Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps she is taking to encourage diversity in senior professions in relation to (a) age, (b) class, (c) ethnicity, (d) gender and (e) sexuality.

This Government is actively working on these issues. To encourage greater age diversity in workplaces, we have published a strategy 'Fuller Working Lives: A Partnership Approach', which aims to increase the retention, retraining and recruitment of older workers by bringing about a change in the perceptions and attitudes of employers.

On levelling up opportunity regardless of social class, the Social Mobility Commission’s latest report (published on 10 June 2020) recognises progress in improving life chances for poorer groups and keeping disadvantaged pupils in education for longer. In line with that, we have launched a £1 billion package to directly tackle the impact of lost teaching time due to COVID-19, including a £350 million National Tutoring Programme targeted at those children and young people who need the most help.

On gender and ethnicity in senior professions, we support the business-led voluntary Hampton-Alexander and Parker Reviews respectively. The FTSE 100 and 350 have achieved their 33% women on boards targets and there are now only two all male boards, against 152 in 2011. We also support the Financial Reporting Council’s efforts to improve the quality of company diversity reporting, including by ethnicity.

Finally, in relation to sexuality, in Autumn 2019, we brought together participants from over 150 businesses to share experiences and best practice in making workplaces genuinely LGBT-inclusive and we are exploring what more can be done to tackle LGBT workplace discrimination.