The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to introduce mandatory reporting on the ethnicity pay gap for organisations with 250 employees or more if elected.

The party argued that employee ethnicity data is ‘patchy at best’ with no uniform way to collect it. This makes monitoring and analysis difficult, a spokesperson said.

The former business minister Jo Swinson said: ‘Transparent data on the Black and Minority Ethnic pay gap will help employers focus on what they need to do to ensure equal opportunities at work for people of all ethnic backgrounds.’

Citing a report from Baroness McGregor-Smith, conducted in the last Parliament, the Lib Dems said ending ethnic minority inequality at work in Britain would boost the economy by £24bn a year.

‘The country is failing to make the most of talent in the workplace,’ said Ms Swinson.

‘Information is powerful, and while organisations are allowed to get away with keeping patchy records, we'll never know the full extent of the gap.’