Lord Razzall
Main Page: Lord Razzall (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Baroness Wilcox
The noble Lord gave the answer in the question that he asked me. Professor Kay will be giving his interim review next month and I am absolutely sure he will be answering the question that the noble Lord has asked.
Lord Razzall
My Lords, I am sure that the noble Baroness is aware that the Secretary of State’s statement endorsed 10 of the 12 recommendations of the High Pay Commission; the major one that was not endorsed was that there should be employee representatives on the remuneration committee. Is she prepared to expand a little on that and accept that there are a number of reasons for it, particularly the difficulty for companies that have the majority of their employees outside the United Kingdom? Will she also accept that one of the problems is weak trade union recognition among leading companies, and can she expand on what the Government propose to do to honour the Secretary of State’s undertaking to try to obtain the views of employees on these issues?
Baroness Wilcox
The Secretary of State gave a very broad, sweeping statement last week, as my noble friend has already mentioned, which he will be speaking to more and more as the weeks go on. Putting employees on board committees is something that obviously everybody would like to see happen. The closed shop of boards and board committees needs to change and we are taking measures to promote diversity. However, as the Secretary of State made clear last week, bringing people on to board committees who are not also company directors, with the associate responsibilities, is not the way forward.