Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that diversity on boards is being promoted in (a) private companies, (b) the public sector and (c) the third sector.

We have more women on boards than ever before and are down to fewer than 10 all male boards in the FTSE 350. We are going further and are supporting the work of the Hampton-Alexander Review and its business-led target of 33% women on FTSE 350 boards by 2020. We want to extend that progress to ethnic as well as gender diversity, and will consider whether and how to take action once Sir John Parker finalises his recommendations on increasing ethnic diversity in FTSE 100 companies before the end of this year.

We also want to see greater diversity on boards across all sectors including the public and third sectors. The Government is committed to increasing the diversity of public appointments and ​has an​ aspiration that 50% of new public appointees should be women.