This is the biggest step forward in achieving fairer workplaces and reducing disability employment and pay gaps that we have seen in years, if not decades. We still need to see the details of the plans and timelines for implementation, but this is a landmark moment that promises to deliver real change in workplace disability inclusion.
Professor Kim Hoque, Professor of Human Resource Management at King’s Business School
27 March 2026
Government sets out landmark disability reporting reforms shaped by King's Business School researcher
UK Government commits to mandatory disability and ethnicity reporting for large employers.
Policy work led by Professor Kim Hoque at King’s Business School has led to a major government commitment to introduce mandatory disability employment and pay gap reporting.
The policy, announced this week, will require large employers to publish data on the their pay disparities and the prevalence of disabled people in their workforce. It marks a significant shift in how organisations are held accountable for workplace inclusion.
The reporting model outlined by government closely reflects proposals developed by Professor Hoque and his colleagues in the Disability@Work research group, and in collaboration with industry partners including the Institute of Directors.
Their work has focused on how robust, standardised data can drive meaningful organisational change, moving disability inclusion from aspiration to measurable action.
Professor Hoque, who has spent more than six years campaigning for mandatory reporting, said the announcement represents a major breakthrough.
Mandatory reporting is expected to place disability firmly on the boardroom agenda, enabling employers to set clear targets, monitor progress and benchmark themselves against industry and national averages.
It will also give jobseekers greater transparency over which organisations are most inclusive, while creating a new evidence base for researchers and policymakers to identify best practice.
The announcement follows sustained advocacy from the Disability Employment Charter, launched by Professor Hoque in 2021 alongside other groups including Disability Rights UK, the DFN Charitable Foundation, Scope, and Unison, within which mandatory reporting is a central policy demand. Now backed by more than 300 organisations, the Charter has played a key role in building momentum for legislative change.
The proposed legislation is expected to be published in the coming months and will need to pass through Parliament before becoming law.
In this story
Professor of Human Resource Management