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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of ethnic minority women, including Muslim women, occupying FTSE 100 finance chief roles.

Diversity and inclusion in the boardroom and the workplace is a hugely important element of building an economy that works for all. The Government is committed to a cohesive society, where everyone – no matter what their background – has the opportunity to enter into and progress at work and achieve on merit.

Sir John Parker’s business-led review into ethnic minorities on FTSE boards published in November 2017, showed that only about 8% of FTSE 100 Directors were from an ethnic minority background, and just over 2% were British citizens from an ethnic minority background, compared to the 14% of the UK population. That is why Government supports and has been promoting the recommendation made by Sir John that all FTSE 100 companies should have at least one director of colour by 2021.

We are supporting the Hampton-Alexander Review to meet their targets of women holding 33% of senior leadership positions and 33% of board positions in the FTSE 350, by 2020. We are also supporting the Women in Finance Review Charter, which commits firms to support the progression of women into senior roles in the financial services by focusing on the executive pipeline and publicly reporting on progress against internal targets.