This Government are clear that equality and opportunity are at the heart of our programme of national renewal. Three principles guide our approach: opportunity, fairness and growth. We are committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and improving outcomes for everyone. Everyone deserves to go to work and achieve their full potential, regardless of their ethnicity or disability. By introducing ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, this Government are supporting employers to create more inclusive workplaces, so that, regardless of background, everyone can thrive.
As set out in our manifesto and in the King’s Speech in July 2024, we are committed to introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers—those with 250 or more employees. Our aim is to develop a reporting framework that is workable for employers and leads to improved outcomes for ethnic minority groups and disabled people. We held a public consultation on these measures between 18 March and 10 June 2025 and conducted extensive engagement to seek views.
Today, we are publishing the findings from the external analysis of the consultation responses and the Government response. As part of the Government response, we have included indicative clauses, which we have developed to illustrate how the primary legislation may work in practice—this is in place of publishing a draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. We are also publishing the regulatory impact assessment alongside these documents, which outlines the expected costs and benefits of mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting.
The consultation findings show strong and widespread support for each proposal set out in the consultation. The Government response summarises the key findings and sets out further details on our intended approach towards mandatory reporting. This includes aligning ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting with the existing requirements for gender pay gap reporting, which have been in place since 2017. The proposed approach would require large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gaps, and the overall composition of their workforce by ethnicity and disability—also known as workforce reporting—as well as the proportion of their employees who have declared their ethnicity and disability data, and actions to address any ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
We have engaged extensively with business and want to acknowledge the positive work they are already doing to achieve more inclusive workplaces. Many businesses have been vocal supporters of mandatory reporting and have already been reporting their ethnicity and disability pay gap data on a voluntary basis, in recognition of the benefits that this can have on their workforces and their organisations more broadly.
Increased transparency on ethnicity and disability pay gap differences will help employers to identify and tackle pay disparities across their workforces, remove barriers to opportunity for ethnic minority and disabled staff, and support low-income households. We are committed to continuing to work closely with employers and stakeholders as we move forward.
This comes as part of the wider Government commitment to break down barriers to work, including a £3.5 billion package of employment support by the end of the decade to help more sick or disabled people into work. We are expanding WorkWell across the country, supporting up to 250,000 people to return or stay in work, and this is backed by £250 million.
We are also providing 300,000 sick or disabled people with tailored help through Connect to Work by the end of the decade, partnering with employers to transform how disabilities are managed at work, following the “Keep Britain Working” review, and have put in place the equivalent of over 1,000 full-time Pathways to Work advisers across Britain to support disabled people into work.
A copy of the Government response will be placed in the Library of each House and will be available on gov.uk.
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