other protected characteristics) of CPS’ in-house Crown Advocate cadre broadly mirrors that of the wider Criminal Bar (employed and self-employed). The review also noted, however, that there should be a focus on improving diversity further so that CPS advocates better reflect the communities we serve. One of the ways this will be delivered is by running the next Crown Advocate Pathway – which offers training and mentoring support to talented advocates wishing to progress into Crown Advocacy – as a positive action scheme in 2024 to attract and support talented women lawyers and all other under-represented groups.

In 2023, the CPS commenced a 12-month pilot of the Civil Service ‘Crossing Thresholds’ Programme designed to support women to develop into more senior roles. Piloting a Positive Action Programme such as Crossing Thresholds will enable the CPS to see the impact of specifically investing in women in more junior grades and may positively impact the CPS’ Gender Pay Gap. The programme includes five 2-day modules covering:

• Career goal setting and planning,
• Getting the balance right for the individual,
• Succeeding at interviews,
• Communicating with impact, and
• Positioning for success.

Those on the programme are mentored by an individual in a more senior grade, undertake peer group assignments, attend ‘hot topic’ learning events, and participate in job shadowing. Previous evaluation of the programme has shown that approximately 76% of women who complete the programme are promoted or move to more satisfying jobs within a year.

The programme, piloted as a cohort of 18 women employees across the AO and EO equivalent grades, concludes in April 2024 at which point a review will be conducted to identify the impact and consider the feasibility of a wider rollout.

Recruiting, Retaining & Developing an Inclusive Workforce

Recruitment activity is either ‘internal’ (applications limited to existing CPS employees only) or ‘external’ (open to existing employees, the wider civil service, and the general public). During 2022/23 women accounted for 73% of all appointments (internal and external). For grades AO to SEO, women appointments accounted for almost 58% of all external and internal recruitment, compared to just over 21% for men recruited into these grades. For Grade 7 and higher, women appointments account for 15% of all recruitment compared to 6% for men appointed to these grades.

CPS recruitment complies with the Civil Service Commissioners Recruitment Principles that ensure appointments are on merit following fair and open competition. To safeguard against bias at the shortlisting stage of the selection process the CPS recruitment procedure follows an approach where each application submitted is name and gender blind/anonymised.

All panel members must complete the CPS recruitment e-learning modules covering equality, diversity and inclusion and its application in recruitment and the avoidance of unconscious bias.

CPS has a robust marketing strategy to attract quality candidates across all of its core roles through a range of initiatives, including proactive brand awareness via LinkedIn content. Marketing content is designed to be appealing to the candidates the department wants to attract and reflects where growth in certain characteristics would be beneficial, such as encouraging more applications from men for the junior grades. For example, CPS has ensured video content contains imagery of people who are reflective of the candidates we are trying to encourage into particular roles or grades. This is intended to demonstrate the variety of role models available within the organisation and to encourage applications from those who may identify with these individuals.

Family Friendly Practices and Benefits

CPS has a track record of flexible working practices and has been recognised by the parents and carers charity Working Families as a top ten employer for the last seven years (including 2023), which assesses against four key measurements –

• Integration to organisational strategy and culture
• Policy
• Consistent practice
• Evidence and statistics.

As of 31 March 2023, 21.3% of CPS employees making up the hourly pay dataset worked part-time and the proportion of women and men working part-time is 88% and 12% respectively.

During the reference period, the CPS adopted a hybrid working model that permitted flexibility between home-based working and time spent at the workplace. In combination with our suite of flexible working policies this made the CPS an attractive employer for people across all grades.

The CPS remains committed to supporting its employees who have caring responsibilities - statistically more likely to be female - and in addition to a Carers Network we have the ‘Carers for Children Network’ subgroup. The aim of this network is to support parents and carers of children of any age with disabilities. The CPS has achieved a Level 2 Carers Accreditation by Employers for Carers UK, which recognises CPS’ collective efforts to build an inclusive workplace where carers are recognised, respected, and supported.

The CPS has refreshed its Diversity and Inclusion Champion model and reintroduced a Carer’s Champion in addition to the Carer’s Ambassador. These roles will work in partnership with one another and with the Carers network to ensure that the CPS remains an inclusive employer for carers.

A Sex Equality Champion and Ambassador were also appointed.

Career Paths

CPS offers a variety of opportunities to assist employees in all grades with career progression. For example, throughout the period April 2022 to March 2023, CPS ran a portfolio of 16 different apprenticeship schemes for a total 183 participants, of which 76% were women. The apprenticeship schemes offer individuals the opportunity to gain apprentice qualifications at levels 3 to 7 across a range of business functions including but not limited to Accountancy/Finance, Commercial, Human Resources, Management and Leadership, and Project Management roles.

The Prosecutor Pathways offer a unique opportunity to build upon academic and professional qualifications through sponsored study towards becoming a Crown Prosecutor whilst continuing in the security of the employee’s current role. In 2021/22, 73% of the participants on the Legal Trainee and Solicitor apprentice scheme were women. For the 2022/23 intake, 75% of the participants were women.

The CPS also provides a Graduate Pathway, investing in our people through post-graduate legal qualification sponsorship, so creating a viable pathway to a career in law. Of the 2022/23 intake, 72% were women.

These outcomes indicate CPS initiatives to encourage women into more senior roles is having a positive impact.

Pay Policy

The 2022/23 pay settlement continued the previous years’ pay strategy which implemented significant reductions in several of the lengthier pay ranges. This has facilitated less variation in the way salaries are positioned along the range for male and female employees.

We utilise spot rates (a uniform rate for the job) for AA and AO grades meaning there are no pay gaps between men and women on these rates. We also operate a rigorous approvals process for higher starting pay on appointment.

6. Declaration

We confirm that data reported by the Crown Prosecution Service is accurate and has been calculated according to the requirements and methodology set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017.

Dawn Brodrick
Chief People Officer
Crown Prosecution Service
March 2024