Parliament will debate the prospect of introducing mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting, after 130,567 people signed a petition calling for it.

Currently firms with 250 or more employees are required to publish their gender pay gap but there is nothing set in law for ethnicity pay gap reporting.

The petition called on the government to shine a light on race and ethnicity based inequality in the workplace, so issues can be addressed.

It said the lack of data available makes it difficult to gauge the true size of the ethnicity pay gap.

“Introducing these measures will allow employers to be held accountable in closing the gap where there is disparity. In order to achieve a fairer workplace publishing this data is one of the next steps to knowing how extensive the issues are from a race and ethnicity perspective and not just through the lens of gender,” the petition reads.

Parliament will debate the petition on 20 September 2021.

The government ran a consultation from October 2018 to January 2019 on the introduction of mandatory ethnicity pay reporting. In a response given to the petition on 30 July 2020, it said it was still analysing what the consultation had shown.

It said: “Building a fairer economy means ensuring the UK’s organisations reflect the nation’s diversity – from factory floor to boardroom. We are committed to working closely with the business community to consider the steps that can be taken to build more inclusive workplaces, including reporting on diversity.”

The government added that it has met with businesses and representative organisations to understand the barriers towards reporting and what information could be published to allow for meaningful action to be taken.

“It is essential that any reporting is reliable and meaningful,” it said.

Earlier this month, financial regulators said they want to accelerate the pace of “meaningful change” on diversity and inclusion in the sector.

The Financial Conduct Authority, Prudential Regulation Authority and the Bank of England are seeking views of plans from the regulators to improve diversity and inclusion in financial services.

A joint discussion paper, proposes measures such as making senior leaders directly accountable for diversity and inclusion in their firms. It has suggestions including targets for representation and linking remuneration to diversity and inclusion metrics.

The regulators propose collecting data from firms about their workforce. There will be a pilot survey later this year.