Gender pay gap report 2022 - 2023

Introduction: Assistant Chief Officer Philip Wells

We are pleased to report that 2022-23 was another year of improvement towards closing our gender and ethnicity pay gaps.

Although ultimately, our goal remains to close this gap entirely, I am encouraged by the latest data which points towards a narrower gap as well as increased representation across all ranks.

We have made great strides during this 12-month period towards increasing our proportion of female officers, a notable 5.83 per cent increase, as well as a jump of more than four percent in the proportion of senior officer level roles held by women.

We know we still have some way to go towards equality, as this reporting year, none of the candidates in the Superintendent, Chief Inspector or Sergeant promotions processes were of non-white origin. Improving diversity of gender and ethnicity across all ranks and senior staff roles remains an important priority for us.

We remain committed to hearing and acting upon the views and experiences of women and people of colour in our organisation, and as such would welcome people to share their views via our growing Women’s Network, Diversity Support Group or simply through contacting the Force Exec.

Thank you.

Gender representation

The breakdown in gender demographics for police officers and police staff shows that we continue to have a higher proportion of female police staff to males. There has been an increase in officer numbers in 2022/23 which has seen a 5.83% increase in the number of female officers employed in the Force.  In comparison there has been a decrease in the number of male officers this reporting year. Overall, although females still represent a lower proportion, this increase is a step in the right direction to bridge this gap. 

Officers and staff	2022-2023	2021-2022	2020-2021	2019-2020
Female Officers	545	515	480	439
Male Officers	857	858	826	775
Female Staff	741	733	708	671
Male Staff	446	435	413	395

 

Officer Female proportion	38.87%
Officer Male proportion	61.13%
Staff Female proportion	62.43%
Staff Male proportion	37.57%

Breakdown of workforce

Looking at the female and male split at each officer rank, we have seen a steady increase in the percentage of female Constables in the last few years.  In 2018/19 34% of all Constables were female. This increased to 36% in 2019/20 and has again increased to 37.1% in 2020/21.  We also saw a further increase in this in 2021/22, where the female proportion of constables was 38.42%, and in 2022/23 it has further increased 39.71%.  Within the Senior Rank proportion (Chief Inspector and above) females now make up 40.90% of the population compared to the 2021/22 figure of 36.73%.

Officer Head Count	2022 -2023	2022 -2023	2021-2022	2021-2022	2020-2021	2020-2021​
-	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males
Constable	417	633	400	641	375	636
Sergeant	80	145	67	136	64	119
Inspector	30	49	30	50	24	42
Senior ranks	18	26	18	31	17	29

Senior Officer – promotion progress

Chief officers:

At Chief Officer level our female Assistant Chief Constable Jacqueline Sebire was replaced by Assistant Chief Constable Karena Thomas in the Joint Protective Services.

Detective Chief Superintendent Zara Brown, Temp ACC. Dee Perkins (seconded out of force) Chief Superintendent Jacqueline Whittred all remain as part of the Senior Leadership Team. Additions to this team in the last year have been Detective Superintendent Dani Bailey, Superintendent Rachael Glendenning and Temp Detective Superintendent Emma Pitts.

We are pleased to that this continues the trend of being able to have a positive female representation at the most senior ranks within our Force.

We are working to support more female staff through promotions, at Chief Supt and Supt equivalent. This year Senior PSE senior roles are undertaken by Head of Legal Service Kate Stephenson, Head of Estates, Lorraine Chown, Director of Strategic Service Improvement Audrey Campbell, People and Workforce Development Manager Michelle Leggetter, Tactical Intelligence & Performance Support Manager Leann Greenacre, Head of Unit (ERSOU) Hannah Wilkinson and Director of VERU Kimberly Campbell-Lamb.

Promotions processes across our three collaborated Forces are the same for male and female officers. In 2022/23 the tri-force promotions resulted in the following female promotions taking place:

Chief Superintendent: 

There was no promotions process run for the Chief Superintendent rank in this year.

