The Hampton-Alexander Review publishes its 2019 Report
15 Nov, 2019
The Hampton-Alexander Review is an independent, business-led initiative supported by Government and is the successor to the five-year Davies Review into Women on Boards. Its initial report, published in November 2016, set a five key recommendations aimed at increasing the number of women in leadership positions of FTSE 350 companies
The recommendations called for action from all stakeholders and importantly included a target of 33% representation of women on FTSE 350 Boards and FTSE 350 leadership teams (comprising the executive committee and the direct reports to the executive committee) by the end of 2020.
The fourth report highlights that “there has been some notable progress made by companies towards meeting the Reviews 33% targets for women in senior leadership positions in the FTSE 350 by the end of 2020”. It also indicates that with in the FTSE 350 there is greater than 30% of women representation on boards predominantly driven by the FTSE 250.
The report highlights that the number of women on FTSE 100 boards is “close to the target” having increased to 32.4% from 30.2% last year. It indicates that “half of all FTSE 100 boards have already met or exceeded the 33% target” but there are still a number of companies with work to do. The report also indicates that the FTSE 250 “has had its best year ever” increasing the number of women on FTSE 250 boards to 29.6% up from 24.9% last year. Just under half of the FTSE 250 have already met or exceed the 33% target but “the significant other half of the FTSE 250 index still have work to do”.
Looking forwards the report predicts that the FTSE 100 is “likely to achieve the 33% target” ahead of the 2020 deadline. Additionally if the FTSE 250 trend continues the report predicts that if “nearly half of all available appointments go to women next year, the FTSE 250 will also meet the target by the end of 2020”.
Turning to change in leadership roles the report flags that the pace of change is slow. The report indicates that a significant “step up in the appointment rate of women” highlighting that unless half of all appointments made this year go to women “the FTSE 350 will miss their target”.
Update 08/02/2020 - the number of FTSE 100 board members that are women is now 33%. However the government has highlighted a "concerning lack of female representation in senior leadership and key executive roles in FTSE companies". For the FTSE 250, the number of board members that are women is 29.5%. The latest press release can be found on the BEIS websire here.
A press release and the full report are available.
