Women: Board Membership

Lord Harris of Haringey Excerpts
Monday 10th March 2014

(10 years, 2 months ago)

Lords Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Baroness Northover Portrait Baroness Northover
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The noble Baroness is right that transparency and reporting are absolutely key. She will know that Charlotte Sweeney has just reported on the voluntary code among those who are recruiting for those positions. She notes that only 25% of those headhunting firms even mentioned this on their websites, so they themselves have a long way to go.

Lord Harris of Haringey Portrait Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)
- Hansard - -

My Lords, can the Minister tell us how many of the FTSE 100 companies have women chief executives? What are the Government doing to improve the position?

Baroness Northover Portrait Baroness Northover
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The noble Lord puts his finger on a very important point. There are only four female chief executives in the FTSE 100 at the moment. It is indeed an area in which companies need to make a lot more progress.