Superintendent:

At this rank there was 1 female applicant out of a total of 3 Bedfordshire Police applicants.  This represented 33% of those who applied in Bedfordshire Police.  1 female received a board pass in the process.

Chief Inspector:

There were 3 female applicants in the Chief Inspector process out of a total of 4 Bedfordshire applicants.  All 3 female applicants received a board pass in the process.

The gender pay gap

Median: The mid-point in the range

Mean: The whole range expressed as an average

Police Staff and Police Officers combined (includes all staff and officer levels)

The median gender pay gap is 7.22%.

The mean gender pay gap is 5.93%.

Compared to the 2021/22 data, the mean pay gap has narrowed by 0.21% and the median gender pay gap has also narrowed by 2.20%.

Police Staff and Police Officers separated.

When we split out the data for staff and officers we can see that this does change our Forces dynamic:

The median pay gap for police staff is 1.81%% and for police officers is 9.28%.

The mean pay gap for staff is 5.87% and for officers it is 3.35%.

Compared to the 2021/22 data, the Staff mean pay gap has narrowed by 1.45%, and the median staff pay gap has also narrowed by 1%.  The Officer only mean gender pay gap has narrowed by 0.42%, and the median gender pay gap has also narrowed by 3.95%. 

Employee Quartiles (Staff and Officers combined)

Proportions	Quartile 1	Quartile 2	Quartile 3	Quartile 4
Male Proportion	47.91%	40.49%	51.78%	61.11%
Female Proportion	52.09%	59.51%	48.22%	38.89%

In this reporting year, there are some changes in the quartile breakdowns, and they are continuing to show a change in our profiling.  The key changes are in the Q2 and Q4 profile which are continuing to show an increase in female proportions. Q1 and Q3 show a decrease of 1.30% and 2.33% respectively.

The bonus gender pay gap

For Police Officers, there is Home Office national guidance, introduced in 2003, that allows Forces to make one-off bonus payments of between £50 and £2000 when an officer has carried out work of an outstandingly demanding, unpleasant or important nature. Specific to Firearms officers, there is also a national agreement for bonus payments to be made as an agreed retention incentive. Though paid as a bonus payment in previous years these are now being paid as a temporary targeted variable payment (TVP) which has been in place since 2017.  The value of these firearms payments in remain at the same value and can be up to a maximum total of £2,000 per officer annually.  The situation remains unchanged that most firearm officers are male, and this continues to affect the bonus gender pay gap data. The TVP scheme allows Forces to recognise specialist skills and to assist with retaining officers in these types of roles which now includes detectives as well as other specialist units.

Police staff are eligible to receive honoraria payments for work that is over and above their normal duties and/or of particular importance or quality, and payments require formal sign off to review the rationale for the payments.

In 2022/23 we gave £600 to all Detectives and Detective Sergeants in detective roles and £500 to all tutors that had tutored over an agreed amount of the year in the form of a Targeted Variable Payment.

Bonuses- Staff and officers combined.

The median bonus gender pay gap has narrowed by 16.67%.

The mean bonus gender pay gap has decreased by 21.84%.

Gender	Number of Recipients	% of males and females who received a bonus	Median Payment	Mean Payment
Male	663	49.92%	£500	£728.04
Female	827	61.63%	£500	£616.26

Officer bonuses

The officer bonus median pay gap has increased by 33.33% and the officer only mean bonus pay gap has narrowed significantly by 40.70% and is now showing a pay gap of 9.37%.

Staff honoraria

The staff bonus median pay gap has remained at 0% and the mean bonus staff pay gap a has narrowed significantly by 29.39%. 

Ethnicity Pay Gap Reporting

We are starting to record the ethnicity pay gap data for our collaborated Forces.

