§ Mr. WoodwardTo ask the Minister for Women what the Government's policy is on transparency of remuneration in relation to equal pay; and what plans the Government have to achieve equal pay for men and women performing the same job description where women are paid less than their male counterparts. [150293]
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§ Jacqui SmithThe Government are taking the issue of transparency of pay seriously. We believe that secrecy can perpetuate the gender pay gap. Employers must ensure that pay systems and practices do not lead to pay inequalities between men and women. This is particularly important with discretionary performance pay and bonuses. We have introduced the equal pay questionnaire to help people who think they have an equal pay problem find out from their employers whether this is the case. We believe that carrying out an equal pay review should be good business practice for every employer and have developed a number of initiatives to help them, including funding the Equal Opportunities Commission to develop equal pay toolkits. We are working in partnership with business, trade unions, the EOC and Opportunity Now to ensure that 35 per cent. of large employers have done pay reviews by 2006. We are also improving the way the Equal Pay Act works in practice and will be consulting shortly on proposals to speed up and simplify complex equal value cases.