09 October 2018 
Karel Thomas, Executive Director
The OFS has added an additional Q&A to the accounts direction’s FAQs . This relates to the treatment of agency and atypical workers in the pay ratio calculations.
Additional FAQ
28. Pay ratio calculation: It is difficult for me to access information about agency or atypical workers’ salaries (or both). Do I have to include these in the pay ratio calculations?
We are aware that some providers will find it straightforward to include atypical workers and agency workers in the pay ratio calculation and that other providers may find it difficult. Therefore, for this year only, providers may adopt a ‘comply or explain’ approach in their audited financial statements to atypical and agency workers. This means that if there are particular reasons why a provider is unable to straightforwardly include these in the pay ratios, then a provider may exclude these from the calculations and explain in its audited financial accounts:
This ‘comply or explain’ approach may be adopted for this year only (i.e., for the audited financial statements for the year ended 31 July 2018). We have yet to determine whether there will be any changes to the accounts direction for next year. We will consider the patterns of ‘comply or explain’ as part of these considerations, and so the explanations disclosed in the 2017-18 financial statements will help to inform the next accounts direction.
