The gender pay gap at Surrey Police widened in the last year according to new data published by the force this week.

The report published by Surrey Police Wednesday (March 27) showed that there was a median difference of 17.2 per cent between male and female officers on the force, up from 12.2 per cent last year.

The organization are required by law to publish gender pay gap figures each year under the Equality Act 2010.

In their own analysis of the report, Surrey Police conceded that they employed more males in higher paid positions.

They also emphasized the fact that they complied with the Equal Pay Act of 1970, which makes it unlawful in the UK to pay people unequally because of their gender.

Surrey Police said: "The increase in the overall median gender pay gap figure reflects that we have more males in police officer roles, which, on average, are higher paid than police staff roles.

"For officer roles we have more males in higher ranks (therefore higher paid roles) and more females in lower ranks (therefore lower paid roles).

"Although the gender mix at higher paid police staff roles is 59.2 per cent in favour of females, because we also have a very large proportion of females in lower paid police staff roles, the overall median pay for females is lower than for males."

The gender pay gap does not mean that women are paid less for doing the same job. Rather, it reflects there is a bias towards men in higher paid positions.

According to the data, the mean gender pay gap was 8.7 per cent in favour of men on the force.

Meanwhile, 22.5 per cent of males working for Surrey Police received bonuses during the period covered in the study, compared to 19.4 per cent of females — a difference of 28.3 per cent in favour of men.

Surrey Police admitted that to prevent the gender pay gap widening any further and even reverse it, they needed more women in higher paid positions on the force.

Surrey Police said: "To achieve greater gender pay parity we need to both increase the proportion of males in lower paid police staff roles and increase the proportion of females in higher paid police officer roles to achieve greater gender pay parity."

Speaking after the release of the report, Surrey Police Director of People Services, Adrian Rutherford, said that the organization were working to improve inequalities and highlighted the United Nations' gender equality campaign that the force was supporting.

Mr Rutherford said: "Despite the gender pay gap widening in Surrey Police, we remain committed to achieving parity overall."

"We are dedicated to improving the experience of our staff and officers by becoming thematic champions for the UN’s project ‘HeForShe’, a solidarity campaign for the advancement of gender equality...Our commitments to this project include achieving gender parity in senior roles, which will go a long way to closing the pay gap.

"We are aware that one of the reasons behind the gender pay gap is due to family commitments, with women often taking a primary role in childcare. We are in the process of reviewing how to address some of these issues.”

"It is essential for us to decipher why we continue to have a gender pay gap, and what we can do to close this. This is not an overnight fix, but a long term plan that requires an ongoing commitment for change."

More details of the reports findings can be found at www.surrey.police.uk/police-forces/surrey-police/areas/au/about-us/gender-pay-gap/