The Government has published a consultation on “comprehensive reform of the current equal pay framework so that it works better for workers, businesses, and the justice system”.

According to the consultation, the need for such comprehensive reform is clear: the existing system, it says, is “excessively complex, costly, and protracted”, fails to provide the data needed to reliably and efficiently identify discriminatory pay practices, and places too much of the burden of enforcing the law on individuals.

In response, the Government intends to embark on an overhaul of the existing system in two phases: first, by “fixing the system” through streamlining procedures and strengthening transparency and enforcement; and second, by broadening protections to close gaps in the law.

Phase 1: Fixing the System

The consultation proposes a range of measures both to prevent pay discrimination happening in the first place and to ensure effective enforcement when complaints to arise. These include:

• Introducing a statutory requirement for employers to publish information about pay and conditions in job adverts.
• Increasing the likelihood of Employment Tribunals ordering an equal pay audit where employers have been found to have breached their equal pay obligations by removing certain exceptions.
• Requiring Employment Tribunals that find an equal pay breach to order both an equal pay audit and a ‘non-discriminatory job evaluation scheme’ so as to assess the relative value of different jobs.
• Reinstating the use of an optional standard questionnaire in pay discrimination disputes to help claimants obtain relevant information from employers.
• Establishing a new Equal Pay Regulatory and Enforcement Unit.

Phase 2: Making the right to equal pay effective for all

• ‘Levelling up’ the protections against pay discrimination on the basis of race and disability so that they broadly match the protections against pay discrimination on the basis of sex.
• Imposing a duty on contracting parties involved in the outsourcing of services to take all reasonable steps to uphold pay equality in their contractual arrangements.

The consultation closes on 7 October 2026, and can be found here.