All Party Parliamentary Group - Women and Work
Report Launch – Tuesday 24 February 2026
After a year of interesting and engaging sessions on topics varying from “Empowering Women in STEM”, to “AI and the Gender Divide” and “Women in the Public Eye”, amongst others, our General Secretary, Sally Tsoukaris, was pleased to attend this cross-party parliamentary group’s event to launch their 2025 Report in the House of Commons on the 24th of February.
Co-chairs of the APPG have included Catherine Fookes MP (Labour – Monmouthshire), Baroness Karren Brady (Conservative Peer) and Sarah Russell MP (Labour – Congleton) over the past year.
In the Report, the APPG comes up with three recommendations in the form of targeted, policy priorities and practical, evidence-based actions for the Government to consider and adopt:
- To build a gender-inclusive skills pipeline for the future economy to ensure women can access and progress through skills pathways needed for AI, digital, engineering, and growth sectors.
- To make growth industries genuinely accessible and safe for women by removing the practical and cultural barriers that stop women entering or staying in construction, engineering, manufacturing and other growth sectors.
- To unlock women’s economic participation through fair investment and safe digital environments to ensure women can start businesses, lead in innovation, and participate confidently in public and digital life.
The APPG is also due to hold an International Women’s Day Fair in Parliament on the 11th March.
Why is this of interest to CSPA
It all comes down to what we are doing to campaign to close the gaping ‘Gender Pensions Gap’ for future pensioners. We know that, according to calculations carried out by Prospect union, in 2022 – 23 there was a 36.5% difference between the average total pension income received by female recipients of the State Pension compared with male counterparts across the UK. Unions have also said that across the Civil Service Pension Scheme, as measured by data presented in the 2020 actuarial valuation of the Scheme, the Pension Gap was even greater, at 45%. This figure represents the difference in average gross pension income received by female retired civil servants compared to their male counterparts.
CSPA General Secretary, Sally Tsoukaris, said
“We cannot turn a blind eye to the situation faced by so many women in later life in the UK, who are experiencing poverty due to lifelong unfairness in the workplace, which extends to pensions.
“Unless mitigating measures are introduced across all pension schemes now, including the State Pension, we will inevitably see the inequity across pension incomes between men and women continue long into the future.
“The reforms introduced to the Local Government Pension Scheme represent a good start, but we must see similar changes being made to Civil Service pensions and elsewhere. The Pensions Commission must make fundamental recommendations which urge the Government to address these chronic, societal issues in a meaningful way.
Longer term, the obvious solutions must include measures to make employment across all sectors of our economy fair, inclusive and accessible to ensure that women can enter, progress and crucially remain in, their careers across all disciplines. However, in the civil service, as in many other sectors, the impact of caring responsibilities on women and the pensions that they accrue across their working lives will continue to drive an unacceptably large Gender Pensions Gap unless the problem is addressed in both the workplace and the Pension Scheme rules. Among the measures that have been called for by both Prospect and FDA, are mandatory reporting on the pensions pay gap, making authorised unpaid absences of 31 days or less automatically pensionable, and making unpaid parental leave pensionable. Similar reforms have recently been pushed through the Local Government Pension Scheme in ways that the unions have said are both “effective and affordable”.
Later Life Ambitions
Later Life Ambitions brings together the collective voices of over a quarter of a million pensioners through the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners, the Civil Service Pensioners’ Alliance, and the National Association of Retired Police Officers Association.
We aim to encourage today’s decision makers to confront the challenges of tomorrow.
What we're calling for:
This Budget presents our plan for a fairer, more sustainable deal for older people. we urge you to stand with us and add your voice to our calls for a fair deal for living well in later life.
- Protecting the State Pension
- Reducing the tax on pensions
- Tackling the gender pension gap
- Supporting older people in the workplace
- A minimum income guarantee
- Widening access to public transport
- Making housing safe, secure, accessible and adaptable
- Supporting health and social care