Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department​ is taking to increase diversity on executive boards of UK businesses.

The Government is committed to working with the business community to create more inclusive and diverse workplaces. The Government commissioned and supports several business-led independent reviews, such as:

• The Hampton-Alexander Review to increase the representation of women on boards and senior leadership positions in FTSE 350 companies to 33% by 2020; and
• The Parker Review to increase the ethnic diversity of FTSE 350 boards by 2024.

These reviews form part of the Government’s modern Industrial Strategy which aims to build an economy that works for all.

The representation of women on FTSE 100 boards has increased from 12.5% in 2011 to 30.9% in March 2019 and among executive directors has doubled from 5.5% to 10.2% in in the same period.