A SCOTS MP on a high-profile parliamentary committee investigating the gender pay gap for women over 40 said their damning report criticising the UK Government was a “real indictment of the slow progress” being made.

Angela Crawley, SNP member of the Women and Equalities Committee and spokesperson on Equalities and Women at Westminster said: “This report is a real wake up call for the UK Government.

“The Prime Minister has already pledged to end the gender pay gap in a generation, yet in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the gender gap in the UK only fell by 0.8 percentage points, to 9.5 per cent, compared with Scotland, where the gap dropped 1.8 points, to 7.5 per cent.

“The Scottish Government plan to legislate to ensure that public organisations with more than 20 employees will have to publish information on the difference in pay between men and women. Right now only public authorities with more than 150 employees are required to publish this information.

“Proposed UK-wide regulations will only require employers that have over 250 employees to publish their data.

“There is a lot still to be done – and this report is a real indictment of the slow progress from the UK Government.’’