The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated 27 January 2010:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question requesting the gender pay gap in each (a) local authority area, (b) Government Office region and (c) parliamentary constituency for which information is available. (313266)
Levels of earnings are estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and are provided for all employees on adult rates of pay, whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. The ASHE, carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. Estimates of the gender pay gap below Government Office Region are not reliable because of small sample sizes and are not provided. Estimates of the gender pay gap for part-time employees at Government Office Region are also not provided for this reason.
I attach a table showing the gender pay gap in 2009 for median hourly earnings excluding overtime for all and full-time employees on adult rates of pay, whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence, in each Government Office Region.
Median hourly earnings excluding overtime (£) Men Women Gender pay gap (%) All Full-time Part-time All Full-time Part-time All Full-time North East 11.27 11.75 *7.71 9.00 10.26 7.49 20.1 12.6 North West 11.58 12.14 7.47 9.14 10.90 7.46 21.0 10.2 Yorkshire and the Humber 11.28 11.81 7.46 8.97 10.59 7.41 20.4 10.3 East Midlands 11.49 12.00 7.38 8.79 10.27 7.40 23.5 14.4 West Midlands 11.61 12.11 7.23 9.03 10.50 7.60 22.2 13.3 East 12.00 12.50 8.00 9.28 10.73 7.78 22.7 14.2 London 16.77 17.56 8.99 13.83 15.23 9.74 17.6 13.3 South East 13.22 13.89 7.42 9.93 11.65 8.16 24.9 16.1 South West 11.62 12.06 8.00 9.13 10.25 7.92 21.5 15.0 Wales/Cymru 11.16 11.75 7.26 8.94 10.26 7.39 19.9 12.6 Scotland 11.90 12.39 7.62 9.75 11.33 8.04 18.0 8.5 Northern Ireland 10.63 11.00 *7.72 9.29 10.61 8.06 12.7 3.5 1 Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. As at April 2009. Guide to quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent., we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220. Key: CV <= 5 per cent. * CV >5 per cent. and <= 10 per cent. Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics