WEST Yorkshire Police has revealed that it has a gender pay gap of 13.9 per cent.

The force published its report to Government yesterday, and pointed out that the gap is four per cent lower than the national average.

The report reveals 57 per cent of the Force are male while 43 per cent are female. The mean hourly pay for men is £17.36 while it is £14.94 for women.

The proportion of men in the force's upper pay category is 74 per cent. The report says: "The organisation recognises there is some disparity, i.e. there are a greater proportion of men in the upper pay quartiles compared with lower pay quartiles, and a greater proportion of women in the lower pay quartiles compared with the upper pay quartiles, which has an impact on our gender pay gap."

West Yorkshire Police’s Chief Constable Dee Collins holds the national policing portfolio on the subject. She said: “The disparity that we see in West Yorkshire Police is not due to unequal pay for men and women doing the same role. It arises from the fact that there are fewer women in senior positions and also fewer in the highest paid roles.

“In many cases, we find that the gender pay gap is exacerbated through the roles that require people to work unsociable hours. There are those who find that their current working arrangements conflict with their family commitments, potentially limiting their progress.

“Improving our return to work procedures for women who take maternity leave is therefore a key element of our longer term approach.

“Likewise, there are differences contained within the terms and conditions for both officers and staff, which can also play a part.

“By addressing all these barriers head on and working to positively influence career options for women, we are starting to move forward.

“Investing more money into technology such as our agile working programme, has gone a significant way to making a difference.

"This is helping colleagues to manage their work-life balance more productively and has already opened many doors.

“Although there is no easy or quick fix for every contributory factor to the pay gap, we are working extremely hard to change the elements that we can control."

“Workshops have taken place to identify both real and perceived hurdles for women in the workplace, looking at solutions that will bring more females into specialist roles.

“This has prompted master-classes, tackling the issues we are experiencing, such as women de-selecting themselves early in application stages for promotions or development.

“A best practice exchange scheme for women has also been brought in to encouraging wider development outside the normal working environment.

“More recently, we have introduced an ‘Inclusion Strategy’ designed to present more opportunities for attracting a diverse work force.

“The long term goal of this work is to improve the make-up of the Force, particularly across senior ranks, with coaching and mentoring support.

“Each month of the strategy holds a theme, with March focused specifically on women and the work being done to address gender equality.

“The West Yorkshire Police BAWP (British Association of Women in Policing) Support Network has been central to pursuing the cultural change necessary.

“They are leading the way nationally on a number of themes and our links with the group are paying dividends for the Force.

“We are certainly not complacent in achieving our plans and we are absolutely determined to reduce the gender pay gap to an even greater degree in the future.”