In Bedfordshire the breakdown of the population and hourly rates is as follows:

Beds	Any White origin	Any Asian origin	Any Black origin	Any Mixed origin	Any Other origin	Prefer not to say	Unknown
Combined	2267	124	36	87	3	59	43
Mean – hourly rate	£19.68	£18.33	£19.01	£18.54	£14.88	£15.96	£20.90
Median – hourly rate	£18.74	£16.6	£18.75	£18.37	£14.78	£13.84	£20.27

Police Staff and Police Officers combined (includes all staff and officer levels, excluding prefer not to say and origin unknown)

The median ethnicity pay gap is 5.52%.

The mean ethnicity pay gap is 6.69%.

Police Staff and Police Officers separated.

As with gender pay, when we split out the data for staff and officers we can see that this does change our Forces dynamic:

The median ethnicity pay gap for police staff is  0% and for police officers is 5.26%.

The mean ethnicity pay gap for staff is 1.39% and for police officers is 8.11%.

Employee Quartiles (Staff and Officers combined)

Origin	Quartile 1	Quartile 2	Quartile 3	Quartile 4
Any White origin	81.92%	88.10%	89.18%	91.05%
Any Non-white origin	9.89%	10.36%	7.42%	6.33%
Prefer not to say and Unknown (Origin unknown)	8.19%	1.55%	3.40%	2.62%

The bonus ethnicity pay gap. 

The arrangements for the ethnicity bonus pay remains the same as that for gender pay.  This data has been redefined by ethnic groupings to show the pay gap differences.

Staff and officers combined.

The median bonus ethnicity pay gap is 0%.

The mean bonus ethnicity pay gap is 6.49%.

Staff and officers separated.

The median ethnicity bonus pay gap for police staff only is 0% and for police officers only is 7.69%.

The mean ethnicity bonus pay gap for staff is -0.77% and for officers it is 19.70%. 

Senior Officer – promotion progress

In this reporting year, none of candidates in the Superintendent, Chief Inspector or Sergeant promotions processes were of non-white origin.  

Summary and key activities

Bedfordshire Police continues to promote its Be You culture through regular activities and messaging. The Wellbeing, Inclusivity and Culture Board provides traction and oversight of Bedfordshire’s equality, inclusion, wellbeing, and cultural activity. Future activity that we will be focusing on in the forthcoming years in relation to better representation and fair pay activity include:

• To continue understanding reasons for under representation in certain units and how we can encourage and support more female officers in this teams. Particular areas continue to include specialisms such as the Dog and Firearms units.  Female representation in these areas is a national issue and work continues to support an increase.
• BCH has been successful in being accredited as a ‘Menopause Friendly’ Organisation. As part of this commitment, we continue to training managers to gain the knowledge and understanding around menopause and where to signpost support and help. We want everyone to feel comfortable talking about menopause, never feeling that the subject is taboo or off limits or a reason not to join or to leave the police service.
• 36 women have attended The Becoming Career Ready programme with additional cohorts being run.  The Becoming Career Ready programme is aimed at career-minded women from Black, Asian, and other underrepresented ethnic backgrounds, including those who do not speak English as a first language. The programme is designed to help underrepresented female officers and staff, of any rank or grade, progress their policing career, whether this is through promotion or a lateral career move. It offers a networking and learning opportunity where career development barriers - whether perceived or experienced first-hand - can be explored and dismantled to support progression. The aim is to create a space for their voices to be heard, and for them to be seen and included.
• There is the continued recruitment focus on attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce including providing support to those applicants who are under-represented.  We have seen an increase in female officer recruitment, with 46.3% of the new officers recruited to date being female.  This is well above the National Average of 35%.
• Through better data collection we will also understand the composition of gender pay in relation to ethnicity and the 9 protected characteristics.

• Work continues to champion female development and progression including activity co-ordinated through the Bedfordshire Women’s Network. We had representation at the Senior Women in Policing conference and a number of other events.

For more information you can contact us by emailing [email protected]