Deloitte accentuates the positive as revenues and earnings grow

Deloitte also revealed the state of its gender pay gap, with the figure standing at 17.8 per cent, around 1.3 per cent below the national average.

David Sproul, senior partner and chief executive of Deloitte, said: “The past 12 months have been marked by improved economic conditions and stronger business confidence.

“Whilst we saw some hesitation in the run-up to the General Election, the broad-based increase in appetite from UK plc to invest in growth, productivity and efficiency improvements, governance and risk management and their customer focus has contributed to a positive set of results for our firm.”

Deloitte said it supports the Prime Minister’s proposals to require larger companies to publish their gender pay gap.

Mr Sproul said: “Deloitte’s gender pay gap stands at 17.8 per cent, around 1.3 per cent below the national figure.

“However, when looking across the organisation as a whole the pay gap between male and female employees at each grade is significantly lower, at 1.5 per cent.

“This illustrates that for Deloitte, the issue is far less about how we pay our people and more about the number of women employed at senior grades.”

Mr Sproul said that he was determined to improve the retention of women within the firm and its representation of women in senior positions.

He added: “We have an ambition that 25 per cent of our partners will be women by 2020 and in June we announced the promotion of 22 new female partners.”

He said the firm had taken a number of steps to support its objectives, most recently introducing a return-to-work initiative to support women back into employment.

Martin Jenkins, practice senior partner for Yorkshire and the North East at Deloitte, said: “In line with the national picture we can report an excellent year for the firm and our clients in Yorkshire.

“Our consulting practice grew by more than 20 per cent whilst each of the other primary service areas of audit, tax and financial advisory all posted strong single- digit growth.”

Mr Jenkins added that devolution is an issue that will affect businesses across Yorkshire and that Deloitte will be pushing for outcomes that bring business benefits to organisations in the region. He said: “We are in the midst of a huge shift in political narrative around the Northern cities as the Northern powerhouse initiative gathers pace.

“At Deloitte we are working to move the debate from rhetoric to action and we will be pushing hard for tangible outcomes that bring real business benefits to organisations in Yorkshire.”

Last year Deloitte named, former Bradford City Council boss Tony Reeves as a local authority advisory partner

Consulting revenue at Deloitte grew by 10.5 per cent to £687m, whilst financial advisory saw revenue increase by nine per cent from £424m to £462m.

Revenue in the tax service line increased by five per cent to £590m and audit rose by 0.3 per cent to £708m. The firm’s Swiss practice increased revenue by 13 per cent to £267m.

The average profit earned by each partner in the year, after providing for pensions and annuities payable to retired partners, was £822,000 compared with £750,000 last year.

Playing the numbers game

Nationally Deloitte said its audit practice signed more than 16,000 audit reports and that its analytics tool, Spotlight, examined in excess of one billion financial records.

Martin Jenkins, practice senior partner for Yorkshire and the North East at Deloitte, said: “Through our client work, we encourage investment in Yorkshire and the wider UK and we help business to improve its growth, productivity and efficiency, whilst underpinning trust and confidence in the capital markets.

“To support this work, we continue to be one of the largest recruiters in the UK. We employed more than 1,500 graduates, school leavers and interns, along with 3,000 experienced hires.

“In September we will be welcoming 42 graduates and six Brightstarts to the Leeds office.

“We have also cemented our commitment to helping young people develop the right skills to aid social mobility.”

Mr Jenkins added: “In collaboration with Teach First, more than 1,000 Deloitte volunteers have supported 3,000 students from 14 schools across the UK including Tong High School in Bradford.”